By Ashlea Ebeling, Forbes Staff
Say you have a $150,000 401(k) retirement savings account balance—that’s the average account balance for participants age 55 and older in the 20,000-plus plans Fidelity Investments administers. What does that mean in terms of how much you can expect to take out each year when you’re retired? …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
By Stuart Anderson, Contributor If the goal of the new immigration bill was to reduce illegal immigration, then the new legislation provides far too few visas to accomplish that objective. The lack of a legal visa category for the jobs most illegal immigrants fill is a core reason for illegal immigration. Unfortunately, according to the summary released by the Senate bill’s sponsors, there won’t be a chance a reasonable number of new temporary work visas will be issued until at least the year 2020. The bill’s summary states: “Beginning April 1, 2015 . . . The annual cap on the maximum number of registered positions that may be approved each year are limited for the first four years. 20,000 for the first year; 35,000 the second year; 55,000 the third year and 75,000 the fourth year.” Hundreds of thousands of people attempt to enter the United States illegally each year seeking work. As a result, the numbers cited above will be too low, particularly as the economy improves. The lack of legal visas undermines the bill’s determination that America should achieve “operational control” of the border. Whether the number will ever go above 75,000 is anyone’s guess, since the AFL-CIO achieved its goals in the bill of establishing a type of labor czar who will help determine how many workers are needed in America. F.A. Hayek wrote eloquently about the “fatal conceit” of governments acting as if they know information that by its nature they cannot know. The bill’s summary describes the complicated formula under which it might be possible to go beyond 75,000 work visas in a year: “For each year after the fourth year, the annual cap will be calculated according to a statistical formula that takes the following four factors into consideration: the rate of change in the number of new job openings in the economy; the inverse rate of change in the number of unemployed US workers; the percentage change the Bureau recommends the annual cap should increase or decrease; and the percentage difference between the number of W-visas requested in the prior fiscal year compared to the cap in the prior fiscal year.” If you read the summary closely, you’ll notice the number can also go back down the ladder as well, so there’s no guarantee that even 75,000 will endure as the annual cap. Another concern is the Department of Labor has administrative discretion under the new category, as it has with H-2B visas, a category for seasonal nonagricultural workers. DOL so overstepped its authority in restricting H-2B visas that a federal judge recently threw out its regulations. The Hill newspaper (April 11, 2013) reported on a letter sent to House members signed by the Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), ImmigrationWorks USA, the International Franchise Association and the National Association of Home Builders advocating a large work visa category. The letter argued, “In the early 2000s, when the economy was booming, several hundred thousand unauthorized workers entered the country every year to fill low-skilled jobs for which there
From: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2013/04/16/too-few-work-visas-in-new-immigration-bill/
What was it about the Dodge commercial, “God Made a Farmer,” that stirred the souls of so many Americans during the Super Bowl? Maybe it was the imagery of the dirt and grit of real America, not the white-washed concrete meccas many of us call home. Maybe for just a moment, we were unplugged from our instant and superficial world and taken back to a time when we were captivated by God’s creation, not what our friends were doing on Facebook. Or maybe it was just the quintessential sound of the late American icon Paul Harvey, whose voice wraps around you like a warm blanket on a cold day. His message was one you could expect for a happy ending, even at a time when happy endings weren’t en vogue.
Or maybe it was the unvarnished idea of the farmer, which is so often identified with America. It is the image of a tough life, one marked by hard work and honest living. A time when men were men, and that was okay. A time when workdays didn’t end until the work was done.
When was the last time anyone gave a second thought as to where their groceries came from? Or, even cared? I haven’t in a long time, at least not until this commercial aired. When I need food, I drive to the nearest grocery store and buy some and become irritated when the date on the milk isn’t as new as I’d like it to be. I’ve never had to provide milk for myself; and I’ll bet farmers feel a certain sense of pride when the shelves are full, and dates are fresh.
But why should we care? Because besides feeding us, American farms feed the world. According to the American Farm Bureau in 2010, one third of the farms in the U.S. exported upwards of “$115 billion worth of American agricultural products.” All this from more than two million farms across the country. Not too shabby, until you consider that in 1935, there were nearly seven million farms. And it’s getting worse.
Farming, like manufacturing, has begun a slow death in this country, sped along by a lazy younger workforce, many of which would rather stare at (as my niece so describes) “glowing rectangular objects” (smart phones) than produce something with soiled hands. According to the EPA, around 40 percent of farmers are 55 years old or older. And according to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture, farmers under the age of 45 dropped 21 percent in five years.
The EPA report stated, “The graying of the farm population has led to concerns about the long-term health of family farms as an American institution”; therefore, the direct attack on family farms in 2012 by the Progressive-leaning Obama administration should have come as no surprise to anyone. After massive outcry, the DOL dropped its oppressive imperative banning children from working on their parents’ farms.
In their quest to upend all that makes this country great, Progressives have hijacked the word “progressive” in hopes …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Western Journalism
