Chris Taylor pimps illegal immigration at Business 2.0

Chris Taylor is a senior editor at Business 2.0 Magazine, and he offers a paean to corruption and transnational greed in "Cashing in on immigration". Think of it as the breezier, even more masturbatory version of Business Week's "Embracing Illegals" or The Economist's "More Mexicans, Please" (link):
Faced with far more retirees than workers, we have two options: up the retirement age to keep workers slogging away until their 80th birthdays; or, let the world's youth do the work while paying our Social Security along the way. In return, we get to spend our golden years drinking Pina Coladas in Palm Beach. Which do you think we'll pick?
As an alternative, instead of inviting the world to come here, we could sit on our verandas drinking mint julips at our plantations in India and Africa watching the natives toiling in the fields and send the riches home. What you say, that's been tried?
...Don't think the ongoing row over immigration will keep the migrant masses at bay. We'll limit the number of visas for overseas workers. We'll build walls along the border. But no matter what we do, we can't stem the tide of economics. Just ask the residents of Berlin, separated for decades by a wall that couldn't contain capitalism...

...Another factor worth considering: Immigration isn't such a big deal for today's youth. Field Poll after Field Poll shows that 18-39 year-olds are consistently and significantly less concerned about illegal immigration than their elders. Their ambivalence makes sense, since they're growing up in an increasingly cosmopolitan world...

...What does this unstoppable migration mean for budding entrepreneurs? Plenty. There's tons of money to be made helping people to move from South to North - and the transfer of wages from North to South. "Remittances," a catchall term for the cash that immigrants send back to their poorer relatives back home - are already playing a major role in the global economy...
Of course, profiting from remittances sent by illegal aliens means profiting from illegal activity. And, then some of those profits are given to politicians who enable even more illegal activity.

So, I guess the bottom line is that we need to make sure that those 18-39 year-olds understand what corruption is and make the right choices instead of embracing illegal activity in order to make a buck.

If you subscribe to that magazine, I urge you to cancel your subscription and write a nice letter letting them know the reason why.

Comments

I hope you're right, DF. But, if so, what the hell are they doing about it? I am a 39-year-old actively involved in this fight, and I can report that I am joined primarily by people with much closer ties to AARP than any institution of higher education.

"we need to make sure that those 18-39 year-olds understand"

Most 18-39 year-olds are having a heck of a time paying for college, finding a decent first job, affording a family and a house UNLESS they come from a fairly rich backgroud. Many of them "get it".