Mississippi - Immigration Law and Southern Poverty Center's Reaction

Mississippi has recently passed a bill aimed at expelling illegal immigrants from the state. The bill specifically voids contracts illegal immigrants signed illegally, bars state held organizations from any business transactions such as issuing drivers licenses and requires the police to check the immigration status of all detainees. It has so far been compared to similar laws in Arizona and Alabama.

The uproar about laws in Arizona and Alabama was about how Arizona was opening the door for police to racially profile people for immigration status and how Alabama was ripping apart families. Southern Poverty Law Center has already promised to sue the state, which may gain some concessions from the state in settlement. I am not holding my breath though.

I view these laws as reactionary to the recession of the economy. As growth stops and an economy shrinks, room for people to put down roots and start a life becomes limited. The space available becomes scarce and fierce competition for what is there starts. If there was growth and prosperity, I doubt these laws would ever be on the table unless there was a serious and threatening issue with criminal activity. However, in a move to protect their own jobs and income, the electorate has decided to start expelling those it can from even competing in a free market.

The Public Relations aspect of Southern Poverty's promise will put it on the wrong side of many in Mississippi who are struggling. They are looking for relief from a poor economy to save their homes and feed their families. People view illegal immigration as a serious contributing factor to their current situation and they are partly correct. Immigration increases competition for what is available on the Job Market.

However, the electorate still does not have the right to abuse illegal immigrants to preserve its own status. As the adage goes, Democracy is two wolves and a lamp deciding what's for dinner; Liberty is a well armed lamb. Southern Poverty in this case is on the side of liberty through law, a principle of our republic and I applaud them for protecting the liberty of the few.

Scandinavia's Job Market

Let me first, for the layman reader, separate the concept of Job Market from Labor Market.
The Job Market can be thought of as a street market, where the supplier, in this case the employer, advertises a product, the job to a customer, the potential employee.
The Labor Market can be thought of as the reverse. Each job seeker is selling him or herself to employers.
The products and services in each market can be lumped together to give a picture of the capabilities and demands of an economy. Each Job Market is competing against other Job Markets to attract the most talented employees to its associated Labor Market. Each Labor Market is competing against other Labor Markets to attract jobs to its associated Job Market.

If you have noticed how the two are interdependent, then you should also see how immigration policy sets up a gate and control for employers and employees entering the market from outside. Denmark's job market is suffering a bit of internal strife at the moment because of actors that wish to restrict immigration and a mismatch between what the Job Market demands and what the Labor Market is offering. Dansk Folke Parti, or the Danish Peoples' Party, is the nationalist party represented in the Danish parliament at the moment. The party has set immigration reform, closing the borders to far more immigrants than before, as a priority for the ruling administration. However, such policy will hamper the Labor Markets ability to fulfill the Job Markets demand and put over qualified or misqualified people in positions that are better suited for people with either on the job training or trade educations.

Currently, the service economy in Denmark is supplied by a highly educated, mostly domestically trained, labor market. 27% have a university or equivalent education. But the Job Market demands employees with basic schooling to fulfill jobs such as garbage man, retirement orderly or janitor. Sourcing people to fill these jobs at the local Labor Market is difficult because few people with a full education are willing to work, what most feel, in a position beneath them. While people strive to the top of commerce and industry, there are too few to support the service economy's activities with basic services. Putting down the gate for immigration will prevent the Labor Market fulling market demands. Yet this also may reveal some of the short comings of the current education policy. Restricting supply will force both markets to adapt to do more with less and perhaps be in a better position for future changes in the global economy.

Sweden on the other hand has an open education policy that ensures the Swedish Job Market's supply of basic service jobs will always be in demand and the Labor Market's supply of new immigrants will be snapped up by the Job Market as second and third generation immigrant families advance themselves and require services. It is a rapid growth, which looks a bit like a bubble...

The Power of the Purse - A Democrat Defends Earmarks

On Febuary 3rh, 2012, a senator from Hawaii defended earmark spending and actually had a solid argument against banning the practice. His argument is rooted in the constitutional separation of powers which grants Congress the Power of the Purse and implied if earmarks were banned, funding for local projects that meets the needs of the state the earmark funds would be left to the White House, bureaucrats not elected by the people and only be achieved through political horse trading, which is something a certain former Governor from Illinois claimed as a defense for corruption. He however also misses the point. Earmarks are seen as a corrupt way of opening the purse strings for project completely unrelated to the bill they are written into. Senators should instead seek to ensure funding is available to the Governor they represent to spend as he or she sees best fit, not grant a favor to 50 residents with a 400 million dollar bridge to nowhere.

