Tear Down The Wall

First off, while I am in a part of the U.S. that is probably at the opposite end of the spectrum from New Mexico in terms of hispanic migrants. Still, even at the small company I work at, there's a noticeable percentage who work in Assembly, and the break room has bilingual signs. And I can understand how xenophobia might be triggered when one notices that the Mexican section of Dodge City is...Dodge City. Bt it's a meat packing town, and since white Americans don't seem to be willing to work that hard (and dangerously) for $15 to $20 per hour, someone who knows what it's like to not have life's actual necessities sees it as a pretty good deal.

Your Tax Dollars At Work:


What it will look like with a few decades of graffiti:


If I, for political or economic reasons, moved to, say Budapest, I'd be at a severe linguistic disadvantage. What do they speak there? Hungarian? I'm sure after wetting my pants a few times, I'd learn how to ask where a bathroom is in Hungarian. And I'd have to hope for visual clues on menues and whatnot.

But however much Hungarian I learned or didn't, if I was willing to take a job they have trouble filling, and it was the best paying job I'd ever even imagined, I'd probably take the job. Especially if I had a family to support, the risk I might lop off a thumb would be acceptable.

Before they built the wall across San Diego and other obvious points of entry, Mexicans wanting to work in California simply gate-crashed their way in for the day. They didn't come to stay, only long enough to make a wage. Now, with the easy point of entry sealed off, the same people naturally take the more dangerous route and if they survive the hike, can you blame them for not walking back?

The wall at the border reminds me of the one George I demanded the U.S.S.R. tear down. Markets equalize distribution of resources, including labor, and you might as well argue with weather as tell millions of people to act against their own interests.

When the INS goons do things like shake down the meat packing industry and thow 3500 illegals out of work (but NOT out of the country), they put 3500 illegals on the dole. Then people have the audacity to bitch about illegals on the dole. I don't think anyone comes North in the face of cultural hostility, language barriers and law enforcement hassles in hopes of food stamps. A few, maybe. We grow enough bums of our own, I wouldn't expect any group of millions not to have a slacker element.

I know Jay insists that France's riot trouble is not due to their uncontrolled social spending, but in a country where the the concept of the unemployed going on strike is not new, there's bound to be an entitlement mentality. I knew a girl who went to college in France, and lived off French unemployment while attending the university on an almost free-ride scholarship. All above-boards, you just fill out the forms and the French government pays you. The girl's Dad was a multi-millionaire, but if you can get it for free, why pay, right?

It's not that I don't believe in charity, I don't believe in state-run charity. It tends to work about as well as state-run industry (in other words, barely).

And as a final note, I'd point out that during a large part of the early 19th Century, Irish and Scottish transports were sent to Canada by England. America said we were full up, no room for these folks, and the U.K. was alternately unwilling to give us cheap labor and all-too willing to be our co-conspirator. Most of these immigrants weren't in Canada long enough to find out what odd ideas Canada has about 'bacon.' They promptly went by any means available to Boston, New York, etc. There's a better than average chance that some of my ancesters were illegal immigrants.

We're (the U.S.) definitely NOT full up. Hong Kong, Japan, India, these are countries I could see being concerned with a huge influx of immigrants. I say let the borders be open and when it quits being a huge step up to come to America, people will quit coming. To the extent that the borders can be controlled at all, you could have check-points where people have to provide an I.D. and maybe say how long they plan to stay etc. And consider this: if it's as easy to go from Tijuana to San Diego as it is to go from Spokane to Vancouver, if you find someone trying to sneak across the dessert, you've got someone you could actually call a suspicious character.

Not that border control will ever do anything for terrorism. Terrorists of adequate sophistication to be truly dangerous are smart enough to know the best way to sneak in is to not bother sneaking.