Dan Laufer

Political junkie and college sports fan. Now: Building something new. Past: Growth & PMM @Nextdoor, @RentLingo co-founder (acquired), @stanfordbiz & @uva grad.

[The All-In Podcast @theallinpod]

Friedberg’s Ideal Immigration Test: Worker or Welfare? (Or Makers vs Takers)

“I'm all about discerning immigration, not on the lines of some cultural definition, but really around that simple framing of are you going to get social support services or are you going to work?

Going back to my makers vs takers point, if the primary motivation for an individual to come to this country is to be given benefits, to be given payments, to be given social services, to be given support, I think that that person should be denied immigration.

If the primary motivation for the individual to come to the United States is to work to progress themselves, to become a maker, to create things, to work in such a way that they can generate income, save capital, buy things, advance their family's position because they are denied those rights due to the tyranny of the place that they're coming from, then they should be granted immigration status to come to this country and contribute.

Because at the end of the day, what people may not like to hear, which is the truth, is that every single one of those people is actually net positive in growing our economy.

And everyone thinks it's a zero-sum game with respect to jobs in the United States, and we shouldn't let people into this country that create jobs. But the fundamental truth is that anyone that is productive, meaning they create more value than they take in, grows the economy and more jobs get created, and overall, we all benefit from having those individuals here in this country.

And by the way, if you are going to work, you are going to culturally assimilate, because that is what the United States is based on, which is productivity, work hard, create things, and have individual agency, have the ability to progress yourself in this world, in this society.

And if you take advantage of that opportunity, you're going to love the American ideals that this country was founded upon.”

[Yogi @Houseofyogi]

Mamdani got the whole American dream in eight years. Came here as a kid, got citizenship in 2018, now he runs the biggest city in the country.

And on America's 250th birthday he sat down at George Washington's desk and told us everything wrong with the place.

I'm not even angry. I'm disappointed.

Here's the picture he painted:

He mocked the people who supposedly think America "becomes less the more people it welcomes."

Said it belongs "only to those with the right accent or the right shade of skin."

Called our streets a place where "masked agents" are "terrorizing" people.

Said the country's wealth was built by "calloused, dirt-streaked hands" and then left to rot.

Looked out from Washington's desk and called the Americans who built this economy "small" and "weak."

Okay Mamdani. You hate it so much, why'd you come here?

Let's put that picture up against the actual country.

He's a Muslim kid born in Uganda and he's the mayor of New York. A guy back in his own birthplace said it plainly: over there he'd have had to claw his way in. Here we held the door open.

We've got the most diverse Congress in our history. It was never about skin color, no matter how many years the left spent forcing that story onto a country that kept proving them wrong.

A machine that grinds immigrants down? Nearly half the Fortune 500 was started by immigrants or their kids. 231 companies.

Apple, son of a Syrian.

Google, a kid who came over from the Soviet Union.

Amazon, son of a Cuban.

Put them together and they out-earn Japan, out-earn Germany. That's not a country grinding people into the dirt. That's a country handing them the keys.

It's been and always will be the land of opportunity.

And more people want in here than anywhere else alive. 53 million immigrants live here, the most of any nation on earth. We're 4% of the world's people and we hold 17% of the world's migrants.

Every year since 2007 you ask the whole planet where it'd go if it could go anywhere, the answer comes back the same. America. Number one. The line to get in wraps around the globe.

Here's the line he won't draw. I will.

Legal immigration built this country. The strivers. That's the front door working the way it's supposed to, and I'll defend it all day. You need to earn your spot, respect our laws and customs.

But that's not what we're running anymore.

Four years of Biden's open border blew the doors off. The foreign-born share of this country just hit 15.8%. An all-time high. Higher than Ellis Island, more than triple what it was in 1970.

The Census Bureau didn't expect that number until 2042 and we smashed past it. And on top of it, a record 14 million people here illegally, who cut in front of every single person who did it the right way.

The front door built America from Ellis Island to today. The fence is a different thing. Pretending they're the same is how you end up calling every American who wants a secure border a bigot.

And we've earned the right to standards. This is the most wanted country on the planet. We get to choose who walks in. You want in? Build something. Contribute. Earn it. Nobody's owed anything.

You come illegally, you commit crimes, you steal from taxpayers, you should get deported. That's not terrorizing the streets.

Mamdani walked through that front door in 2018. He of all people should be defending it. Instead he stood at Washington's desk and spent his speech blurring the line between the people who came the right way and the ones who broke in.

The man even admitted out loud that America is exceptional. Then spent the rest explaining why it isn't. On the one day the whole country stops to celebrate itself, he reached for the darkest story he could find.

That's not a man who's lost about America. That's a man who's angry at the country that gave him everything he has.

You don't like it here? Nobody made you come.

Nobody's stopping you from leaving. But you won't. They never do. Because there's nowhere else on earth that hands a person this much of a shot.

This country took him in and made him a mayor. He owes it. It doesn't owe him a thing.

We're not perfect. We're the best odds a human being has ever been handed. 250 years old, the richest and freest country alive, and the whole world is still clawing to get in while nobody's trying to leave.

They hold America to a standard they'd never hold anyone else to, then act shocked it falls short.

It's nonsense.

Respect the country. Especially when it's the reason you're standing at that desk at all.