Here is the video.

An open letter to The Honorable Mark Kirk

 Please note, I left my dad's and own name out of this published version. I am to you, Servus.

To The Honorable Mark Kirk, Junior Senator for Illinois,

I write to you regarding the recent committee hearing’s topic of discussion, held on the 8th of March, 2012, concerning the United States’ workforce competitiveness’ relation to the United States’ competitiveness in education against other nations’.

Before I continue, allow me to introduce myself. My name is ---. I am American born and grew up in the Chicago area. My parents are Danish and moved to Chicago when my dad, ---, was invited to work at Argonne National Laboratory. I have since become an expatriate American and currently live in the North Atlantic region. I intend to return to Chicago once I have completed my education in Denmark. One of my goals in Chicago is to influence the paradigms of education in Illinois.

I would like to know, to what extent do you intend for the United States to develop its own paradigm and policy in education reform and to what extent do you intend to import ideas and policy from our competitors? To what extent will adult education be influenced and can you quantify the effect the reforms will have on the labor and job markets? What conclusions have you reached as a result of the hearing?

I would also like to take the opportunity to tell you about the state of education in Denmark and my experiences. Colleges in the United States hold Gymnasium degrees in high regard. I myself took a HF degree, which is the equivalent of a GED and was informed by several colleges and universities in the Midwest I could be awarded enough credits to graduate with an bachelor's degree in one or two years. But there is a down side to Denmark’s high level of education in the labor market. Many highly educated graduates are now having difficulty finding a job that fits their level of education. While there may be plenty of job training positions in offices granting degrees in Public Administration, Finances or Business Administration, competition among new gymnasium graduates is high. Even job training programs, lasting two to four years, for trades such as plumbing, auto repair or masonry work, is in short supply compared to the number of candidates who apply for these positions. Oddly enough, the reverse is true for academic, highly technical or design sectors, as many of these career paths are seen as unattainable due to difficulty, too menial despite or boring despite the high level of technical skill required, or uninteresting.

While I am tempted to suggest Illinois would benefit from importing models from Denmark, I cannot without reservation do so. The current crisis and occupy protests have highlighted the higher than expected unemployment rate among new graduates. To improve education across the board as a solution to America’s job market woes would ignore the factors which is reflected by the high number of unemployed graduates. It is curious as to what these factors are.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter to you. I look forward to your reply and value any correspondence you offer on the subject.

Best Regards, Peter Smedskjaer.

Fate's Rollerskate

People often dream of immortality. Technically, it is possible with future technology. Gene therapy can give you a genetic make up that encourages healthier cells. Aging organs can be regrown with stem cells. Cancers will be cured one day in the future. Immorality is possible... save for the unseen bus.

Quick Three - Bad Parenting or a Joke?

WGN reports the case of a father who posted a picture of a gagged and bound child on Facebook. His defense is it was only a joke. I take this to mean either the dad was a poor sense of humor or he has a great sense of humor. It will all come down to how he is as a father the rest of the time. Currently though, he is granted supervised visits, which is a fair chance to show he is a good father.  All the best to him.

A blast from the past and the main reason why I am not quick to condemn the above mentioned father. No link to this one so I will relate what I have from memory. An American family calling Scandinavian relatives got the answering machine, which told them the family was kidnapped, the kids were bound and they needed help. Well, help was called, the police showed up at the front door and the family was in good health. It seems the answering machine recording was a joke fitting in with the regional love affair with irony and sarcasm. This happened some ten years ago, I think.

Filling this one under bad parenting because bullies need to be put in their place by their parents before someone kills themselves. KATU reports on the suicide of a 14 year old school girl. She had attempted to convince the girls to stop pushing her around, to no avail. It is a sad day when we only step in and do something when someone already has died. But why are we so focused on the kids themselves and not the parents of these kids? I think it is time we started shaming the parents of bullies in proportion to how bad the bully is. Maybe then kids will start behaving themselves.

That was your quick three for today. Next article might be an infographic about the energy market. See ya.

- Servus

The Electric Age

You will often read or hear in the news stories about smart grids, energy diversity, green houses gasses or oil imports. These are stories about energy concerns relevant to national interests. You do not hear about the 1.3 billion people who do not have access to electricity,or how delivering power to those who do not will change the world, or from what we should use to produce power for these people. More importantly, we do not hear about how lack of access to electricity prohibits the use of fundamental infrastructure such as lighting, cooling or heating or industrial applications that can create jobs in poor rural areas. Communication is also limited to what can be done without modern tools.