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Originally Posted by The_Jazz
The comparison of asylum speakers (2000 vs 2006) is the Clinton administration vs. the Bush administration. I'm not blaiming Bush at all, although I do think it's interesting that you seem hyper-sensitive about that. What I'm saying is that it's more likely that the asylum-seekers are trying to game the system because of the Bush administration's dislike for Chavez. I thnk that a similar analogy would be pre-revolutionary Cuban asylum seekers vs. post-revolutionary asylum-seekers.
HRC or ANY following admininstration regardless of party has any bearing on the increase in the (small) increase in asylum-seekers we've seen.
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The absolute numbers are small as are the numbers when compared to the total population, however, the percentage increase is large and perhaps correlated to Chavez's activities rather than the Clinton or Bush administrations. Also, we have to consider a portion will try to come here and others may go to other countries. We may be looking at the begining of a long-term trend, where the absolute numbers get big real fast.
When I look at this issue in terms of human capital - if for example, the "top 2%" of a nation's population is responsible for the majority of the country's human capital (doctors, scientists, inventors, engineers, business leaders, teachers, etc) and those people have the ability and opportunity to leave if the feel they feel unfairly treated, perhaps if they do leave the country would be crippled for several generations. I understand the appeal of being a populist, and taking from the privilaged, but is there a down-side to this strategy? I think there is, do you?
PS - Human Capital is different than the value of human life. The value of an uneducated unskilled human's life is no less valuable than that of the most educated and the most skilled. But when you measure it in terms of human capital highly skilled and highly educated people contribute more to a nation than those who are not. You guys can spare me of the "evil capitalist" doesn't care about people lines of b.s.