Caplan-Jones UATX Debate Video
Here’s the full video from my recent immigration debate at UATX with Garett Jones. Coleman Hughes moderates. (A great guy, and not only did we finally meet in person for dinner; he also came to UATX karaoke!) Here are more debate details from the UATX Substack.
I’ve got multiple post-debate commentary essays in my queue, so for now I’ll just say that the overall debate quality was at the 60th percentile of my expectations. Enjoy!
From 2002-2008 illegal immigration definitely depressed wages but that was because the overall job market was weak because of the China Shock and a North American energy crisis. The recent illegal immigration spike started in 2019 and it was in the context of a very strong job market especially post Covid. Construction in America is heavily Latino and whenever we have a construction boom we have a spike in illegal immigration and the overall economy can be strong or weak.
Sadly, no transcript here.