Two seemingly unrelated developments last week tell us a lot about immigration and the public's attitude toward it.

One was the conservative reaction to a bill introduced in the Legislature that would give a $500 savings account to every child born in California.

The other was a study by the Public Policy Institute of California concluding that immigration -- legal and illegal -- tends to increase wages for everyone except earlier immigrants.

The savings bill was introduced by two state senators, Democrat Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Republican Bob Dutton of Rancho Cucamonga.

It was a pale imitation of an idea first advanced by authors Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott in their book, "The Stakeholder Society." Ackerman and Alstott propose that all Americans receive $80,000 from the government on their 21st birthday so that they can buy property, start a business or pay their way through college.

The notion has been kicking around think tank circles for years and has attracted some support from across the ideological spectrum. The idea is to give every American a stake in society, to ensure that even those children born to poor parents and raised in disadvantaged neighborhoods have an opportunity to move into the middle class.

The California version introduced by Steinberg and Dutton was inspired by the New America Foundation, which promotes bipartisan solutions to difficult problems. The $500 grant the bill proposes would be deposited in a state account in each child's name, and friends and relatives would be encouraged to add to the stake over time. Upon turning 18, the recipient could withdraw the money and spend it for a house, education, vocational training or to put into a retirement account...

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