Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Welcome Mat

Maybe someone will explain to me just exactly how this (New Haven Welcomes a Booming Population of Immigrants, Legal or Not ) will reduce the numbers of people coming to the US illegally. Now, or at any time in the future. Let's just assume for a second, for the sake of argument, that we solve the illegal alien problem by an instant amnesty. Hurry down to the local PD & register and you're good, as of today. Nobody after today is good. There's the nice, nice solution.

New Haven makes it clear that the numbers of immigrants make it imperative that they be nice, so what is going to happen in another 5 years? Will the numbers again make it imperative to be nice? Why would anybody who wants to come on in, not come on in? You certainly are not going to suggest that the stuff won't need picked, houses won't be built, or are you?

Now, splitting the differences 12 million/30 million, you've already added 17 million illegal workers to the labor pool and gotten today's suppression of wages, what is going to happen when you add another 7-10 million to the bottom of the wage pool? Then, just for giggles, toss in the outsourced job losses, although as wages plummet it might slow. It will stop happening when there's no difference between 3rd world wages and our own. I'd rather pull them up, than us rush down, but that apparently is racist xenophobia. Ah hell, throw out the welcome mat, those of us old enough to remember labor as an honest way to support a family will all be dead soon, anyhow. It does pay to remember that when the worker bees ain't got any money to spend, your jobs become superfluous also.

I'd really like to go one week without this issue getting rammed in my face...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm certainly not got going to ram or ream you for this. In fact, we need " The Fence" and sanctions place on Mexico; than we deal with deporting Illegal Immigrants. But the political whores are so afraid to lose a vote they pander to any group that can provide a vote mass.Can you imagine ballots in Espanol? Driver booklets in Espanol? I had hoped that repugs would have made English our " National" language...Nope, they sold out like the dimmo whores.

Chuck Butcher said...

I don't know Kiss, people come into this country in perfectly legal manner and have no command of English. I've never had one iota of problem with legal controlled immigration. Legal quotas could easily have been increased if needed. This is not that, at all.

Zakariah Johnson said...

I've always felt we were fortunate in this country that our neighbor to the south has so much in common with us culturally and even linguistically. Mexico has long suffered from corrupt and inefficient government, but the people of Mexico have a similar frontier experience and delight in personal liberties similar to our own. Not to mention a culture based on a synthesis of western civilization with native and African influences. The work ethic and impulse to both independence and self-reliance is very strong in Mexico. As far as languages go, Spanish is about the easiest one there is for a native English speaker to learn; and for a variety of reasons, English "cognates," like "haz click" as a computer term meaning "click," are increasingly common in Mexican Spanish. Sitting down over a drink, most Americans would probably find they have as much or more in common with the world view of most Mexicans than they do with Europeans or even Canadians, let alone with some of our more geographically distant allies.

Contrast this with the immigration into Europe from their poor neighbors, neighbors whose residents do not share a common cultural or linguistic history with the country they go to, with predictable results. The point is, if we're going to have a major source of cheap labor, then we couldn't ask for a better source than Mexico. Cultural synthesis is not a threat because we already have much in common (including similar birth rates, a point often ignored in fearful discussions of immigrant fertility.) Spanish as an alternative language in America is mainly promoted by people peddling identity politics for their own aggrandizement--your average immigrant knows the clear benefit of learning English for both himself and his children.

I believe this, but I also completely agree with Chuck about the number of immigrants being too high to sustain wages--that's of course why the system is set up (and it was designed to be exactly as we see it in terms of allowing or even promoting illegal immigration.) Of course, the way things are going, our leaders can be expected to continue giving away the store with trade agreements like NAFTA & letting China into the WTO without any guarantees for labor rights, environmental standards, or even to stop currency manipulation. A decade or two more of what we've had since the 80s and the immigration problem will solve itself once there are no longer any jobs to be had north of the border.

Anonymous said...

"I've always felt we were fortunate in this country that our neighbor to the south has so much in common with us culturally and even linguistically" Unless you are catholic I see no cultural closeness. As far as linguistics go, English is a far cry from Espanol. Now for the "English" official language I support: I have yet to see a ballot, driver's manual, and any other government forms written in Viennese, German, Portuguese, and any other language other than Spanish. LEGAL Immigration is fine with me and completing a course as outlined by federal statue to becoming a Legal citizen should apply to all Immigrants. Not the anointed by congress. Bleeding Hearts are as big an obstacle as is the union busters of the far right, let's keep "Legal" Legal.