Platitudes

On the heels of marriage as "the best educational institution we have", addressing immigration policy, David Brooks offers us this gem,

People who qualified could bring their nuclear families with them, since families are the foundries of responsible behavior.

This creates some question about his prior objection to current immigration policies,

Under our current immigration system, most people get into the U.S. through criminality, nepotism or luck. The current system does almost nothing to encourage good behavior or maximize the nation’s supply of human capital.

Perhaps in his world, the term "nepotism" doesn't involve the favored treatment of relatives?

For that matter, I wonder if he deems migrant farm workers to be "criminals", beneficiaries of "nepotism", or "lucky"... After all, more than a million are presently legally in the United States, and together with their undocumented brethren they comprise more than half of the nation's population of farm laborers. Typical wages? $7,500 per year for an individual, or $10,00 per year for a family.