This Guy Named David Brooks Really Hates Rural America

 

There’s this American conservative named David Brooks from Toronto, Lower Manhattan, University of Chicago, and Washington DC. You can find him at such very conservative places such as PBS, NPR, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly. That’s weird because those are all the very exact same places that every conservative I know tends to go.

On February 24, 2017, the Toronto-Manhattan-Chicago-Washington-DC Brooks scolded Tom Cotton and David Perdue for not “get(ting) out in the real world” regarding matters of immigration and low wages. I think the last time a native New Yorker scolded Senator Tom Cotton was about a month ago when Cotton told Chuck Schumer that he does get out in the “real world” including “getting my a** shot at in Afghanistan.” And I thought many of the Never Trumper-types were big fans of Tom Cotton. I guess that they only like him when he ignores certain types of his “real world” experiences.

Blogger Steve Sailer points out that one-time Ricochet contributor Jennifer Rubin has taken up Brooks’ torch with a column entitled “Trump vs. an America that works.”

An America that works? Should that be an Immigrant Lobbyist America that works?

I could dig around for charts all day, but here are two:

If America is really working as Jennifer Rubin claims, why is President Obama the first president since Herbert Hoover not to see more than 3% economic growth in at least one year? (I guess some commentators probably wanted Hillary Clinton to win anyway.)

“The National Death Wish” was the title of David Brooks’ anti-Tom Cotton article. Cutting immigration in half is a national death wish? I’m not sure if Mr. Brooks knows what the word national really means. National — relating to a nation; common to or characteristic of a whole nation; a citizen of a particular country, typically entitled to hold that country’s passport.

Brooks says that, “Nationwide, there are now about 200,000 unfilled construction jobs.” If that is true, that’s hardly anything. That’s less that 500 people per congressional district. The number of 200,000 is a fourth of the estimated 800,000 votes from non-citizens that political scientist Jesse Richman estimated that Hillary Clinton received in the last election, and that number does not include possible Trump votes from the same group. Brooks says, “Employers have apparently decided raising wages won’t work.” Suddenly the supply and demand of economics has completely broken down. What a cry of panic! In a November 24, 2014 bloomberg.com article entitled “The Tech Worker Shortage Doesn’t Really Exist,” that article states, “Employers started offering (petroleum engineers) more money, more people started becoming petroleum engineers, and the shortage was solved. In contrast, … real IT wages are about the same as they were in 1999. …only half of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) college graduates each year get hired into STEM jobs. ‘We don’t dispute the fact at all that Facebook and Microsoft would like to have more, cheaper workers … But that doesn’t constitute a shortage.'”

David Brooks says that, “A comprehensive study of non-European Union immigrants into Denmark between 1991 and 2008 found that immigrants did not push down wages, but rather freed natives to do more pleasant work.” I think wages in tech fields have been have been stagnant since the 20th century. I remember the article entitled, “Bay Area tech company caught paying imported workers $1.21 per hour.” In the May 2014 cis.org article entitled, “Is There a STEM Worker Shortage?” there is the following quote, “In total, 1.6 million immigrants with STEM degrees worked outside of a STEM field and 563,000 were not working. … If STEM workers are in short supply, wages should be increasing rapidly. … Real hourly wages (adjusted for inflation) grew on average just 0.7% a year from 2000 to 2012 for STEM workers…”

Brooks states, “For the life of me, I can’t figure out why so many Republicans prefer a dying white America to a place like, say, Houston. … with 145 languages spoken…” Houston or the Houston area has about 6,656,947 and 2,296,224 people, depending if you count the metro area. Why in the world would someone from rural, small town, or even suburban America what to live in this mess. Houston has 145 languages? Sounds like a bad science fiction movie. Can I bring C-3PO who claims to be “fluent in over six million forms of communication.” Personally, I didn’t know 145 languages still really exist outside of places like Papua New Guinea. Wikipedia only goes down to the top 100 languages. Number 98 is Belarusian, a language that only 12% of Belarusians speak at home and which is only understood by about 29% of the population of Belarus. Numbers 99 and 100 are Balochi and Konkani, languages apparently from south-central Asia.