[Tunku Varadarajan @tunkuv]

What Mamdani doesn't get, & will never get, is that America's greatness lies in the fact that people like him--who revile America, detest its values, & strive to destroy its economy--are not herded into jails or gulags or frogmarched to face shooting squads but get, instead, to run for and win elections. America's greatness lies in its limitless tolerance of obnoxious, ungrateful wretches who spit in its face. America is wasted on Mamdani. Think of the many millions of people the world over who would trade places with him in a heartbeat--and actually be thankful to be in America.

[CoFounders Nik @CoFoundersNik]

Stunning lack of self-awareness.

A socialist mayor lecturing America on the evils of capitalism...

His father makes $350k/year teaching African History and Colonialism. No other country on earth pays academics that kind of money for that subject.

Thanks capitalism.

His mother came to Harvard at 19 on a scholarship and became a millionaire making documentaries. You dont become a millionaire documentarian under socialism.

Thanks capitalism.

America is NOT exceptional BECAUSE "we are richer, stronger, more powerful" than everyone else.

No.

We are richer, stronger and more powerful BECAUSE we are exceptional.

Our improbable origin.
Our ideological uniqueness.
Our capitalistic system.

We built a system that protects the right to debate, argue, compete, and fail without fear of jail or worse.

That's why we've been the NUMBER ONE immigrant destination on earth for 180 years!

Since 2000, we have taken in almost 30 million immigrants. There is no close 2nd.

If America is so rigged and divided between the "oligarchs and the oppressed" then why do immigrants (just 15% of the population) come here and start over 30% of new businesses?

[Marcus Lemonis @marcuslemonis]

Dear Governor @GavinNewsom ,

Thank you for the note below. Rather than taking time on topics like hats, I’d like to propose a sit down with business leaders from companies across sectors to determine what can be done to drive business and people investment in California. Any business as you know is ultimately determined by providing a healthy and prosperous work environment for people, offering a solid product or service at a great price for consumers and making a profit for owners and investors. As a current business owner in California, we are able to be part of the strong commerce that exists there but in comparison to other states struggle to have the metrics line up. The cost of doing business isn’t led by real estate costs and in fact based on the size of addressable market is equal to and in some cases below other geographic areas. The real friction comes on the layers you have the ability to influence. Your ability to show the market what is possible is before you. Slim down regulations, induce investment and become the bell weather for commerce in America. Respectfully, I am confident that an intense and fair and balanced look at those frictions and a sensible and practical plan to ease those over time will be the fire start. I have no concept of balancing a local, state or federal budget but, in using basic math principles understand the concept of money in and money out. Your residents deserve to not have some companies develop “California pricing” to keep their doors open but rather focus on making the “Golden State” golden for all. If your aspiration is beyond governor, the moment is now to put this type of idea into action creating the “gold standard” for business everywhere. So, rather than making hats let’s make hay.

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

@Jacob11son I believe most of the land is owned the Federal government. But as an Alameda resident, I’d love to see more development there!

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

@markrigdon @STLChrisH That makes sense and is what we did but didn’t work when we tried it. Could be we did something wrong. My theory is too many people are half distracted when they’re calling and miss the first instruction and then lose patience and hang up

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

@markrigdon @STLChrisH What would you recommend?

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

@STLChrisH Yup exactly. Press 1 to book a new appointment. Was stunned how many people didn’t even do that. I listened to a bunch of calls and it seemed like people were half distracted and just gave up. I’m sure it over weighted to new customers vs returning

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

@STLChrisH We saw a negative result interestingly. Total number of inbound calls booked dropped because we had more people hang up before speaking to a CSR than the improvement in CSR efficiency was able to overcome.

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

Thrilled to announce PipeDreams' funding and grateful to be part of a talented team that's modernizing the home services experience.

[TechCrunch @TechCrunch]

Former Nextdoor exec raises $25 million for PipeDreams, a startup rolling up HVAC companies https://t.co/O4fdVrOCL8

[Dan Laufer @DanLaufer]

I’ve been a customer for 1 year and have really liked it!

[Ryan Rouse @MaalkMan]

@thesamparr Factor Meals (my obvious bias aside)

[Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 @MarinaMedvin]

A history lesson in 2 minutes Gen Z style.

[𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 🇮🇷 ✡︎ @NiohBerg]

This is what happened to the Jews of the Middle East.

[Arsen Ostrovsky @Ostrov_A]

Powerful Images Depict the ‘Before and After’ of Israeli Hostages.

The initiative is part of a project by photographers Sharon Derhy and Michal Chitayat.

#BringThemHomeNOW

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

When the extent of Hamas’ takeover of the Shifa Hospital becomes clear, a lot of international and UN agencies are going to look very, very silly as people rightfully ask: You should have known—why didn’t you say anything?

[Dani Buller @askdani__real]

Difficulty Level: Israel

[sam lessin 🏴‍☠️ @lessin]

Tiktok needs to go.

[Noam Josephides | Author of GENERATIONS @NoamJosephides]

Wow. 10/10
"Free Palestine" for dummies.

[Shaun Maguire @shaunmmaguire]

Important context

As a reminder there are 2M Arabs that have citizenship in Israel

This woman is one of them, and she went on to get a degree in EE from Stanford

(4 mins) https://t.co/z1pOEcjqVO