If you are serious when you say you applaud the new immigration law in Arizona then you are clearly part of the problem rather than the solution.
So called "Dip shit" liberals are not the problem, neither are immigrants. Immigrants are our salvation. The problem in DC is belligerence and ideological posturing to look good for the folks back home who can vote you out of office if you don't give lip service to their particular prejudices - and at the same time pay homage to the corporations that fund your re-election war chest.
Pragmatism without prejudice is the only thing that is going to save us.
The argument that it is a bad precedent to grant aliens illegally in the country the right to stay blinds us to the basic economic realities of the situation. It's like the band on the deck of the Titanic arguing over what song they are going to play while the ship goes down.
We need immigrants to support the "age wave" and keep Social Security/Medicare solvent. The USA is in better position to weather this coming shit storm than other developed countries - we have a higher birth rate - but still not high enough to handle the age shift. The countries that are really in trouble are those in Europe (the current Italian birth rate is one per couple) plus Japan and China.
Even in Africa where we still see high birth rates, the trend is downward as more women are educated and enter the workforce.
Criminalizing immigration is sheer stupidity. Did Prohibition work? Did criminalizing marijuana work? Did the Bush administration's macho "my way or the highway" foreign policy work? Pissing people off and criminalizing their attempts to better themselves economically only increases the profitability of BEING A CRIMINAL! There are always people ready and willing to rush into that economic void - whether just evil…or desperately in need of some way to make a living.
A simple, straight forward immigration policy will work for all. Tear down the fucking wall, welcome them with open arms, make it easy to immigrate legally - but with conditions.
Whether waiting to immigrate, or already here illegally, they need to be given economic incentives to register, agree to be tracked, report in regularly and have a job within a certain period of time - one that has associated taxes and payroll deductions.
Threatening them with criminal repercussions if they don't toe the line is not nearly as effective as offering them economic "carrots" for doing so. Just make it more ECONOMICALLY attractive for them to GO HOME rather than stay here if they don't become contributing members of society within a certain time frame - and they must agree to be tracked to supply the metrics.
And I am not so naïve as to believe they all will respond positively to such a change in policy. A certain percentage will go underground, become criminals and/or attempt to freeload. But that percentage is no greater than for the general population as a whole and can actually be reduced by policies that encourage productive assimilation rather than discouraging it - like the present ones do.
Will this cost money? Yes, but it will be a fraction of what we are spending now to create "Fortress America". Making these changes and getting immigrants into the work force and paying taxes as quickly as possible will create a net savings, stimulate economic growth and, in the long run, guarantee a sustainable workforce that will fund the social services that we all are going to need in our old age.
An enlightened approach to immigration will not only save our butts economically but will give us a leg up on the rest of the world - who are going to have a tougher time of it than we are.
This "Dip Shit Liberal" is anything but anti-business. On the contrary, we need to give up all the acrimony and bullshit ideology that stands in the way of good, solid economic growth. And the one sure fire way to that - for the long run - is to encourage, track and regulate immigration, assimilating them as quickly as possible - even if it upsets the macho, foaming-at-the-mouth, gun slinging, learn-English-or-die right wingers.
- Lyn
7 comments:
You are missing the obvious, with this issue and healthcare being the biggest issues of the day, I say we send the illegal aliens to medical school. Then we would have hard working doctors that would work for $9 an hour.
$9 ??? i gotta guy here who will do it for $6!
Great idea, Doc!
