You could build up your infrastructure - hey, with all the new workers, and the taxes they’ll be paying. Just like you did with all the Irish peasants…and the Polish peasants…and the Scandiwegian peasants. What’s the difference between the illiterate peasants of the 1890s and the illiterate peasants of the 21st C.?
Never said it was simple. But an ideological inconsistency it is, facile or not.
We have jet planes today. Open citizenship means not just Mexicans, but Central Americans, South Americans, Southeast Asians, Indonesians, Chinese, Russians, Central Asians, Arabs, Persians, Africans Northern and Southern, Europeans Easterns and Western, Polynesians, etc…
I’m sorry that not wanting to become the most populous nation on Earth overnight is ideologically inconsistent, but there it is.
Now this is just plain retarded. People viewed the Irish worse than the view Mexicans today.
The difference is modern transportation and the fact that a billion people would move here if they could.
YThey had steamships then - no difference. It was enough to bring all those other immigrants I mentioned.
You should relish the challenge. As it is, you consume 30% of the world’s resources. Seems only fair, globally speaking, you should have 30% of her population.
Makes the State of the politician kind of ironic, doesn’t it?
I disagree. I think they became white this year showing that their vote can swing Democratic elections even when the Negro vote goes like 90% one way.
No difference between a steamship and a 747 eh? Funny, I always thought the smell of coal and the bitter Atlantic winds were remarkably absent every time I’ve flown.
Also, mass media. A lot of those people didn’t know about America, or know how to get there, and the mass transit didn’t make it relatively easy for them to do so, not like today. Back in the day it was a one way trip, without a clear picture of where you were headed. Today you have television shows that show you exactly what it’s like and you can get there in about 48 hours from anywhere on the globe.
As for your America bash at the end, piffle.
You’re right, my bad - you can pack a lot more people in steerage than in a 747.
The kind of people you wish to exclude couldn’t afford a paper aeroplane, much less an airline ticket. There’s as much chance of them rocking up on the chitty-chitty bang-bang as a 747.
Interesting factoid - the most popular song sung by Coloured minstrels, dating back to the Civil War, is “Daar Kom Die Alabama”, about a Confederate battleship that visited Cape Town. America wasn’t as unknown as you’d think, even then.
It’s not a bash, it’s the truth.
Today we have 747s AND boats. But how long would it take the steamship to get here? It’s about ratios. How many people could 747s bring across in the same amount of time as the steamship crossing would take?
That’s not true, there are plenty of people who can afford it. Enough to overwhelm the infrastructure.
I am not saying it was unknown, just that people were far less informed on the whole. They knew about America, they just didn’t know what it was like here because we weren’t piping images into their living room. You know, like this internet you and I are using to communicate with.
Yeah, I know, it’s that it’s a non sequitur that makes it a bash.
<SNORT> 
I am the OP, and I teach in an inner city high school that is 95% Hispanic, numbnuts.
“screeching liberal” – check.
“live in areas” – whoops. Tell me about your tough life in the barrio.
Born in DC, grew up in Fairfax County, have lived in Arlington, Alexandria (Fairfax County) and currently live in the District. The fast food places across from my high school had quite a few students working in them.
Currently where I live in the District, the vast majority of the fast food workers that I have run into are African American. (Popeyes, McDonalds, and a Burger King).
I haven’t eaten in a fast food place in Arlington in a while but when I lived there I would occasionally eat in the Wendy’s? near Courthouse Metro and I don’t recall them being all that non English speaking immigrant heavy. I went to the California Tortilla not that long ago near Courthouse and had a similar experience.
I agree that there are a large number of Hispanics in the area. In Northern VA, they are the largest minority group at this point. However, Northern VA has large numbers of immigrant groups of all sorts. Annandale has a large Korean and Korean American population. You have Eden in Seven Corners which is entirely Vietnamese.
I don’t see the Hispanics as integrating differently then other minority groups. The vast majority of their children speak English fluently and Spanish less so. By the grandchildren’s generation, they don’t really speak much Spanish. Again, they aren’t any different than the Asian immigrants and they aren’t any different than the Poles, Italians, and other immigrant groups from 100 years ago.
Does anyone have any kind of cite for the claim that the majority are illiterate? Dudley it looks like half of the hits on Google are for immigration attorneys. From what I recall the issue in Herndon exploded because they wanted to build a day laborer center in Herndon. It was a typical NIMBY thing.
Yes, I can. But I’m half-joking in this thread.
Impotent fury makes me want to point & laugh…
Who said there’s one steamship?
I highly doubt it - the people who could afford to come to the US are generally the same people who have no need to come to the US because they are top of the heap where they are.
If you think TV and the internet provide a more accurate image of what it’s like to live somewhere than books and newspapers, you’re mistaken. Plus, I thought we were talking about illiterate peasants here? Where do they get the electricity, money or time to have TV and internet? Have you ever been in a real Third World country?
It’s not a non sequitur. It very much signifies. You were basically saying that there was no good reason America should let in anyone at detriment to current Americans. I supplied what I consider good reasons - payback and fairness. YMMV, but the only counter I can easily see boils down to selfishness. Perhaps you have a different tack. I’d be interested to hear it. But just waving the charge of selfishness away because it is pejorative isn’t a counterargument.
There are lots of ships and planes today. Is this going somewhere?
That’s not true at all.
You think that literacy is a requirement to watch Television?
America uses a disproportionate amount of resources, but it also props up the world economy. Sticking to ideology is all well and good if you want to be a bilious curmudgeon but it’s not rational policy. You want to reduce it to selfishness but be my guest. The existance of a wealthy America has been good for the world as a whole. A good example is that we keep the level of piracy down so that global trade is possible. Part of the point of American foreign policy that is a point of contention constantly, domestically and abroad is the policy of trying to stabilize the rest of the world economy for trade in order to bring up the standard of living of the rest of the world so they don’t need to move here.
Er… what?
Worldwide, shipping-related piracy cost approximately $16 billion last year.
So what’s your point? My cousin on the USS Hayler took down pirates on a number of occasions.
And where, exactly, did he do that?