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Originally Posted by Clodfobble
It's not like the illegal immigrants will be taking driver's ed now.
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Driver's ed is irrelevant to driver skill. (i.e., I don't believe there is a statistically significant causative correlation between driver's ed and driver's skill.) Technical skills, situational awareness, attention and conscientious driving aren't the sole domain of a class. Actually, I would argue that driver's ed is virtually worthless for all but the most tentative drivers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Either they can drive well enough to pass the test, or they can't. Either way, they're already on the road, and will continue to be on the road after the fact, licensed or not.
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True. Complete, absolute truth. But we're pretty silly if we don't provide incentives to achieve a certain level of competence. As the situation is now, there are only penalties if they make their presence officially known to the Government.
If they can get licensed, without putting their jobs in jeopardy, for whatever small fee the DMV charges, and avoid the fines and legal problems that will prevent them from supporting their families, they're going to do it. I would imagine many of these undocumented workers will take that little extra effort to become familiar with all of the rules of the road in order to be official. (I believe economists and gamblers would call this is a positive EV proposition.)
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Originally Posted by Clodfobble
That doesn't even make any sense.
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This is not about driving. It's about getting a traceable ID on these people.
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I meant to acknowledge this in my previous post, but it was late, late, late and I was tired. It does give the Government a much better idea about where to find them, but these people will still disappear after being licensed, if they don't want to be found.
Additionally, it gives us statistics on how much of a problem having these people driving and living in our country is. What happens if this population turns out to be exemplary citizens of the road? Anything that helps tame the xenophobia many Americans feel about migrants is a good thing to me.
Very few things in this world are what they are claimed to be about.
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Originally Posted by Clodfobble
Not quite--it gives them a better idea of where to find the undocumented immigrants when they want to.
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Which is a rephrasing exactly what I said but explicitly stating that the Government occasionally wants to find certain of these people, for whatever reason. It could also be used to build skill profiles of them and sell those on to the people who hire undocumented migrants on a by-area basis.
(The following bit isn't directed at anyone. Just a rant.)
These people are here, and they aren't going away. Many businesses would flounder without these people, so the government isn't likely to start deporting people wholesale, unless they want to kick the economy in the soft and furries.
The US has one of the lowest (if not lowest) unemployment rates in the entire world. Discounting the disabled, if that last few percent of the people were motivated and wanted work, they'd have it.