In the city of Houston, Non-Hispanic whites were 62.4% of the population in 1970, 40.6% of the population in 1990, and 25.6% of the population in 2010. If the current trend continues… Mr. Brooks’ cities are now whiter than Houston. Washington DC, is about 35% Non-Hispanic white. Manhattan is about 48% Non-Hispanic white. Toronto is about 50% Non-Hispanic white. Chicago is about 32% Non-Hispanic white down from 91% in 1940. Perhaps Mr. Brooks thinks that Houston should be turned into Chicago for some reason. Isn’t that the sort of nightmare that only liberals dream about?

Brooks says that, “Cotton and Perdue are the second coming of those static mind-set/slow-growth/zero-sum liberals…” I guess Mr. Brooks will always worship at the alter of more and more immigration and low-skill immigration that is until perhaps some good person or group of people get hurt in the United States, Israel, or Western Europe, but perhaps his fanatic ideology extends even past this crazy point.

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  1. DocJay Inactive
    DocJay
    @DocJay

    This is easy.   If David Brooks says or writes anything, the odds he is wrong are quite high.  His ilk are going the way of the saber tooth.

    • #1
  2. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Pretty soon we’ll need to hire illegal immigrants to do the jobs nobody else will do, namely, say with a straight face that David Brooks is conservative.

    • #2
  3. Quake Voter Inactive
    Quake Voter
    @QuakeVoter

    If the United States were a turn-of-the-20th-century workshop with total federal and state government spending at 4% of GDP and a work-or-die ethic that was largely unchanged from the original pronouncement by John Smith at Jamestown, this romantic conception would be somewhat appealing in a robust gung-ho way.

    But of course, with one party willing to do little more than freeze that spending at 35% of GDP and the other looking to increase it towards 50%, reducing politics to CATO talking points is kind of silly.

    The real issue, which the GOP wants to pretend does not exist, is the impending Californication of Texas politics.  Politically, here’s what happening in Harris County.

    Console yourself with optimistic Texas exceptionalism and push polling from Emily Ekins if you want.  Absent serious immigration enforcement, reform (because face it there will be reform) without a Democratic vote windfall and some opportunity to create a melting pot based on the compelling Texas economic model, the GOP have a hard time cobbling together 270 electoral votes in the near future.

     

    • #3
  4. Quake Voter Inactive
    Quake Voter
    @QuakeVoter

    In addition, don’t treat Mr. Brooks too harshly.  While Tom Cotton was spending years outside the country in Iraq and Afghanistan, Brooks was working relentlessly to discovery the real America in the Restoration Hardware catalog, the Tattered Cover and Burning Man.

    Re Jennifer Rubin what can one say?  The Rosa Klebb of neoconservatism.

    • #4
  5. Chuckles Coolidge
    Chuckles
    @Chuckles

    Hmmm…David Brooks…I think I know that name.
    Are we talking about the David Brooks that writes for the New York Times?  Isn’t that the fellow that famously said he “admires” Obama?    And was at one time commended as being one of “those Republicans who want to ‘engage with’ the liberal agenda?”

    Is this the same David Brooks that is in love with John McCain?  Who in 2007 said Republicans should “disavow” Reagan and Goldwater principles?

    Sorry, I got distracted:  Please tell me again why I should pay any attention to him

    • #5
  6. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    Also, David Brooks makes Susan Collins look like Ted Cruz, he’s not worth thinking about.

    • #6
  7. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    He’s hawkish, experienced, smart, and the only senator to vote against the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act by Bob Corker.

    • #7
  8. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    In “The National Death Wish,” David Brooks also states that, “Construction is hard, many families demean physical labor and construction is highly cyclical. Hundreds of thousands of people lost construction jobs during the financial crisis and don’t want to come back. They want steadier work even at a lower salary.”

    Why punish illegal immigrants to work in such “hard,” “demean(ing),” “physical labor(ous),” “cyclical,” and “lower salary” jobs?

    Didn’t the 13th amendment ban such punishing slavery and involuntary servitude?

    It almost bring a tear to your eye…

    If Mr. Brooks said something about cutting welfare payments, I might pay more attention, but such a harsh action might prevent the conservative paradise of Houston from gaining its 146th and 147th languages.

    Brooks states that, “National Academy of Sciences found that immigration didn’t drive down most wages.”  So the National Academy of Sciences doesn’t believe in the laws of supply and demand and various stagnant economic statistics?

