Why?

There has to be a better, more accommodating, and global solution. Like a national identity card that is accepted worldwide.

I believe in English it’s called a “passport”. You can fairly easily get one. And it’s very useful if your intent is to obey the laws of your own country and the country you seek to enter.

Of course, here in the U.S. the whole concept of a “national identity card” is quite suspect. There’s a lot of resistance to establishing one and thereby handing over a certain amount of power over individuals to the Federal government.

Thus, the term “illegal” associated with “alien” or “immigrant” is one of the government’s invention.

What we as individuals must do is look at the problem from our own perspective. It is my understanding that this has not been done very often and has not been heralded very effectively.

The reality is that foreign nationals are in every recognized nation worldwide, creating a nearly fully integrated polyglot. To somehow require all these people to get their “papers in order” with respect to the local laws of each country is crazy.

There has to be a better, more accommodating, and global solution. Like a national identity card that is accepted worldwide. This different than a passport and should be a smart card with various data on it relevant to the bearer and the country he or she hails from.

Take a look at the end-to-end treatment of the immigration problem that has been prepared by Trigon-International, Inc. This is actionable, affordable, and feasible and more aptly it addresses the problem in situ meaning that the fix goes in without having to reset the pieces on the game board.

Who cares? They’re the same thing. I’m an employer. I’m all for reducing the bargaining power of labor.

A simple divergence of opinions, then. I for one do not think it is a good idea for labour’s bargaining power to reduce down to zero. I think there should be a balance, and that currently the balance is too much, at least in America, in favour of management.

I also find the idea that government policy should be shaped to take positive action to reduce the bargaining power of labour, as you’re proposing. Government policy should be used effectively and sparingly, and given that the deck has a way of stacking against the working class naturally under a capitalist system, I believe that limited government intervention, where it exists, should be used for the working class. Otherwise, we might end up with a “subsidizes Israel, subsidizes Egypt” scenario. But I do agree that government should take positive action to shape the economic playing field - just not in that direction, usually.

All guilds suck.

A colourful quote, but I didn’t ask whether or not you believed guilds to suck. I asked whether or not you believe government should intervene, in this case specifically shaping its foreign policy, to act against them. (Perhaps in reaction to their sucking.) If it does, I’d only accept it if it applied the standard equally.

What I propose is this (actually, it’s Dean Baker’s idea): the MCATS should be made internationally available at every school, or at least every school in every country friendly to the US. The best scores internationally will get to enroll in American medical schools to become doctors in America. Sure, the AMA may oppose this, or once it is adopted screen med school applicants to keep American schools for Americans. (Much in the vein of Ivy League schools adopting admittance criteria that looked at the whole applicant and not just test scores, laudable in its own right, but as a contrivance to keep all those Jews out.) But the whole point is to break their power here. Foreign doctors will flood the US, and their willingness to work for less will pull health care costs down. Boom. A significant part of our health care problem is solved.

Bar associations are even worse - they are state-specific. I realize that laws are specific to states and that some degree of specialization within the state is necessary, but I think this is mostly a scheme to suppress the total supply of lawyers to keep salaries up. After all, if there’s one law school for patent lawyers and personal injury lawyers who advertise on TV, I think one generic law school, with one generic entrance exam again made available internationally, could suffice. After that, one can get to work with specific states. Again, the effects will be similar. Lawyers made affordable as their salaries go down. The consumer wins.

And once we go along this path, this should be opened to all professions. Thomas Freidman thinks the age of the job security for workers is over, and that they should get used to international competition. I agree. I think we should start with the job of “bloviating blowhard columnist for the NYT”. Let an English grad student from India compete for his job, and remove any system of patronage there currently exists. Let anyone attend American journalism schools, as long as they have the grades. Maybe Friedman’s home grown perspective is something a high achieving foreigner could never match, no matter their relative intelligence. But on the other hand, the foreigner, who’s used to lower pay scales for one-day-a-week writers, will be willing to work for much less. Let the customer decide which is best.

This can, of course, extend to business schools and professorships and the like. Again, there will be patronage and old boy networks, but these are just guilds by another name and should be dissolved.

