Immigration: Work vs. Welfare

I recently was invited by Senator Aaron Osmond to present to delegates in his district on the immigration issue.  I cited a speech given my Milton Friedman in my opening remarks.  Here is video of that speech:



Please watch both of these videos.  I think they are very insightful.

The issue at hand on immigration comes down to the incentives that drive it.  Are immigrants coming to the United State for welfare?  Or for work?  The answer has far ranging consequences.

A recent study indicated that 43% of legal immigrants who had been here 20 years or more are currently recieving welfare benefits.  On the face of it, this statistic is disturbing.  After all, aren't immigrants supposed to come to better their lot in life through a strong work ethos and personal merit?  That is what we would all hope.

Here is a .pdf of my presentation to the group this morning:

   Immigration Presentation 2012

This issue is of such importance that it will dictate what kind of world we live in come the year 2040.  Immigrants and their posterity are poised to make huge gains in the share of our population over the next generation.  How we decide to handle the demographic realities will determine whether we live in an opportunity and economically mobile society like America circa 1900 or a caste system of haves and have-nots like Brazil 2010.  If we make no changes to our policies, it is my fear we will become the latter.   

Moving Forward: Lessons From The First Week of Session 2012

Growing Pains

This week has been quite the learning experience.  Like anyone learning to ride a bike, the first step is to learn to stay up and moving.  Once you get comfortable and aren't tipping over all the time, you can start to do more adventurous things.

This week's adventurous activity was being the only Freshman to have bills to present on the first day of presentations.  These bills were heard during interim session several months ago and were approved UNANIMOUSLY by our committee at that time.  A couple weeks ago I got a call from a colleague who asked if he could take HB30 and run it through the Senate with some minor alterations.  I agreed since I thought it would be a good opportunity to work with a seasoned Senator and learn from his experience. That left me with HB22 and HB23 to present on the House Floor.  These bills were seemingly simple and very straight forward...or so I thought.

The State has a new video archive system.  You can watch my initial presentation HERE.  (Be sure to click on the HB22 link in the scroll box below the player.) Unfortunately, I had some problems.  First, my laptop battery died with my notes on it just as I got up to present.  Second, I had no written notes.  Third, I had not spent enough time reviewing the material and I had difficulty with mental translation.  The summary I received from the Department of Workforce Services (DWS), who requested the legislation, was longer than the bill itself and written in a cryptic dialect of Bureaucratese.  Here is the summary:

If you watch the video you can see the bill fail as the voting board runs red with "No" Votes.    The title of the bill wasn't helpful either.  Many of my colleagues expressed their distaste with the bill title.  It might as well have read: Federal Mandate Database Act.  Clearly, the Federalist spirit is alive and well in our legislative body.   

To make the day even more interesting, I had to present HB23 immediately after that.  You can use the same link to find that presentation. Fortunately, it went moderately better and the bill passed.

When HB22 failed, a colleague told me that he would bring the bill back for reconsideration if I could get some more information on the implications of the bill.  I met with DWS at 9:30am the following morning to inquire as to its benefits and advantages.  To my surprise there were many more than were initially provided.

You can watch video of my second presentation at 10:00 AM HERE. (Be sure to click on HB22 again).  The bill passed.  It is not very often that a failed bill gets a second opportunity at life.  I am grateful the body gave me the opportunity to make the case.  This whole experience was a valuable lesson in both preparation and proper presentation.

Honorable Mentions

After that drama was over, I got word that the Unemployment Insurance bill my colleague in the Senate was running would be mentioned by Governor Herbert in his State of the State address.  Sure enough, my name was mentioned as a sponsor.  You can see that clip below:    


That was a nice gesture and I am sure it will help the prospects for SB 129.  I already have many of my colleagues wanting to co-sponsor the bill.  

Thumb Screws 101

Another interesting experience I had this week was watching some of my colleagues take an interest in an issue I took up in HB58.  When HB58 failed in committee on Monday, I thought the issue was dead and I would move on.  Not so.  One of my colleagues was in negotiations with the parties who opposed my bill while dealing with a bill of his own.  However, unlike my bill, my colleague was working as their advocate in his bill.  Nevertheless, as their advocate, my colleague expressed his extreme displeasure with their treatment of my bill and began negotiating the introduction of its provisions into the bill he was writing.  The dynamics of the negotiation were captivating to watch.  I am unsure if they have concluded so I will have more information on the results of the wrestling match next week.  

H.B. 58 SPIKED: Status Quo Steeple Statute

Those of you who have followed the blog are aware of my efforts to change state law regarding the construction code to allow for more free market mechanisms to operate when it comes to seismic upgrades.  My effort on this issue stems from constituent complaints originated back in October.    This statute change was embodied in my proposed H.B. 58.

The first day of session was hectic as I tried to prepare a substitute bill.  I had negotiated a compromise with members of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah.   Unfortunately, I worked up the draft only to learn at the last minute that those I had negotiated with reneged on their proposed compromise.  Members of my committee were also uncomfortable with some of the compromise provisions.  Since we appeared to be making no one happy, we scrapped the compromise and pushed for the original wording of the bill.  I invited the caretaker of the church to testify in committee today.  In opposition, the Structural Engineers Association of Utah showed up in force.  The conversation was contentious at times and it finally came to a vote.

