On my recent trip to Colorado, I had dinner with Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from Boulder. He’s not exactly a small-government conservative, but he understands the importance of low marginal tax rates, free trade, and other important economic principles (whether he votes the right way is a separate question, of course, so I’m curious to see what he decides to do about Obama’s plan to increase tax rates on investors, entrepreneurs, and small business owners).
One of the topics we discussed was his proposal to create a special visa for entrepreneurs. I won’t pretend to be an immigration expert or legislative lawyer, so I reserve the right to quibble about the legislation if there are details I don’t like, but the concept is a no-brainer. America gets to bring in the best and brightest from around the world. We give a green light to people who will be creating jobs rather than people who might want to mooch off taxpayers. And we make it easier to retain job-creating foreigners who already are in the United States. What’s not to like? Am I missing something?
The Wall Street Journal has given this idea favorable coverage here and here, and here are some excerpts from an article at Businessweek.com.
A change to immigration policy could help create jobs and rev up economic growth. It’s a change that wouldn’t be hard to bring about. I’m talking about the establishment of a Startup Founders Visa program. The program would make it easier for those with great ideas and the desire to start a company to live and work in the U.S. The idea is simple, yet powerful. By letting in company founders, the U.S. would bring in risk-takers who want to create jobs and potentially build the next Google, Cisco Systems, or Microsoft. At the same time, a founder visa program could stem the tide of talented, tech-savvy foreigners who are leaving the U.S. to seek fortunes in their home countries, primarily China and India. …U.S. Representative Jared Polis (D-Colo.), himself a former entrepreneur, is developing legislation to make it easier for foreign founders of investor-backed startups to secure visas to remain in the U.S. On the other end of the political spectrum, even Newt Gingrich, the Republican former Speaker of the House, has blogged about the need to make the country “more accessible to skilled immigrants.” He wrote this after witnessing “the dynamic entrepreneurial and high-tech business culture in Tokyo, Beijing, and Seoul”—countries with which we are competing for top talent. Representatives of both ends of the political spectrum can agree on this issue. As things stand, we’re losing the battle to retain the immigrants who fueled the recent tech boom. We’re experiencing the first brain drain in American history.Other countries in Europe and South America are realizing the potential of attracting skilled immigrants and are putting together programs to snap them up.
International Liberty 
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] In part, we should have programsdesigned to attract people with skills and education. […]
[…] that is used to varying degrees by nations such as Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, and I wrote favorably about a similar proposal by Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] It’s much better to have immigration policies such as the ones proposed by former Congressman Jared Polis and current George Mason University Professor Tyler […]
[…] that is used to varying degrees by nations such as Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, and I wrote favorably about a similar proposal by Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from […]
[…] A Proposal for More Immigration that Should Have 100 Percent Support […]
[…] that is used to varying degrees by nations such as Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, and I wrote favorably about a similar proposal by Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from […]
[…] issue of immigration is highly controversial and emotional, I’ve explained before that everyone should be able to agree that it’s a very good idea to bring in people who can be expected to increase per-capita […]
[…] In part, we should have programsdesigned to attract people with skills and education. […]
[…] In part, we should have programsdesigned to attract people with skills and education. […]
[…] In part, we should have programs designed to attract people with skills and education. […]
[…] effect on the immigration debate in the United States. Most Americans presumably are sympathetic to migrants who will boost per-capita GDP, but there is legitimate concern about those who might become wards of the […]
[…] In any event, I actually agree with Ontiveros that the program is inequitable. But that’s precisely the point. Lawmakers in America are picking and choosing who to let in the country and they’re deciding that it’s better to have successful investors. […]
[…] because of my background and training, but it seems like economic benefit should be a factor that everyone can support. After all, these won’t be people seeking handouts from the welfare […]
[…] if you want my two cents, I like immigration but want to make sure we attract people who want to work and assimilate rather than scroungers (and worse) who want welfare and […]
[…] if you want my two cents, I like immigration but want to make sure we attract people who want to work and assimilate rather than scroungers (and worse) who want welfare and […]
[…] people into permanent dependency. And he calls for more immigration from the kinds of people – highly skilled and educated – who would be very likely to create […]
[…] approach that is used to varying degrees by nations such as Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, and I wrote favorably about a similar proposal by Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from […]
[…] approach that is used to varying degrees by nations such as Australia, Canada, and Switzerland, and I wrote favorably about a similar proposal by Congressman Jared Polis, a Democrat from […]
Just read a story the other day about the high numbers of non-skilled legal immigrants US policy has created in our country..this article has some good numbers in it. http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/01/immigration-west
Increased immigration should be allowed with controls provided at the intake end. However, any immigration reform should be accompanied by a correction in the kind of voting abuses exemplified by the New Black Panther intimidation of November 2008 and Noxubee County, MS where voter’s rolls are 130% of those eligible.
Thanks,
Thierry Specter
Mr KrugmanForDummies, dear sir:
Mr Mitchell’s idea is just awesome, thanks to such ideas the USA is such a rich country. His idea is about bringing EVEN MORE capital to the USA.
