funeralcrasher | WTO to blame for immigration problem

To begin with, the US economy has benefitted only infinitesimally, a fraction of a percent. What's more, many of the least-skilled American workers would earn as much as 8% more if it weren't for the tsunami of undocumented Mexicans. THAT'S the slave wage factor that President Loser so dearly loves. He, and the corporate cashsuckers who enable him, are utterly delighted to claim that the illegals will "do jobs that Americans won't," but that's simply not the whole truth. I'd venture to say that US citizens are every bit as enterprising and hard-working as people anywhere in the world...but they know how to draw the line at being blatantly exploited. And no one should be making the attempt to exploit them...no one with conscience or scruple or a heart instead of an adding machine. The "guest-worker" program put forward by the White House amounts to nothing less than government-sanctioned slavery. A low wage labor force that can't vote has ZERO incentive to become a functional part of the society...and that's a CEO's wet dream! Can you say "permanent underclass of disenfranchised workers?" And does that sound like an America you'd be proud of?

The reasons for the massive demonstrations all over the country--and that one in Los Angeles was a DOOZY--is that they, too, are refusing to be taken advantage of. The draconian anti-immigration bill which has already passed the House of Representatives would not only criminalize these folks, but also those who would offer them humanitarian assistance. Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Bigot) loves it. Fortunately, this travesty has no chance...and it's already done much to damage Republican credibility among Latino voters, the fastest growing segment of the population. Very bad move. It's what I mean by the rabid right shooting themselves in the foot...they seem good at that.

Finally, I would like for you to consider that undocumented workers, illegal aliens, whatever, are NOT, themselves, the problem. The callous, bloodthirsty system of economic neoliberalism which began to be implemented under Ronald Ray-Gun and Daddybush is the REAL fly in the ointment. Allowing giant banks and Big Pharma and almighty insurance companies to determine the parameters of American healthcare access is one part of it. The fact that monsterous agribusiness conglomerates--Hello, ADM and ConAgra!--have farming in a hammerlock in this country and individual farmers are limited to the role of "growers" is another part. That outsourcing, unheard of two decades ago, is a fact of life today, Big Business chasing the least expensive labor pools it can find, is a third part. This hurts ALL OF US in the process, folks, every single solitary one of us.

Nothing short of a dramatic re-prioritization of goals is going to do the trick now. Blaming the poor imigrants--the hardest-working and worst paid among us--and then covering over the REAL problems with an artificial band-aid solution does NOTHING to get at the root of a situation which has been created and exacerbated by the predictable effects of cheap-labor conservatism.