Friday, March 18, 2011

Always good to get criticism from both sides

So I was at this talk this morning at Georgetown on high-skill immigration, hoping to get some insights for the NBER chapter that I am now finally drafting.

I didn't entirely agree with the speaker, but it was good - I took more issue with his policy conclusions than his actual findings.

Anyway, I made a pretty standard argument about how it's much harder to claim that immigration hurts American workers than he asserted. After the talk, a guy from the Economic Policy Institute came up to me and accused me of wanting to "immiserate the country"! That threw me off guard a little (since, of course, I have no interest at all in immiserating the country), so I didn't respond as well as I would have liked to. I plan on sending him a more coherent email.

Anyway - it was reassuring. When I get attacked from the right and the left I feel more reassured that ideological imperatives aren't driving what I'm saying (although surely they play a role for all of us).

They should have a video of the talk - I'll post it when it comes up.

6 comments:

  1. Just checked out their website - he's their vice president!

    Ya - I'm definitely going to need to email this guy. I can't just sit back and let him impugn my honor like that!

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  2. You should also consider that attacks from all sides indicate that you are mistaken.

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  3. But if I'm mistaken - as of course I may be - it doesn't seem to be because I'm enthralled to a particular ideology.

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  4. "When I get attacked from the right and the left I feel more reassured that ideological imperatives aren't driving what I'm saying (although surely they play a role for all of us)."

    Why exactly? I get attacked from the right and left all the time ... that doesn't assure me of anything more than I'm a libertarian with my own ideological imperatives.

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  5. "You should also consider that attacks from all sides indicate that you are mistaken."

    Certainly something to consider--but someone agreeing with you doesn't mean you are right, either. Neither agreement nor disagreement necessarily provides support for the "truth".

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