Monday, January 08, 2007

Immigration

Roy Beck's celebrated demonstration of the population consequences of current U.S. immigration policies has entertained and shocked  ... all » audiences across the country. This video is packed with the facts and analysis that make moral and practical sense of a complex and highly contentious issue.

This is as scary as hell.  It’s 14 minutes long but very interesting.  A real eye-opener to say the least.

Watch the video.

Thanks Paul

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, interesting numbers, but there is a little flaw (perhaps several, I didn't watch the whole thing).

He says that infrastructure must be doubled if population number is doubled. That's a truth with modifications, especially as regards roads. It's easier to see it in a small scale first. There's a community of let's say 100 people. In their village, they have a school, a few shops and so on, and roads connecting these. Within the next three years, the population increases to 200. This probably means an expansion of the village borders, which will result in road building expenses, housing, perhaps even a new school (or adding to the old school structure). However, doubling the number of people doesn't mean doubling the roads. You just need to extend the existing roads as much as to reach the new area.

Another way of putting it - you don't need to add a new file on the highway.

One difficulty arising through American infrastructure, is the lack of public transport. I've only been to Texas and NM, but I never saw any buses (or trains).

Anyways, my point is - it appears that the guy in the video is more concerned about his presentation reaching out/being effective, than it being truthful. Now the roads was only one doubtful aspect - I'm sure you'll find others as well.

That being said, this guy's a good orator.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... the base of the y-axis on his chart is 200 million, so these supposedly impressive data are only that because of this graphical sleight of hand. Once someone starts lying in such a basic manner as presenting bogus visual data, I start doubting his overall veracity.