Good point. Lots probably don’t recognize the link between trade and immigration. If we don’t have trade we will need more immigration to sustain the lifestyle of who are already here.
Also for those who worry about job losses, how come we have an illegal immigration problem if there are so many americans desperate for jobs?
The jobs lost are middle income jobs with benefits, such as pensions, health care, disability, sick leave, vacation, job training. Illegals don’t get those types of jobs. So we’ve got illegals working as hourly workers in gardening, cleaning, construction, farming, and those are jobs that used to be done by American teens or college students.
In addition, today’s service sector jobs don’t have those benefits, so the quality of jobs has declined a lot. I just saw a story on CNN this week about a mother who took a couple days off to care for her son who had broken his arm, and she was fired. Now she works part-time, but no benefits.
I should also mention that as a nation, we can conserve energy and easily save 20%-30% without lowering our living standards. Most people are wasteful and careless. My brother’s family is like that. Their kids turn everything on and don’t bother to turn it off.
In developing nations, people have only 1 neon light lighting up the whole household because energy is so expensive. By eliminating the use of the clothes dryer and conserving, San Diegans could easily shave 1/2 off their energy bill.
I line dry my clothes in the garage then machine dry them for 5 minutes to soften them and get all the moisture out. But then I’m all by myself so it’s not that much effort.
I have a very bright and succesful friend that works in commercial applications for solar energy. When he installed his pool he didnt use solar to heat it instead opting for gas. That tells me everything I need to know about solar energy.
Solar energy is still very expensive. We planned to install solar panels on our house, and got a few estimates. It was about $25K (after the tax rebates), so there’s a 20 year payback period. Anyone planning to live in their house less than 20 years, or not having the money for this outlay, wouldn’t do it. Why did your friend choose gas over solar?
