2005-10-18
The Law of Unintended Consequences
"Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department aims without exception to expel all those who enter the United States illegally." Works For Me
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14 comments:
Oh, it works for you, all right. But if the homeland security czar succeeded in his goal of expelling all undocumented workers, you'd have to change your lifestyle. For one, your food bill would be significantly higher. at every level, from production to retail, the low-wage work of "illegals" subsidizes what you eat. And that holds just as true for organic food as conventional food.
What's your suggestion then Tom? That's so typical. Just like everything else, be it oil/fossil fuels, the environment and on and on. Nothing happens in a vacuum.
You're against exploration and drilling for new oil and the building of new refineries I suppose, but then I'll bet you bitch about high gas prices.
I'm sure you think something drastic should be done about global warming, or climate change, or whatever it's called. But then you'd probably piss and moan about the the effect something like the Kyoto protocol would have on our economy, as it has in New Zealand, one the few countries that signed it. Probably would have blamed on George W. Bush to boot.
You want our government to protect your ass (its main function by the way), but when it tries to do so you accuse it of trampling on your civil liberties.
I'm sure you enjoy being able to purchase cheap electronics and other goods and services from Asia and the Indies, but I'll bet you're right there with everyone else bitching about lost U.S. manufacturing jobs, aren't you?
I assume, or certainly hope that you do not relish the idea of terrorists sneaking across our borders along with the millions of other illegals that come over every year. I don't. In fact, I for one Tom am willing and happy to pay whatever it takes to make us safe. I've been against the flood of illegals since long before 9-11.
True, things will cost more and true, those people are doing jobs that most Americans don't want to do. But demand would drive the market price of those jobs and would make them attractive to those would not currently do them.
I'll say it again, nothing happens in a vacuum.
Oh and by the way Tom, speaking of farming and you probably already know this, but in New Zealand, because of Kyoto, cattle farmers are taxed on how many head of cattle they have because of the amount of methane they're estimated to produce.
Bet that does wonders for the price of beef in Kiwi-land, eh?
That damn vacuum thing at work again!
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200306/FOR20030623a.html
http://www.cnsnews.com/ForeignBureaus/archive/200506/FOR20050623a.html
Finally, the simple fact that they're called "illegal immigrants" because they're here, um...ILLEGALLY.
They generally don't assimilate into society, because hey, why should they? They're not here legally anyway.
But then again, the concept of assimilating into society is pretty much dead in this country anyway thanks to the advent of "multiculturalism".
Goodbye assimilation, hello multiculturalism.
Tom: Please provide us your proposal. I will offer some to get the discussion started:
1) Leave the system in-place. Have laws restricting southern immigration, but don't enforce them. Countanance dangerous, unsupervised, off-the-books border crossings.
2) Lift numerical immigration restrictions, but require documentation so that all immigrants are documented, screened against crime and outstanding warrents, and give everybody US citizenship.
Six: Tom wants low fuel prices, but he wants no new drilling or refining in the US, no new piplines, and no nuclear plants. Like all leftists, he lives in a fantasy world where laws can magically provide things like "universal healthcare" and "minimum wages" out of thin air.
Sorry Paul, but I cannot accept either option you've presented here.
I say lock down the borders as much as is humanly possible Encourage and welcome immigrants to enter this country, but force them to do so legally by applying for citizenship. Require them to assimilate into society.
This only fair to the thousands, if not millions of foreign nationals who become legal citizens of this country every year. Rewarding foreigners for illegally entering the country is not the answer.
If it means paying more for food and certain services, so be it.
Six: Tom might have a strong point here. The illegal aliens keep coming because they have so many opportunities here, COMPARED TO THE ALTERNATIVE (as brother Tom Sowell is always careful to add). If all of the illegals got expelled, or if all of them were made citizens, something aweful would happen for them: the only people available to do the jobs these people now perform would qualify for laws that mandate minimum wages and health coverage from employers. Thus the lower rungs of the economic ladder would be knocked away. Imagine: a government intervening between me and Tom negotiating between ourselves how much I will pay him to paint my house.
Sorry, I still don't buy it. Everything comes with a price and some prices are worth paying.
Six: I think you are suggestiong...
3) Enforce existing laws, which would mean maintain existing limits, and prevent people from violating those limits via illegal border crossings. I think there is probably too much supply (people wanting in) and demand (people already here who have jobs for them) to avoid lifting current limits.
Actually, I reject all of the dichotomies you are proposing, sometimes in my name. As I've written before, here and elsewhere, I think the idea that we can blithely keep a 211 million-strong fleet of veheicles, a shocking number of them SUVs, running on fossil fuels, is fanciful. Global warming is a major limiting factor; another is the finite nature of resources. Rather than spend $5 billion a month making me safe by occupying Iraq--or securing more fossil fuel, depending on your perspective--I'd prefer the government starting building out a more wise transportation infrastructure. Do I demand "cheap oil"? Never. Indeed, I think cheap oil is an expensive delusion.
Damn, I wrote a long and stinging rebuttal and 2/3 of it somehow got lopped off.
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