Lake Mead is 70% empty. More people + less water = bad news

By Jeremy Beck

A friend shared this timelapse video of Las Vegas’ increasing sprawl and Lake Mead’s decreasing water levels. The video’s caption reads: As the city of Las Vegas grows, Lake Mead, its water supply, shrinks. In the mid-1980s, the Vegas metropolitan area was home to 438,000 people, and today that population has ballooned to upwards of … Continued

More density and less open space

By Jeremy Beck

Americans are living more densely, on average, than we were 20 years ago, but we’ve paved over the equivalent of more than five Yellowstone National Parks – or roughly eleven-and-a-half million acres during that same period of time. Some of that loss was due to regional differences in land consumption per person; a majority of … Continued

Rising wages: good or bad?

By Jeremy Beck

Worker power, loose borders: pick one (hat tip, Oren Cass) Worker Power! Loose Borders! Batya Ungar Sargon: “I think working class people think about the economy in terms of jobs, because you get meaning from your job….Bring those factories back. The people who are benefitting from mass immigration, benefitting from these trade deals, they’ll be … Continued

“The H-1B is easier, I need the body count”

By Jeremy Beck

In “Biden Is Caught Between Big Tech and Black Voters,” Rachel Rosenthal analyzes and provides ample data about the limited opportunities for Black Americans in tech. “HBCUs, community colleges and other minority-serving institutions have been ignored at both ends,” Rosenthal reports. “As a result, many Black computer science and engineering graduates have ended up working … Continued

Immigration provisions in COMPETES Act aren’t about competitiveness

By Jeremy Beck

Immigration provisions in COMPETES Act are about money, not competitiveness Lisa’s blog about the House’s COMPETES Act touched a nerve with Alan Tonelson: As explained by NumbersUSA analyst Lisa Irving, this legislation “allows for an unlimited number of green cards for citizens of foreign countries seeking permanent U.S. residency who hold a U.S. doctorate degree, … Continued

“Is My Country Sustainable?”

By Jeremy Beck

Contra Elon Musk, ecological sustainability isn’t a question of how many people a land mass can contain, but how many it can sustain. People can go just about anywhere for short periods of time, but if they want to put down roots and maintain a certain standard of living they are going to need large … Continued

The 1834 New York Labor Riots

By Jeremy Beck

“For eight days in July 1834, immigrants’ fear of the mere possibility of a future flood of newly freed slaves from the South competing with them for jobs in New York City boiled over into a full-scale riot involving thousands. It drew international attention.” – Back of the Hiring Line, Chapter 3 Watch the video … Continued

Immigration is a “cheat code” to grow the economy, but it isn’t cheap

By Jeremy Beck

“Ponzi demography also turns to immigration for additional population growth in order to boost companies’ profits. The standard slogan in this instance is “the country urgently needs increased immigration,” even when immigration may already be at record levels…” – Joseph Chamie, demographer In arguing for increased immigration because “the U.S. isn’t growing as fast as … Continued

Are we a “postmodern charity-state” or a nation state?

By Jeremy Beck

As Lisa Venus covers in her blog about President Biden’s pledge to resettle 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in the United States, our famous “gumballs” video demonstrates that our immigration policy is not, and can never be, a solution for the millions of displaced people around the world, or for the billions of people living in poverty. … Continued