Illegal Immigration: The New Slavery?
I've come to the conclusion that the issue of illegal immigration is a lot like that of illegal drugs. Supporters will justify it as an issue of freedom and ignore the negative consequences. They become apologists for crime and look the other way because the people at the bottom of the machine are supposedly well-meaning. The opponents face an uphill battle where enforcement of the law becomes a debate about the merits of the law.
I come down pretty well on the pro-law side of immigration. Foremost is the fact that knowing the identity of everyone in the US is vital to national security. The wink-wink matrix of phony documents, day labor and drug running perpetuates an influx of people. Criminals, terror associates and MS-13 gang members are able to hide among the millions of jobless Mexicans who can make 10 times what they could earn in their country's minimum wage.
There is also the issue of economic security. Since those who are pro-illegal immigration have done nothing to protect national security, economic security has now become inextricably tied to the problem. A Milford Daily News story explains the economic impact of illegal immigration. Especially interesting is the story of a former high-tech worker who can't even find a job doing manual labor like landscaping due to employers' preference for an illegal immigrant who can't complain about low wages and long hours.
It reminds me of my own situation. High tech jobs are out of the question for me. No one will hire me out of state and in state high tech is dead in New York. I could live with that except even the basic temp jobs are out of my reach as well. Illegal immigration has become a burden on the poor. Where the job market might normally require a $6 an hour salary, a fresh supply of workers freed from legal status drives it down to $5. The poor lose work. The rich get a supply of cheap home improvement and domestic labor.
It sounds familiar to me. Slavery was a microcosm of socialism. Slaves did all the labor and their owners fed them and sheltered them enough to keep them from dying. At least, most of the time. Unless they didn't feel like it. Poor whites (frequently immigrants) had trouble finding work, as slaves were cheap over the long run. The rich got richer.
With illegal immigration. 'undocumented' workers do what they're told. If the pay is bad or the work is dangerous, they have no recourse. Employers keep them as long as its convenient. The poor and lower middle class can be considered to demanding or too highly educated for lower paying jobs. Why hire citizens who could get another job or, God forbid, unionize?
I come down pretty well on the pro-law side of immigration. Foremost is the fact that knowing the identity of everyone in the US is vital to national security. The wink-wink matrix of phony documents, day labor and drug running perpetuates an influx of people. Criminals, terror associates and MS-13 gang members are able to hide among the millions of jobless Mexicans who can make 10 times what they could earn in their country's minimum wage.
There is also the issue of economic security. Since those who are pro-illegal immigration have done nothing to protect national security, economic security has now become inextricably tied to the problem. A Milford Daily News story explains the economic impact of illegal immigration. Especially interesting is the story of a former high-tech worker who can't even find a job doing manual labor like landscaping due to employers' preference for an illegal immigrant who can't complain about low wages and long hours.
It reminds me of my own situation. High tech jobs are out of the question for me. No one will hire me out of state and in state high tech is dead in New York. I could live with that except even the basic temp jobs are out of my reach as well. Illegal immigration has become a burden on the poor. Where the job market might normally require a $6 an hour salary, a fresh supply of workers freed from legal status drives it down to $5. The poor lose work. The rich get a supply of cheap home improvement and domestic labor.
It sounds familiar to me. Slavery was a microcosm of socialism. Slaves did all the labor and their owners fed them and sheltered them enough to keep them from dying. At least, most of the time. Unless they didn't feel like it. Poor whites (frequently immigrants) had trouble finding work, as slaves were cheap over the long run. The rich got richer.
With illegal immigration. 'undocumented' workers do what they're told. If the pay is bad or the work is dangerous, they have no recourse. Employers keep them as long as its convenient. The poor and lower middle class can be considered to demanding or too highly educated for lower paying jobs. Why hire citizens who could get another job or, God forbid, unionize?
posted by RomeHater @ 1:33 PM
2 Comments:
At April 22, 2005 9:45 AM,
Buffalopundit said…
Slavery has nothing to do with socialism.
Slavery is feudal.
Before you can even claim to be socialist, you have to have two intervening revolutions:
1. The bourgeois revolution (which the US had in 1776, which the French had soon thereafter, and which the rest of Europe pretty much underwent in 1848). This is where the bourgeoisie overthrow the feudal nobility/monarchical system and replace it with a market-based, democractic economy.
2. The socialist revolution (which happened more or less in first third of the 20th century) where the democracies instituted things such as weekends, and minimum wages, and the social safety nets.
Communism is the next step, since socialism retains some capitalist traits. Under communism, you have collective democratic government where everyone is free to do whatever they want, provided it's for the collective good. (from each according to his ability, to each according to his need). It's utopian. You're thinking of communism: where people happily do their work and their basic needs are provided by the collective state.
Slavery was feudal: your work was free of charge and under duress; you worker or were killed.
Obviously, communism has never, ever existed anywhere at any time. The countries that called themselves communist or socialist were merely fascists in disguise.
At April 22, 2005 5:10 PM,
RomeHater said…
Now tell me that there is some perfect communism/socialism forumula that will actually succeed. I know you want to.
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