Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
I'm not interested in your moral and legal judgment of illegal immigrants, the voluntary assumption of risk, whether or not we owe them protection.
I'm saying that unless you live like these people, who are so much merchandise to be haggled over, you are not a slave. And unless you see this as the typical human behavior it is, your political and economic theories are for shit.
December 14, 2003
PHOENIX — Moving with the cunning and cruelty of modern–day pirates, gangs of kidnappers are swooping down on Arizona highways, attacking smugglers transporting illegal immigrants and stealing their human cargo.
The kidnappers stash the immigrants in hundreds of drop houses scattered around this city, using violence and threats to extort money from their relatives.
Now, smuggling gangs are fighting back, shooting it out with kidnappers on sidewalks and freeways in broad daylight.
A gun battle last month between kidnappers and smugglers on Interstate 10 at the height of rush hour left four dead. Four others were killed this month in the desert near Phoenix; authorities blamed the deaths on violence between the two groups.
Kidnappers operate simply enough; they let smugglers take all the risks of getting immigrants into the country, then rob them once they get here. When they can't intercept smugglers on the road, they snatch migrants from houses where they are known to be hiding.
Posted by P6 at December 14, 2003 08:21 AM | Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2523Why do I get the distinct impression that more and more of these entries are addressed to me?
Anyway, I believe in open borders. But I also know that the reason people take on the risk to come to the US is because there is no economic freedom in Mexico. Mexico is run by the same kinds of people who want to diminish economic freedom in this country.
Economic freedom will win the day. When Mexical leaders realize that all their labor is leaving the country because of their economic repression, then perhaps they will enact reforms. But what I would love to see is the for people, instead of leaving, to fight for economic and political reforms that will make their lives better. Allow open borders, but give every immigrant a copy of any of Milton Friedman's books so they can read, and send back to their families back home, so they can know exactly why conditions are as they are.
And this illustrates the same problem that arises whenever any activity is made illegal. Alcohol brought us the mob, drugs brought us criminal gangs and violent cartels. Making illegal the movement of labor will only bring us violent gangs willing to take on the risk of transporting people across the border, often with little regard for the lives they are transporting.
This post was made with you in mind, I'll admit. It's the first one, though, so "more and more" is literally true.
By the way, I hope you don't mind that I combined your three comments into one.
I thought the one about vaccine shortages was addressed to me as well.
Nah, the economics-as-Grand-Unified-Theory thing is a general problem non-progressives have.
I am a non-progressive? I want free trade so people in poverty around the world can progress and get out of poverty.
How can those who want to stifle innovation, stifle the free exchange of goods and services, who want to decide how much money anyone should make, decide what people can see on tv, on the internet, or at the movies, who want to establish vast networks of absolute control over every aspect of civil, private society, keep people locked into staid, unchanging industries and keep those industries from evolving and improving, call themselves progressive?!
who want to stifle innovation, stifle the free exchange of goods and services, who want to decide how much money anyone should make, decide what people can see on tv, on the internet, or at the movies, who want to establish vast networks of absolute control over every aspect of civil, private society, keep people locked into staid, unchanging industries and keep those industries from evolving and improving
Congratulations, Brian. You have achieved a new level of jumping to conclusions about others. Please show me where P6 has advocated for any of those things. Good God.
Economics is part of the Grand Unified Theory
I'll believe you see it as only a part when I see you explain something in other terms.
I want free trade so people in poverty around the world can progress and get out of poverty.
But do you want the USofA to do better? If you did, you'd be a Democrat.
Not just that,you've never seen a free trade agreement that lifted people in poverty around the world out of poverty. As soon as it looks like they're going to get lifted, the domestic companies they compete with do some lobbying and it's all over.
Which I mention by way of explaining that, due to common human nature, what you want to see happen as a result of getting your wish will never happen. Ever.
I am a non-progressive?
Functionally speaking, you are a non-progressive, yes. To wit:
How can those who want tostifle innovation,That would be Corporate America, buying technology for the purpose of burying it (rotary engine, solar power and ethanol).
stifle the free exchange of goods and services,That would be the Republicans, in the service of Corporate America. Search for "catfish" on the search engine in the sidebar of the main page.
who want to decide how much money anyone should make,That would be Cheap Labor Capitalists.
decide what people can see on tv, on the internet, or at the movies,That would be the Religious Right.
who want to establish vast networks of absolute control over every aspect of civil, private society,That, specifically, would be John Ashcroft under orders from whoever gives Bush his. Generally speaking, that would be the neocons and Republicans (in decreasing order of specificity).
keep people locked into staid, unchanging industries and keep those industries from evolving and improving,I can't think of anyone significant who fits that description.
call themselves progressive?!
They don't.
"Cheap labor capitalists". That is a bankrupt idea. Here's what you can do to fight "Cheap Labor Capitalism". Next time you buy a hamburger, tip the burger guy $5 to bring him up to a "living wage" that hour. Tip the cabbie an extra $10. Put your money where your mouth is.
As for the story, I don't know how anyone could have not seen this coming. When you have a prohibition like this (on immigration or drugs) then you remove people who engage in the prohibitted activity from the justice system, and they can't go to the police and courts to solve disputes.
I'm for open immigration, but not open borders. We have declared enemies of the state, and we need to find the combatants and interdict them. I don't see the need to prohibit movement of some guy who is tired of picking strawberries and wants that "prime" day-laborer job.