    On the whole, don’t most Americans just want good immigrants.  What’s the point of bringing in good immigrants to build new homes, if it also brings in bad immigrants who wish to rob, vandalize, and harass these homes and their owners?

    • #8
  9. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    The question seems to assume that NeverTrumpers are suspicious of rock-solid conservatives with military experience and the ability to debate complex issues from a dispassionate perspective. I don’t get it.

    As for Brooks:

    You can find him at such very conservative places such as PBS, NPR, The New York TimesNewsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly. That’s weird because those are all the very exact same places that every conservative I know tends to go.

    I go to those places every day. Why wouldn’t you want to recon what the other side is saying? I find NPR fascinating. The PJ boy voices, the assumption of common certainties, their barely-suppressed mystified half-comprehension of the other side, the parade of Certified Experts – it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts. The alternative is Mike Gallagher, who tells everyone nothing they don’t already believe.

    • #9
  10. lowtech redneck Coolidge
    lowtech redneck
    @lowtech redneck

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    The question seems to assume that NeverTrumpers are suspicious of rock-solid conservatives with military experience and the ability to debate complex issues from a dispassionate perspective. I don’t get it.

     

    I was simply wondering what characteristics of Tom Cotton were supposed to appeal specifically to NeverTrumpers and, by implication, make him unattractive to Trump enthusiasts.

    • #10
  11. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    The Cloaked Gaijin:

    Brooks states, “For the life of me, I can’t figure out why so many Republicans prefer a dying white America to a place like, say, Houston. … with 145 languages spoken…” Houston or the Houston area has about 6,656,947 and 2,296,224 people, depending if you count the metro area. Why in the world would someone from rural, small town, or even suburban America what to live in this mess.

    The food.  I mean, obviously.

    (Also just fyi – Baluchi is spoken in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Konkani is spoken in Goa in India – all in a South Asia, none in Central Asia.)

    • #11
  12. The Cloaked Gaijin Member
    The Cloaked Gaijin
    @TheCloakedGaijin

    James Lileks (View Comment): Why wouldn’t you want to recon what the other side is saying? I find NPR fascinating.

    Well, I have subscribed to The Atlantic, but I wouldn’t say that’s extremely interesting.

    I know that Lileks quit subscribing to The Economist.  I mailed in a cheap subscription payment to them back in October, but they never sent me the magazine.  Now that’s real Leftist economics — take the money from the conservative and return nothing.

    I’ve watched/listened to all the various election night recaps on youtube — funniest thing ever, and I never can remember whether I actually voted for Trump.  The PBS was the greatest.  Mark Shields and the rest simply couldn’t get the words out, although Shields celebrated the defeat of Joe Heck like he had just won the Superbowl.  The funniest thing was that I would constantly pause the youtube video as I wasn’t really listening to it and looked up at one moment to see the frozen, horrified face of Michael Beschloss in complete panic.  I was just looking at Katie Couric’s election day program where she, of course, actually added an illegal immigrant to her panel.

    However, NPR just makes me angry.  It’s like paying for propaganda from an alternative universe that hates me.  I just very briefly listened to it this week, something I never do.  In NPR Land every murderer in a white man and preferably cop, racist, or member of the military.

    • #12
  13. OmegaPaladin Moderator
    OmegaPaladin
    @OmegaPaladin

    David Brooks is a walking stereotype of the so-called elite of the GOP, who have never had to sully themselves with the real world.   Illegal immigration lets companies have disposable slave labor, and gives Brooks domestic servants.  Multicultural salad bowls result in the barbarians running amok, but allows Brooks to feel morally superior.

    I despise the pathetic fool.

    • #13
  14. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    The Cloaked Gaijin (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    He’s hawkish, experienced, smart, and the only senator to vote against the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act by Bob Corker.

    I keep voting against Corker in the primary, but it never seems to work.

    • #14
  15. Mike LaRoche Inactive
    Mike LaRoche
    @MikeLaRoche

    OmegaPaladin (View Comment):
    David Brooks is a walking stereotype of the so-called elite of the GOP, who have never had to sully themselves with the real world. Illegal immigration lets companies have disposable slave labor, and gives Brooks domestic servants. Multicultural salad bowls result in the barbarians running amok, but allows Brooks to feel morally superior.

