I liked your piece about the new Barlett & Steele book /h1b.htm, although I was a little surprised that you found it "odd" that they would take on immigration and the ripoffs therein. After all, their excellent book America, Who Stole the Dream? http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0836213149/vdare named excessive immigration as damaging to American workers and called for lowered levels ... "The practice of using immigration policy to create a labor surplus, thereby helping to hold down wages or limit wage increases, should be ended."

They are well-versed on immigration as a problem for workers. I went to a lecture featuring them at the San Francisco Commonwealth Club, along with my friend Tim Aaronson (my partner in literature on the little newsletter I publish). We both asked immigration questions about the prevalence of tax ripoffs by immigrants. They answered that it was hard to know (no IRS figures on such things) but that screwing the government (and the rest of us sappy taxpayers, in this case) was a serious social value among many cultures. More multiculturalism. Anyway, they taped the lecture for replay around the country so perhaps you may hear it at some point on the radio.

Taxes are a different sort of subject with Barlett & Steele. They see the widespread cheating as a loss of civic responsibility and make a strong case. I never expected to feel pangs of nostalgia at a talk about taxes, but I did when they used tax responsibility as a metaphor for larger issues of increasing alienation and social breakdown in America.

Brenda

Brenda Walker is publisher of Immigration News and writes for ProjectUSA http://projectusa.org/index.html

October 8, 2000