Re: “The US Likely Has 8 Years—At Most—Before Crisis”

Lynn McGuire wrote:

On 6/21/2025 2:17 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

>
Higher immigration will not fix this problem as most of the immigrants
are uneducated and cannot speak the majority language, English.

>
What does that have to do with being able to pay into the social security
system?
>
My grandparents were uneducated and my grandmother never did learn English
even after seventy years in the country.  But she ran a cheese factory and
became a successful businessperson.
>

It used to be that we allowed immigration to the USA for college
graduates and English competency only.  We still allow about 1.3 million
people per year to immigrant legally to the USA, mostly family of
existing citizens.

>
When was this?  It certainly wasn't when my grandparents came here.
--scott

 The USA immigration laws were put in place in 1925 ?

The bills passed in the 1920s followed the "National Origins Formula", which basically meant that the percentages of immigrants from any ethnic group should be the same as the percentages in the population based on a much earlier census.  With the number not to exceed two or three percent of the current US population of that group.
It said nothing about competence in English or having an advanced degree.
I literally learned this in high school.  Apparently only Canadians study American history.
(I admit I checked to see if I remembered correctly).
Asimov comments that if this bill had been passed a year earlier, there wouldd have been a quota on "Russians" and is family would probably not have been allowed in.  It's hard to imagine Asimov being Asimov anywhere but New York.
A Montrealer Isaac Asimov though ... ca va!
(He could still get decent bagels).
  and highly modified

in 1965 by Ted Kennedy, etc.

You mean the Hart-Celler act? Which Celler had been advocating since 1925, which Truman had pushed in 1952, which was based on a draft by LBJ?
The KDS (Kennedy Derangement Syndrome) is strong in this one.
Yes, Teddy was a junior senator at the time and naturally worked to get the bill passed.
   I do not know about the immigration laws

prior to 1925 which were undoubtedly different.

News for  you.  The vast wave of immigrants from southern Italy in the 1800s did not consist of people with university degrees, or fluency in English.
Nor did the German Jews who came over after 1848.  Ask Robert Moses how they did.

 My Flemish great grandparents came here in 1908 ? and were sponsored by my great-grandfather's uncle in Illinois.  My great-grandfather worked in the Allis-Chalmers water pump factory in Illinois as a translator for several years before moving to Texas for a warmer place.

My great great grandfather was asked only one question, according to family lore.  "Are you willing to serve in the army or do you want to go back on the next ship?"  This was 1862, not the best time to immigrate.
William Hyde