Our proposal failed: 5-7.  A couple of my colleagues surprised me with their vote.  Interestingly, after interviewing the folks who I felt were on the fence, it became apparent that our cause would fail even if we amended the bill and tried to bring it back for reconsideration.

I am now trying to put together some Ogden area stakeholders to see if there are some other means available to help the Baptist Congregation fix their roof and seismically upgrade their property.  Hopefully we can find a coalition of folks here locally who would be willing and able to help preserve this beautiful landmark and worship center.

Ogden Utah Businesses Innovate and Succeed

I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of leaders in education, government, and business this week to discuss economic development in Ogden, Utah.  The meeting was hosted by Weber State University and USTAR.  We learned some fascinating things about how state funds are opening the door for new technologies and innovations.

We were presented with several success stories related to innovations in technology.  The first example we were presented with was the story of the PreventisMedical company and its saline solution product which is branded as Respia.  At McKay Dee hospital in Ogden, one of the doctors there noticed that infections were occurring when infants with respiratory problems were placed in the NICU and fitted with traditional respiration devices.  What he discovered was that the saline solution that hospitals use to clean the equipment was caustic to the infant's airways and created an environment for infection.  With the help of the pharmacist in the hospital basement, a new solution was created and tested on infants in the NICU.  The result was a dramatic decrease in infections and post hospital stay complications.

Obviously, this new product has broad applications across the medical industry.  However, the doctor nor the hospital had experience in taking product innovations to the marketplace.  That is when McKay Dee Hospital created a partnership with Weber State University.  By utilizing a minimal USTAR grant, they were able to create a business plan to then receive venture capital funds from the private funding market.

The Respia product was created in April 2010 and the company will be turning its first profit in the next few months.  The product has just recently gained access to the largest distributors of medical equipment in the United States and will be available nationwide shortly.

The great news is the owners expect the business to create 30 to 50 jobs.
 

Another success story was related to the company Enve which is located at the Ogden airport.  This company recently relocated its operations from the UK to Ogden, Utah.  They are builders of carbon composite biking materials.  Their operations have increased to the point that they are seeking more space in the Ogden area to accommodate their growth.

Finally, we discussed a new venture being sponsored by Weber State University and USTAR to bring more entrepreneurial talent to Ogden in the software and computer programing field.  The proposal (branded as Apps Inc.) involves using small seed grants (that may be repaid upon profitability) to induce small up-and-coming software companies to relocate to the Ogden area.  Upon arrival, the businesses will be teamed with the business development arm of Weber State University to further develop and monetize their product in preparation for it being taken to market.   WSU Vice Provost (and successful entrepreneur) Alex Lawrence will be heading the effort.  This program will draw new jobs in the innovative software development industry.  

It's exciting to see these local businesses growing and innovating despite a challenged economic environment.  This is the kind of ingenuity and entrepreneurialism that warrants our support.  Certainly, these businesses' success is a testament to the Utah worth ethos.  

The Affluent, The Extravegant, The Absurd: Mr. Veblen's Classic Critique

I recently finished reading Thorstein Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class.  It is a fascinating look into the social mores and norms of the wealthy during the late Victorian era and how their behavior affected society at large.  His book was published in 1899.

The book is definitely heavy reading and it took me quite some time to digest its 258 pages.  However, it was well worth the time invested and has enlightened my perspectives regarding how the world works and often continues to work despite the date on the calendar.  

The book is a mixture of thoughtful insight sprinkled with rapier wit and cutting criticism.

Here are some interesting quotes:


Regarding Desire for Wealth

"Visible success becomes an end sought for its own utility as a basis of esteem."

"[Man's goal] is the conversion to his own ends of energies previously directed to some other end by another agent."

"The motive that lies at the root of ownership is emulation."

"Those members of the community who fall short...suffer in esteem of their fellowmen; and consequently they suffer also in their own esteem...apparent exceptions to the rule are met with, especially among people with strong religious convictions."

"In any community where goods are held in severalty it is necessary, in order to ensure his own peace of mind, that an individual should possess as large a portion of goods as others with whom he is accustomed to class himself; and it is extremely gratifying to possess something more than others.  But as fast as a person makes new acquisitions, and becomes accustomed to the resulting new standard of wealth, the new standard forthwith ceases to afford appreciably greater satisfaction than the earlier standard did.  The tendency in any case is constantly to make the present pecuniary standard the point of departure for a fresh increase of wealth."


Regarding Presentation of Wealth Through Action

"In order to gain and hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power.  The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence."

"Few of us, if any, can dissociate an offense against etiquette from a sense of the substantial unworthiness of the offender.  A breach of faith may be condoned, but a breach of decorum cannot."

"The pervading principle and abiding test of good breeding is the requirement of a substantial and patent waste of time."


Regarding Presentation of Wealth Through Consumption

"Unproductive consumption of goods is honorable, primarily as a mark of prowess and a perquisite of human dignity."

