Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 7:59 am by Radley Balko
and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Yes, illegal immigration is bad. Just ask any Native American.
All jokes aside, I agree with Drew on this. I’ve always believed that an open border system is the right and moral obligation of any nation. However, people are fearful of change. This is and has always been humanity’s biggest downfall. Every race that is now assimilated into the US (Polish, Irish, Jewish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Italians, and even blacks) was once the subject of an immigration debate. NYC, probably the most diverse city in the US, even back in the middle 1800’s, hated and even rioted against the Italian immigrants.
If we are to believe in the words of Thomas Jefferson, that all men are created equal, then there is no reason to be afraid of immigration. There is a “zero sum” population mentality in this country whereby they believe that the pie is as big as it will ever get, and that all that is left is to slice it up (and they’d get a smaller slice if there are more people). That just isn’t true. More people equals more economic growth, so long as it remains a free market (maybe that’s the problem), we shall all enjoy of it. There is a reason why Communist countries refuse to let their citizens leave: people are the strength of any economy!
What he said was almost correct; he stated that EXCEPT for the native americans, we are all immigrants. Of course, the fact that we have traced the immigration of the ‘native’ americans over the land bridge past the Bering straits and down the west coast to cover the two continents. That is immigration, just much earlier. Therefore, we are ALL immigrants.
Nando said: “There is a “zero sum” population mentality in this country whereby they believe that the pie is as big as it will ever get, and that all that is left is to slice it up (and they’d get a smaller slice if there are more people). That just isn’t true. More people equals more economic growth, so long as it remains a free market (maybe that’s the problem), we shall all enjoy of it.”
What you’re saying would be true if all resources were present in limitless quantities. Problem is, they aren’t. I agree with the open borders sentiment, but this mudball can’t support an unlimited number of people, especially if you want them to exist at what we in the US of A consider to be a comfortable standard of living.
The world is essentially a closed system, and we have to learn to deal with that before it’s too late. The first step is simply admitting that the problem exists. Unfortunately, that step seems to be the most difficult one.
Mike,
I think people would stop coming once opportunities dried up, which might correct the problem you speak of.
What this whole issue comes down to is a little bit of race mixed in with that whole issue of people getting stuff for free from our tax dollars. It amazes me that of all the money we waste in tax dollars - illegal wars, wasteful agencies, the drug war, no bid contracts - that people just freak out if some poor, uneducated, lazy person gets a few hundred bucks a month to buy groceries, or a free vitally necessary medical procedure. I’d rather my tax money went to that than almost any other government program.
The only problem I have with our borders is a security issue but bringing in tens of millions of immigrants from one part of the world is a mistake. I’m a believer that natural born americans are becoming just like their euro counterparts — fat, weak, and lazy. Therefore, I’m a big believer in bringing in as many immigrants as we can afford to thin out our weakening bloodlines. We need more people from asia, eastern europe, india, and the caribbean. We need an actual mix, not a 50/50 split.
The world is a closed system; the solar system ain’t. Nobody knows how much wealth of resources lies in the Asteroid belt, for example. Maybe some future/present immigrants could help us locate and refine those riches.
Andrew points to the correct response to Mike’s worry: The first step to solving the resource problem is understanding why the resource problem doesn’t exist. Natural resources are infinite because the ultimate resource is us.
Mike,
but this mudball can’t support an unlimited number of people, especially if you want them to exist at what we in the US of A consider to be a comfortable standard of living.
Too many of us, eh? So which ones do you want to kill first? Or would you just vote for the whole “forced sterilization” thing. Maybe we could just invade a few more countries? That might trim the numbers a bit. After all, you’re not worried about them coming *here*, you’re worried about them being on this planet breathing at all, right?
Micha,
Natural resources are infinite because the ultimate resource is us.
I’m confused. Are you advocating cannibalism?!
(sorry folks, I’m just in a snarky mood today)…
Brad,
“Too many of us, eh? So which ones do you want to kill first? Or would you just vote for the whole “forced sterilization” thing. Maybe we could just invade a few more countries? That might trim the numbers a bit. After all, you’re not worried about them coming *here*, you’re worried about them being on this planet breathing at all, right?”
Sounds like you’ve thought things through a bit, and are projecting your solutions onto me. Like it or not, this (overpopulation) is a problem - one that defies an easy solution, unless you’ve come up with something. If you have, let’s hear it!
Andrew Williams:
“The world is a closed system; the solar system ain’t. Nobody knows how much wealth of resources lies in the Asteroid belt, for example. Maybe some future/present immigrants could help us locate and refine those riches.”
The Solar System is a bigger system, but is still essentially closed. There also doesn’t seem to be a lot of human-friendly real estate around - aside from what we’re already sitting on. We also have to come up with an economical way out of Earth’s gravity well - without that, we’re pretty much stuck here.
When discussing this issue, I often wonder just how many of the folks advocating open borders actually live or work in an area overrun with illegals.
Now, I have no problem with letting immigrants in… as long as we’re getting the best and the brightest. “What’s in it for us?”, should be the first question asked of any potential “American”.
As of yet, no one has been able to explain to me how letting millions of poorly educated, unskilled, people from Third World countries (many of whom are openly hostile to our nation and our culture) into the U.S. is going to be a good thing for us.
From what I’ve seen, it certainly isn’t working out too well in Europe.
Drew Carey:
“Every wave of immigrants to the United States, whether they were Jewish, Irish, Italian or Chinese, was met with disdain by the descendents of immigrants who arrived earlier.”
How many were met with Medicaid, tax-paid medical care in ERs, WIC, food stamps, tax-paid school breakfasts and lunches, tax-paid translation services and bilingual instruction?
Americans’ concerns about present-day immigration into this country aren’t properly characterized as disdain for newcomers or for any race or nationality. The disdain is for a government that does not control either the influx of persons into the US or the outflow of tax-funded services to any who enter.