Haven’t visited the Texas counties along the border lately, have you?
If they opened the borders (still checking for criminals, etd.) nothing would change.
Except the lines would either get shorter or longer, depending on who you talk to, but that could be solved by putting more or fewer people in the guard stations.
I have. It’s not anything like a Third World country. Except for the ethnic makeup of the people.
Really? Since a lot of our manufacturing has shipped overseas, how many new products have sprung up that are being manufactured here? None really. Most new things coming down the pike are being made in 3rd world countries, or are non-labor intesive. The low end jobs that most of the population has to work has shrunk to about as far as it can…its not growing.
Again, there is a balance point. You dont want everyone making 100k a year for working at mcdonalds…but you dont want a ruling class and a nation of slaves either. Rediculous extremes aside. You want everyone making a decent living for a healthy economy. Too cheap of labor is problem unless you want to be a third world country.
yes…there are some economists who are short sighted and buy into anarchocapitalism. They are just as unrealistic as hard core communists…just the other end of the scale.
In the real world…most people are not doctors or lawyers or engineers. You only need so many MBA’s.
You dont have to go to border. Go to certain neighborhoods of DFW and you will see third world living conditions.
How so? I didn’t even think that there were any Colonias there. Not that I consider Colonias third world, more of a unique first world problem.
Actually, yes, we probably would be better off, even if it meant having to do our own manual labor. But that’s neither here nor there.
Thanks for proving my point. You haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.
The U.S. could absorb ten million immigrants a year and remain an economic superpower with a high standard of living, assuming the government didn’t do something to fuck it up (an admittedly very possible thing.) That’s a conservative guess, I’d say.
We dont have a high standard of living now in a lot of places. As long as we have working poor who have to draw welfare to survive on top of their full time job, no we cant absorb that many.
Not any Colonias that I know about…although a Colonia is kinda of a slice of thrid world of its own.
But there are equally unsafe and impoverished areas. scattered around the metroplex
There isnt really a good definition of third world that I’m aware of…which I guess is part of the problem
But we have areas with groups of people living in overcrowded unsanitary conditions and working off the books for very lille money. Is it as bad as some other places on the planet? Probably not. But its still not good.
In that case you’d have the same face on all your coins that you do now. 
Because racism isn’t always the reason that people object to illegal immigration, or even too much legal immigration. Without objecting to immigration per se, we should address the question of why immigrant labor is so necessary now, when it didn’t use to be. How did those jobs ever get done before? You don’t have to be racist to be troubled by the long term economic implications of dependence on a steady influx of cheap labor.
There are environmental issues as well. LIke much of your country, the American West, where the vast majority of illegal immigrants still settle, is dry. We’re not like Ireland or Holland, where the landscape is a gorgeous carpet of green fields punctuated by sparkling rivers and lakes. There’s only so much water, and we have to dig for it in many cases. Water tables are dropping with just the people we have now.
MOre people in Western cities means more traffic and more pollution, too.
SOP raises a very good point. The thing i notice is; as our welfare roles swell (and law firms advertise their services for people to obtain disability pensions), I am noticing that large segements of the adult male population in the USA, DO NOT WORK! its unbelievable-you have 30-year old men on SSDI-sitting around and doing nothing.Meanwhile, all of the lawn car companies, paving companies, landscape/maintainence companies employ large numbers of illegal aliens.
Also, as we have abandoned manufacturing (everything is made in china), blue-collar jobs are disappearing. I think we now have a dual economy-a small number of well-paid professionals, and large numbers of low-paying service jobs (which are attracting a lot of immigrants). not good trends. :o
Forgive me, I was assuming you are from Australia, but after thinking about it I couldn’t remember if you’re from there or New Zealand, in which case the comparison to your country would be less apt.
You need qualifications and the ability to speak English.
You base your conclusions on ethnic morphology? How do you know that these Chinese, Southeast asian workers are not native born? How do you know these taxi drivers are not native born or do not have qualifications for more desirable work?
Well I can’t claim the broad anecdotal experience you have but if you work for EI, let me tell you your organization has failed me at least a dozen times. But it concerns me that we don’t have enough work for these immigrants who’ll take anything they can get. And you want more immigrants? How does that help your clients? Hey, look, if you can get me one of these Mexicans to cut my grass, look after my pool and relieve my wife of housekeeping duties for lets say 5 bucks an hour, under the table you understand, I’ll slip you a couple of hundred.
I’m not familiar with the numbers, so I won’t disagree. You still need qualifications as you’ve outlined above, and just living in poverty in your native country won’t get you in legally. And I’m glad we don’t have an undocumented worker problem in this country
Your fine Jack. Your either in the middle class or work for the government.Perhaps you feel good about your concern for the little guy in Mexico. My sympathies lie with the hordes of workers trying to make ends meet in this country. You might look down on a Canadian for refusing to take a job that won’t allow him the dignity to support his/her family or hold out for that opportunity. Sure, you might feel some sympathy and support a welfare system. As far as I’m concerned, any society that isn’t concerned about the welfare and dignity of its own citizens earns my disrespect.
I don’t see a hugh problem in Canada. We don’t have any illegal immigration worth talking about. When I hear about people supporting it in the States, I can only shake my head. How come our overall economy is doing fine in Canada ? We have universal health care and no illegal immigration. We’ve essentially decriminalized marijuana …
…and legalized gay marriage.
I was born in New Zealand and lived there until I was 18.
I live in Australia now, but wouldn’t be adverse to shifting.
And China, South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.