"Infirmities induced by over indulgence are among some peoples freely recognized as manly attributes."

"The only practicable means of impressing one's pecuniary ability on these unsympathetic observers of one's everyday life is an unremitting demonstration of ability to pay."

"If the canon of conspicuous consumption were not offset to a considerable extent by other features of human nature, alien to it, any saving should logically be impossible..."


Regarding Living a Wealthy Lifestyle

"It is notoriously just as difficult to recede from a "high" standard of living as it is to lower a standard which is already relatively low; although in the former case the difficulty is a moral one,

"In the rare cases where it occurs, a failure to increase one's visible consumption when the means for an increase are at hand is felt in popular apprehension to call for explanation, and unworthy motives of miserliness are imputed to those who fall short in this respect."

"The standard of expenditure which commonly guides our efforts...is an ideal of consumption that lies just beyond our reach; or to reach which requires some strain."

"With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper."




Regarding the Wealthy Standards of Taste

"The thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous penalty of the law; and some good repute accrues to him from his increased wealth and from his spending the irregularly acquired possessions in a seemly manner."

"...the hand wrought spoon gratifies our taste, our sense of the beautiful while that made by machinery out of the base metal has no useful office beyond a brute efficiency."

"The superior gratification derived from the use and contemplation of costly and supposedly beautiful products is, commonly, in great measure a gratification of our sense of costliness masquerading under the name of beauty."

"What productive use [a race horse] may possess, in the way of enhancing the well being of the community or making the way of life easier for men, takes the form of exhibitions of force and facility of motion that gratify the popular aesthetic sense."


Regarding Dressing In a Wealthy Way

"...at no other point is the sense of shabbiness so keenly felt as it is if we fall short of the standard set by social usage in this matter of dress."

"The need of dress is eminently a 'higher' or spiritual need."

"Even more strikingly than the everyday habit of the priest, the vestments, properly so called, are ornate, grotesque, inconvenient, and, at least ostensibly, comfortless to the point of distress."


Regarding Institutions and the Affect of the Wealthy on Society

"The evolution of social structure has been a process of natural selection of institutions."

"Institutions are, in substance, prevalent habits of thought with respect to particular relations and particular functions of the individual and of the community."

"Institutions are the products of the past process, are adapted to past circumstances, and are therefore never in full accord with the requirements of the present."

"...by virtue of its high position as the avatar of good form, the wealthier class comes to exert a retarding influence upon social development far in excess of that which the simple numerical strength of the class would assign it."

"...privation among the body of the people is a serious obstacle to any innovation."




Regarding Foundational Traits of the Wealthy

"Freedom from scruple, from sympathy, honesty, and regard for human life, may, within fairly wide limits, be said to further the success of an individual in the pecuniary culture.  The highly successful men of all times have commonly been of this type."

"The lawyer is exclusively occupied with the details of predatory fraud, either in achieving or in checkmating chicanery..."

"[Industrial society's best interest is served by] honesty, diligence, peacefulness, good will, an absence of self seeking, and an habitual recognition and apprehension of causal sequence..."


Regarding Attitudes of the Wealthy

"[Regarding spiritual maturing] those who fail on the average remain as an undissolved residue of crude humanity in the modern industrial community."

"[College sports are] expressions of an attitude of emulative ferocity...deliberately entered upon with a view to gaining repute for prowess."

"The addiction of sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development of the man's moral nature."

"The leisure class canon demands strict and comprehensive futility; the instinct of workmanship demands purposeful action."


Regarding The Wealthy and Devout Observances

"A believer is eminently a person who knows how to obey and accept chastisement with good grace."

"In economic theory, sacred holidays are obviously to be construed as a season of vicarious leisure performed for the divinity or saint in whose name the tabu is imposed and to whose good repute the abstention from useful effort on these days is conceived to inure."

"It is not ordinarily in good form for the priestly class to appear well fed or in hilarious spirits."

"The leisure class acts to conserve, and even to rehabilitate, that archaic type of human nature and those elements of the archaic culture which the industrial evolution of society in its later stages acts to eliminate."

"A still more characteristic and more pervasive alien element in the motives which have gone to formally uphold the scheme of devout life is that non reverent sense of the aesthetic congruity with the environment which is left as a residue of the latter-day act of worship after elimination of its anthropomorphic content."

"...the generation which follows a season of war is apt to witness a rehabilitation of the element of status, both in its social life and it its scheme of devout observances and other symbolic or ceremonial forms."


Regarding the Wealthy and Attitudes Toward Education

"Athletics have an obvious advantage over the classics for the purpose of leisure class learning, since success as an athlete presumes, not only a waste of time, but also a waste of money, as well as the possession of certain highly unindustrial archaic traits of character and temperament."

~~~~~

It appears that Mr. Veblen never played ball much.  However, the quotes do make me chuckle even if I disagree with some of his points.  Some of his insights are dead on though, especially regarding human nature and our desire to compare ourselves to one another.  I am impressed with his comments regarding institutions never being adequate for present needs.  As a Legislator, I agree with this assessment.  I highly recommend this book.