    I despise the pathetic fool.

    I pity the fool.

    • #15
  16. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    I’m stunned, James.  I never figured out how to iron shirts.  Nor my wife, for that matter.  She objects when I wear shirts that need to be ironed.

    • #16
  17. Crow's Nest Inactive
    Crow's Nest
    @CrowsNest

    I don’t expect a comprehensive analysis of the housing market and construction industry in the space of a ~500 word column, but would it be too much to ask for a sentence or two explaining that the issue is complex and being driven by a series of market forces and perverse government incentives?

    This took me 5 minutes to find on a Google search: http://researchmatters.blogs.census.gov/2015/10/16/where-did-all-the-construction-workers-go/?cid=RM11

    And there’s this: http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/19/homebuilder-blues-dont-blame-labor-shortage.html

    Some findings:

    • Construction work boomed from 2000-2005 (coincidentally during a housing bubble!)
    • Where did unemployed workers that had migrated into construction go after 2006? Huh, what do you know: 40% stayed, 1/3 went into trucking, landscaping, and oil and 1/4 are still unemployed(!)
    • Construction wages only rose 2.6% in comparison to 2.1% across other industries, and benefits were lower relative to those industrie
    • The growth of sub-contractors relative to full time employees was partially driven by the mandate to cover the insurance of employees over a certain number of weekly hours
    • Job training programs for younger employees in the 19-24 bracket sharply declined after the 2008 crash relative to other industries (never mind the depreciation generally in our culture of “blue collar” work)
    • Might the cost of permit issuing and land scarcity/environmental regulations and impact studies be part of the picture? Turns out: Yes.
    • #17
  18. Crow's Nest Inactive
    Crow's Nest
    @CrowsNest

    Now since it took me 5 minutes to find that study and article, and Brooks failed to present the other complex of factors which are affecting the construction industry, I have to conclude one of these things:

    (a) David Brooks cannot figure out how to use a smart phone to Google a question.

    Or

    (b) David Brooks did not bother to Google the question. He may not have done this because (i) he’s convinced he already understands the question fully and doesn’t need to study it [epistemic closure]; (ii) he is too lazy to do any of his own research which relates to  (iii) some Times’ staffer failed to fact check the great David Brooks.

    Or

    (c) David Brooks is aware of the complexity of the issue but knowingly misrepresented it to drive home a particular political agenda to an audience that is either too ignorant to know the difference, or doesn’t have the time to fact check it, or because they, too, are already inside the “bubble” of this opinion and the sole purpose of the column is to reinforce these beliefs.

    At what point does the failure to provide the average reader of a column in a major newspaper with a fair picture of the debate, even if at a surface level because of reasonable limitations on the length of an opinion column, become journalistic malpractice?

    • #18
  19. Randy Webster Inactive
    Randy Webster
    @RandyWebster

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    t’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    You probably know how to use starch, too.

    • #19
  20. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    t’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    You probably know how to use starch, too.

    Well if you bought your shirts from his store you wouldn’t have to iron them.  What’s all this fuss?

    • #20
  21. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    The question seems to assume that NeverTrumpers are suspicious of rock-solid conservatives with military experience and the ability to debate complex issues from a dispassionate perspective. I don’t get it.

    As for Brooks:

    You can find him at such very conservative places such as PBS, NPR, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly. That’s weird because those are all the very exact same places that every conservative I know tends to go.

    I go to those places every day. Why wouldn’t you want to recon what the other side is saying? I find NPR fascinating. The PJ boy voices, the assumption of common certainties, their barely-suppressed mystified half-comprehension of the other side, the parade of Certified Experts – it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts. The alternative is Mike Gallagher, who tells everyone nothing they don’t already believe.

    Is this a defense of David Brooks actually being a conservative? Or just a general defense of “NeverTrump-er’s”? Irregardless of the “places” one goes to read and gather information.

    I ask with sincerity.

    • #21
  22. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    Randy Webster (View Comment):
    t’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    You probably know how to use starch, too.

    Those are his wife beater shirts. No sleeves to complicate the job.