I don’t like the idea that liberals find themselves set against the notion of “globalization”, and I think free trade and lowered borders is consistent with liberal ideals. I only don’t like the idea when it’s selectively applied.

Actually, for 2001, it was in the beaver’s sticks. And for 2008. The more recent designs are on Wikipedia. If you look for it, you can see it in most of them. I assume the rest have it outside the bezel. Mine does. And now we have completely high-jacked the thread. These posts should be moved to an open thread.

Part of the problem may be that my original Brass Rat was stolen back in the early ’80s (someone broke into my house), and what I have now is a replacement made not from the original moulds (they destroy them after 10 years) but is a more generic one that they put your degree and graduation year on. My wife bought it for me for Christmas when I became a Educational Counselor. So it also doesn’t have my graduation year (1974) in the sticks, either, whereas I specifically remember that my original did.

No IHTFP!? I will have to revise my estimate of your age. Or maybe you should look for it. On some rings it’s very well concealed.

No insult meant. I have met people who did not know about it.

The guild system produced a steady stream of well-qualified workers. New workers were trained by skilled, existing workers, not in some generic liberal education (classic definition of “liberal”) system that is afraid to tell job skills.

When FBI profilers do these kind of cases, I believe they do in fact look for white men for the very reason you cite, and I’m completely fine with that. With the same reservation I have for all profiling cases; sometimes the profile is wrong, and crime-fighters have to be aware of the possibility of the unusual. Cf. the Beltway sniper case, where they were looking for white guys for quite some time.

But how can we tell the difference between [creating pools of labor to promote economic growth] that and a mere contrivance to lower wages and reduce the bargaining power of (lower case ‘l’) labour?

Who cares? They’re the same thing. I’m an employer. I’m all for reducing the bargaining power of labor.

Also, what is your opinion of medical and bar associations that artificially control the supply of graduates? Given that you already accept that governments should enact laws to enforce positive action toward labour market flexibility.

All guilds suck.

I took a job before I completed my Master thesis, and did not get the MEng until three years later. I only have the ring I got in my sophomore year. But I was referring to the other five letters. Or are you from one of the wussy classes that took them off? :-)

> What year and course, if that’s not too personal?

Course Six, but if I give you the year, I’d pretty much give people my name and address. There were not that many from Bulgaria at the time.

This may be what’s reported, but what’s reported vs. actual facts is going to be a function of how reliable and specific crime statistics gathering and reporting is in other countries. You have to wonder.

My ring has the same five letters as yours does.

Not the same 5 letters; mine says “BS” on one side, not “MS”. What year and course, if that’s not too personal?

It may be that I am ineligible anyway, as Bulgaria recently reversed the law that discharged me, so I may be technically, an officer of the armed forces of a foreign country.

Do you have the option to resign? Or the desire? I wonder if that’s something that you can unilaterally renounce and satisfy the State Department (again, if that’s something you want to do)?

According to this, Bulgaria recognizes dual citizenship. Apparently the U.S. has no problem with it after naturalization, either. Of course you’d want to check.

If only so I can … complain about the lack of good Presidential candidates

Hell, you’re half-American already on that basis.

But most serial killers come from the US, and most Americans are white. This is why you are thinking ‘white’. As for males, that’s a different story. We do seem to be more prone to this particular form of irrationality (serial killing) Mass killers and plain murderers are not necessarily irrational.

Or maybe we are just more physically suited for it. The few known female serial killers used mostly poison, and most serial killers pick on less intimidating individuals.

I’m getting a similar image, though less strong, for serial killers.

Interesting point.

My ring has the same five letters as yours does.

> Are you going to pursue citizenship?

Frankly, I am not sure. I haven’t yet studied the laws of Bulgaria, the EU, and the US regarding dual citizenship. It may be that I am ineligible anyway, as Bulgaria recently reversed the law that discharged me, so I may be technically, an officer of the armed forces of a foreign country. I’ll settle this one this summer.

But in general, yes, I will apply for citizenship, if it will not jeopardize my Bulgarian one. If only so I can vote in California’s elections, and complain about the lack of good Presidential candidates (not that I’ve been abstaining from the latter) Oh, and to jump through fewer hoops to keep my guns legal.

And let me echo my congratulations! Are you going to pursue citizenship?