The USA, as Mr. Mitchell showed ( for instance here http://www.freedomandprosperity.org/Papers/taxharm/taxharm.shtml ), is the biggest tax haven that ever existed and has attracted $trillions in foreign capital. I wonder how low would be US growth if suddenly those humongous capital inflows ceased! (in the 2008 – 09 crisis the USA had a huge drop in capital inflows http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?chart_type=line&s%5B1%5D%5Bid%5D=BOPI&s%5B1%5D%5Brange%5D=10yrs, so you already had a taste of how collapsing capital inflows feels )
Wealth can increase continuously. Demonizing the ownership of capital is one of the left’ s favorite points, just remember how Stalin sadistically murdered millions ukranians with the “excuse” that they were OWNERs of their farms!
John Maynard Keynes absurd pseudoscience demonizes the ownership of capital by “roughly” measuring output in employment and not in actual output!!! ( read it directly from Keynes http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/economics/keynes/general-theory/ch04.htm )
Well, Itaipu Dam, between Brazil and Paraguay, has a huge humongous output -140.000 MegaWatts- and is run by a bunch of people earning, many of them, low wages. Well, according to Keynes absurd measures of output, a bunch of cowboys at a LOW CAPITAL – LOW OUTPUT – LOW WAGE farm in nearby Paraguay has “roughly” the same output as Iguazu Dam if those cowboys earn the same monthly payroll as the bunch of people that runs Iguazu Dam!!! With such absurd definitions it is not surprising that Keynes reaches so many false conclusions!
It is the presence of capital that allowed US citizens to have such a high income. Adam Smith showed how capital increased wages in Wealth of Nations http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN3.html#B.I,%20Ch.9,%20Of%20the%20Profits%20of%20Stock .
I think the graph below, for one of Mr. Mitchell papers, shows that its is the presence of capital allowed US citizens to have such a high standard of living, confirming, again, what Adam Smith showed centuries ago. Here is the graph:
http://www.heritage.org/static/reportimages/6AEEF2BD92570089FB59202AAD71F0F8.gif?w=370&as=1
You said “Poor immigrants on the other hand, will simply use our hard fought new entitlements such as healthcare and legislatively mandated higher incomes”
The industrial world growth in my opinion was ruined by exorbitant high social security taxes. Many old people, instead of being rich and independent, are poor and dependent on the taxes the young pay to sustain them because they paid such high payroll taxes when they were young than they are poor when old and such absurd state of things is “justified” by Keynes pseudoscience that demonizes savings.
Just bring down the entitlements and any additional person will be an INCOME to the US government and not an EXPENSE , any businessman knows that if an additional customer brings him more money then the more customers the better. And I know papers that show that inmigrants tend to be hard working, not old, and healthy.
You said “ We’re America, destined by the powers that be to remain the most prosperous people on earth”
Well, it is not so, England was once the world superpower but in the 20th century it applied Keynes pseudoscience and “stimulated” itself with big government and today , as a superpower, England is a joke.
WSJ says “We’re experiencing the first brain drain in American history. Other countries in Europe and South America are realizing the potential of attracting skilled immigrants and are putting together programs to snap them up
Well, WSJ talks about “the first drain in American history” !! That is very revealing! It is not so easy anymore for the US to attract people!. Here in Latin America, for instance, millions of us are reading the internet (a decade ago only a very very few of us could read it) and we are seeing how what people like Mr. Mitchell says makes sense and how what people like Mr. Keynes or Mr. Krugman says is nonsense and, thanks to that, we are implementing pro-freedom and capital attracting policies and we had big increases in our standards of living and things are much better now.
We Latin Americans usually have a deep love for our countries, our culture and our people and do not like to emmigrate to the USA so do not count on people wanting forever to emmigrate to the USA.
Terrible idea.
Wealth is a finite pie. The more foreigners we bring in, especially high income greedy foreigners, the further down the income distribution the American middle class will be pushed. Poor immigrants on the other hand, will simply use our hard fought new entitlements such as healthcare and legislatively mandated higher incomes. Compassion has its limits. The efforts of the most productive amongst Americans need to be systematically harvested to improve the standard of living for middle class Americans making 40-90k per year, not poor Mexicans making 3k per year.
A sealed border, massive public mandated spending on efficient centrally planned technological advances, high tax rates, and a middle class which while doing unexceptional work is by legislative mandate getting paid high salaries, is the only way to ever lasting, fairly distributed compassionate exceptional prosperity, strong growth and worldwide unbeatable products.
So, no. While compassionate ideology requires us to be nice to foreigners, bringing them over here to push us down the income distribution is just too much. Let them stay in their home countries. What are they going to do? Create companies in India Hong Kong and China and compete with us? Where are they going to find good talent at lower prices over there? We’ll crush them! We’re America, destined by the powers that be to remain the most prosperous people on earth, even as we start copying others. The average American is not only the most competent citizen in the world but our newly conceived central planning is just simply better than everybody else’s. Just have HOPE and you’ll se that the CHANGE is going to work. Just read my new book: “Krugman for Dummies”.