I did enjoy reading your rant. To me It is all about the federal government refusing to do anything about immigration regardless of what you think.. I agree with you for the most part however, if it had been my father or brother who was shot while patrolling his own ranch I am not sure we would feel that way. I am really intolerant of violence. The Mexican government is out of control and corrupt, and until those people want to stay in their own country we have a major problem. Immigration is what made this country great, and I believe it is necessary to keep this country on an economic sound footing. Japan will be nonexistent 50 years from now. Their culture will cease to exist. I do believe that assimilation is very important and that when you immigrate here you need to become an American. Not Hispanic American, African-American, Italian-American, etc. It is fun to know where you came from, but unless we work as Americans we will be splintered and have no culture at all. We seem to have so many problems, and we are spiraling toward the point where they are not solvable. I suppose they are, but as intolerant as you are with the right wingers and the right wingers are as intolerant of the liberals we will get nowhere. Your opinion is just as “my way or the highway” as you say George Bush was. No one is willing to compromise. I have personally lost faith in our system of government because it is corrupt. I strongly feel that is the best form of government, but I think it may be too late to make meaningful changes. - Larry
Seems to me that unnecessarily criminalizing certain kinds of behavior only creates more criminals. We know that Prohibition was not only a failure for society as whole but a boon to the criminal element. Right now the professional "people smugglers" along the US / Mexico border are dancing with glee over this new immigration law. True, their jobs just got a little tougher, but their asking price and profit margins just jumped about 200%!
And continuing to try to put them out of business via aggressive law enforcement is nothing more than a very expensive, endless game of Wack-a-Mole.
My opinion is not, nor will it ever be a "my way or the highway" proposition. I AM an advocate of pragmatic policy changes, even if they are at the expense of sacred ideology of either the Right or the Left and offend cultural/racial prejudices.
- Lyn
If this law was about all the good hard working immigrants that do many of the jobs Americans don't want, you might be right. This law was passed because the people of Arizona are horrified by all the violent crime including kidnapping and human trafficing. If our daughters had been kidnapped by foreigners that snuck into this country illegally we would probably feel something had to be done. Phoenix has the highest kidnapping rate in the WORLD. Please watch this video
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6848672&page=1
Prohibition was something imposed on the people of this country that only a small percentage was for. An overwhelming majority is for stopping foreigners from sneaking into this country illegally. The Arizona law was passed by the people probably because they are scared do to all the crime and the Feds are not doing much about it. The only way to allow the good hard working honest immigrants in and the criminals out is to have control of the borders.
Dear Anonymous -
Thanks for your response. Watched the video. Here's my take on your comments -
You say - "If this law was about all the good hard working immigrants that do many of the jobs Americans don't want, you might be right."
Priding myself on having a tremendous grasp of the obvious - OF COURSE it is about the criminal elements - but this new law as a solution will ultimately fail because it does not address the distinction between illegals whose sole goal it is to better themselves economically and those who focus on hard crime (such as, people smuggling, kidnapping, etc.) for profit. The huge majority of illegal immigrants fall into the first category; however, the hard criminal element - those operating beyond the simple crime of illegal entry - get the media coverage and the attention - at the expense of the former - who are here to better themselves, assimulate and become contributing members of our society. Until this distinction is acknowledged and addressed as two distinct problems - one primarily economic and one unquestionably legal - there will be no solution. I see no one proposing a common sense economic solution to the former.
You state: "Prohibition was something imposed on the people of this country that only a small percentage was for."
Using Prohibition as an example - of both alcohol in the 1920s and marijuana today - a minority of zealots forced millions to risk criminal association if they "wanted a taste." And, in the process, created a huge opportunity for the criminal element. Talk about the best of intentions backfiring!
A law-enforcement-only solution causes a PERMANENT spike in costs to the public while at best producing a short term reduction in crime. Not a good deal for taxpayers.
You state: "The only way to allow the good hard working honest immigrants in and the criminals out is to have control of the borders."
Strongly disagree with you here. Control at the border has been tried for decades with limited results - just look at the video link you forwarded. What is needed is two fold. Use economic incentives to reduce the trend to illegal behavior for those who "just want a taste" of our unprecedented economic prosperity - even though here illegally - are willing to work - often at jobs we don't want - to become contributing members of society. To tar them with the same brush as the people in your video is as wrong and irrational as saying that someone who lights up a joint should do hard time alongside murders and kidnappers.
Technology and economic incentives can be utilized to make real this critical distinction - so that all are not caught up in the same net. But that is gist for another posting - addressing subjects like trading amnesty for registration, monitoring, making economic activity the qualifier for remaining in the country, empowering employers to make distinctions and provide incentives, etc. -Lyn
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