    • #22
  23. Steve C. Member
    Steve C.
    @user_531302

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    the parade of Certified Experts

    I hope you don’t mind if I add this to my inventory of stock phrases. It is brief, ergo it has soul.

     

    • #23
  24. Robert McReynolds Member
    Robert McReynolds
    @

    Quake Voter (View Comment):
    If the United States were a turn-of-the-20th-century workshop with total federal and state government spending at 4% of GDP and a work-or-die ethic that was largely unchanged from the original pronouncement by John Smith at Jamestown, this romantic conception would be somewhat appealing in a robust gung-ho way.

    But of course, with one party willing to do little more than freeze that spending at 35% of GDP and the other looking to increase it towards 50%, reducing politics to CATO talking points is kind of silly.

    The real issue, which the GOP wants to pretend does not exist, is the impending Californication of Texas politics. Politically, here’s what happening in Harris County.

    Console yourself with optimistic Texas exceptionalism and push polling from Emily Ekins if you want. Absent serious immigration enforcement, reform (because face it there will be reform) without a Democratic vote windfall and some opportunity to create a melting pot based on the compelling Texas economic model, the GOP have a hard time cobbling together 270 electoral votes in the near future.

    All the more reason for states outside of Texas to be allowed to get off this Titanic we call the United States, don’t you think?

    • #24
  25. Robert McReynolds Member
    Robert McReynolds
    @

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    lowtech redneck (View Comment):
    Why would NeverTrumpers be fans of Tom Cotton in particular?

    The question seems to assume that NeverTrumpers are suspicious of rock-solid conservatives with military experience and the ability to debate complex issues from a dispassionate perspective. I don’t get it.

    As for Brooks:

    You can find him at such very conservative places such as PBS, NPR, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Atlantic Monthly. That’s weird because those are all the very exact same places that every conservative I know tends to go.

    I go to those places every day. Why wouldn’t you want to recon what the other side is saying? I find NPR fascinating. The PJ boy voices, the assumption of common certainties, their barely-suppressed mystified half-comprehension of the other side, the parade of Certified Experts – it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts. The alternative is Mike Gallagher, who tells everyone nothing they don’t already believe.

    Well one such “conservative” who you have had as a guest to the Flag Ship, David Frum, is the editor to one of those listed “conservative places.” So you legitimately know one “conservative.”

    • #25
  26. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    When illegal immigrants start taking the jobs of NYT pundits, then David Brooks and his ilk will start to turn against illegal immigration.

    • #26
  27. Z in MT Member
    Z in MT
    @ZinMT

    The Republican elites still don’t get it. They still use phrases like, “… jobs Americans won’t do.”

    The Republican base says, “Pay me enough and I will do any job.”

    • #27
  28. Z in MT Member
    Z in MT
    @ZinMT

    The Cloaked Gaijin:

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The real reason for the more rapid increase in immigrant employment relative to native employment is demographic. After immigration restrictions were modified in the 60’s and then the flood of illegal immigrants in the 80’s through the early 200o’s occurred it dramatically changed the demographic make-up of the Generation-X cohort relative to the Baby Boomer and the Millennials that followed. Generation-X, which is in the prime working age right now, uniquely has a large proportion of non-natives. The Baby Boomers, who are retiring, are uniquely native due to the immigration restrictions that were in place when they were born. Additionally, illegal immigration from Mexico has been way down over the past 8 years and so the Millennial generation is not near as heavily non-native. In addition, most the native Millennial generation has delayed entering the work force through higher education and so are not working at as high of rate as the non-natives in that cohort.

     

    • #28
  29. tigerlily Member
    tigerlily
    @tigerlily

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    I’m stunned, James. I never figured out how to iron shirts. Nor my wife, for that matter. She objects when I wear shirts that need to be ironed.

    Could be worse – she could try to iron them while you’re wearing them.

    • #29
  30. Arjay Member
    Arjay
    @

    Randy Webster (View Comment):

    James Lileks (View Comment):
    it’s fascinating. I listen to it while I iron shirts.

    I’m stunned, James. I never figured out how to iron shirts. Nor my wife, for that matter. She objects when I wear shirts that need to be ironed.

    My mother taught me how to iron a dress shirt.  I think she was assuming I would remain single forever, and was giving me a survival skill.

    • #30
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