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Noah Smith @Noahpinion
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
@herandrews Just watching this debate, and I think the idea that immigration is what gave us big government is totally wrong!


Every rich country has big government. We have less than most, despite having taken many more immigrants.
@herandrews In fact, many economists believe that diversity reduces the size of the welfare state.
scholar.harvard.edu/files/alesina/…
@herandrews In fact, this is (or should be) the main argument from the left against more immigration.
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One thing I think would help reduce elite Millennial burnout/disappointment/rage is for people to stop thinking that their job should save the world.

"Save the world" and "make the world a better place" are probably just things employers tell you to get you to work for cheap.
Maybe your job will give you meaning and purpose and a sense of doing good for the world.

Or maybe it'll just make you some money so you can raise some kids, have some pet rabbits, and be active in your local community.

There's more than one way to get meaning in life.
Also, people glorify saving the world when it probably just gives you PTSD.

We like watching Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and whatever, but we wouldn't want to actually fight Darth Vader or slog through Mordor. That would cause major burnout!
Read 3 tweets
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1/Since Trump's demand for his Wall is in the headlines, I thought it would be a good time for a thread about a history book I just read:

"Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America", by Daniel Tichenor (2002)

amazon.com/Dividing-Lines…
2/The book starts out with a chapter or two of dense, unnecessary political science jargon, saying that - essentially - U.S. immigration policy tends to move very slowly, because powerful politicians and officials resist the tide of public opinion.
3/But most of the book is an extremely readable, eye-opening history of U.S. immigration policy, from the founding through the 1990s.

It shows how the immigration debates we're now having have been with us, in some form or another, for a very long time.
Read 27 tweets
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Thread about why very high tax rates on very rich people don't raise much revenue (or reduce inequality much, even within the top tier).

Our system has a million loopholes. Closing them is more important than raising top rates.
That's not to say there's a trade-off between raising the top rate and closing loopholes! They are complements, not substitutes.

But if you just raise the top rate without closing loopholes, you'll likely be disappointed.
The fact is, raising effective taxes on the very rich will require a comprehensive sustained push on a large number of policy fronts. There is not going to be one silver bullet.
Read 6 tweets

Related threads

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There are some things I want to say about the #wall, #TrumpShutdown, Trump's base, & racism. It's going to be a lengthy thread, but I'll unroll it into one page at the end.
1/ As the #shutdown winds into its third week, a lot of ink has been spilled over whether or not the wall would provide #bordersecurity, on how practical or impractical it would be, and on how to resolve this mess.
2/ By and large this misses the point. The sharpest analysis to date came, unintentionally, from @LindseyGraham: The wall is a metaphor. But not the way he meant it. Rather, it’s a metaphor for a deeply held *insecurity* within #Trump’s base.
Read 42 tweets
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(1)QARMY🕵So you #think the #QArmy is just a bunch of #people sitting at the #computer doing nothing?

You dont think of us as #DigitalSoldiers?

Do you think we are wasting our #time and not doing anything to help?

If so then please keep reading this #Thread

⬇READ ALL or 🤐⬇
(2)🕵The first thing you have to understand is the #RippleEffect. When you find a #Fact, you share it. Now the #information has a starting point. Everyone is a starting point for someone.

👥 👥
👥👥 👥👥
👥👥🕵👥👥
👥👥👥👥
👥👥

We think #info is important!⬇
(3)🕵It can take a very long time to find all the facts about something. Hours and hours of digging.

#Imagine if you were being told #lies about everything going on and no one was willing to take time out of their day to #find the #Truth. No #Opposition! No one watching them!⬇
Read 16 tweets
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1) Betcha think it was the New Deal that gave us bloated government? Or the Great Society?

2) Yes, those programs greatly expanded the size and scope of government, but Leviathan was inevitable.
3) Many of you have read my discussions of the origins of the DemoKKKrat Party under Martin Van Buren in the 1820s, when, to prevent a Civil War, he created a party that would protect and preserve slavery by rewarding loyalists with party, then state, local, and federal jobs.
4) This worked so well, the only way to beat the DemoKKKrats was to copy them and surpass them in giving away jobs.

5) The new party in the 1850s, the "Anti-Nebraska Party," did just that.

Oh, you know them better as "Republicans."
Read 22 tweets
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Let’s do #AskAFeminist!

Holiday theme! DMs are open for anonymity, please feel free to send me a message or use the hashtag. I won’t be mad if you don’t use the “right” words! 💜 Hello! I’ve been following your twitter for a few months and since it’s the holidays, I thought perhaps a themed question would be interesting. I’m not really sure if this is a feminist issue so much as just a people issue. Do you believe that when a salesperson (or someone in a similar position) says “Merry Christmas” they are being exclusionary? Why or why not?
So my take on “merry Christmas”... I wish a merry Christmas to the people I know celebrate Christmas. Just like I wish a happy Hanukkah to the people I know celebrate Hanukkah and a happy Diwali to the people who celebrate Diwali.
If I don’t know what they celebrate I say happy holidays because most people do get a holiday this time of year.
Read 20 tweets
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1/
 July 4th, 2018.
MEGA-THREAD.

There are three points in history that absolutely nothing to do with each other,..

Pickett’s Charge of 1863
Obama of 2008
Ocasio #NY14 of 2018

...and everything to do with each other
2/
 General Lee was brilliant….
but did you know his #2 guy George Pickett was a no-kidding genius?

What he was to Calvary, Patton was to Tanks.

And like Patton….Pickett finished Dead Last in his class at West Point.
Always getting into trouble.
👇
scienceviews.com/parks/pickett.…
3/
 At West Point, Pickett was a loser
Too much of a party guy and always getting into trouble.

But when he got into the field
and away from prying eyes of Captains and Generals, he was AMAZING.

Army was smart enough at least to send Pickett out West.

👇
thoughtco.com/picketts-charg…
Read 109 tweets
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Okay here’s the thing. Most of the refugees I know don’t like to talk about it, but watching the inhumanity of this #immigration policy makes me want to mention a couple things. I was one of those kids clinging to his mom, seeking asylum... (1/16)
I spent five years (5-10) sleeping under my bed and soiling myself with anxiety. If my mom was less than 15 minutes late coming home, I would enter a full physical panic that she had been taken (she was once by the secret police in our country).
My dreams were almost entirely narratives of watching my parents taken and killed. And you have to understand, once we left our country, I didn’t leave my mother’s side for three years. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if I’d been put in those cages.
Read 16 tweets

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