"State Is Sailing Toward a Crisis on Immigration"
The LAT prints a column from regular citizen Beverly Antel of Torrance. She goes a bit "overboard" on the Titanic references, but nevertheless:
I am an African American woman of mixed ethnic ancestry whose parents encouraged her to embrace diversity from a very early age. I attended integrated schools in the San Fernando Valley. I have friends of every color and stripe. My deceased husband was Caucasian. My mother is married to a man from the Philippines. And my brother's girlfriend is a Latina.
This issue is not about race; it's about fairness.
For years, liberal policy wonks have told us that illegal immigration is good for our economy. They sit in their high-rise think tanks in Brentwood and Century City and pontificate that the benefits of immigrants' cheap labor outweigh the price we pay to have these people here...
And I refuse to stand by and watch my beloved California go the way of the Titanic. Everyone wanted to sail on that mighty vessel. But when it got in trouble, no one seemed to notice at first or grasp the seriousness of the situation. Then the ship started to sink, and the commoners below were the first to drown.
That's us, people. The ultra-wealthy Westsiders, the corporate moguls and the special- interest politicians don't care about the hoi polloi on the lower decks...
Comments
John S Bolton (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 14:23
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Also, someone who has heard that the law of supply and demand applies to labor, is not able to intimidate anyone very likely. The burden of proof is on someone who says an additional large cohort of immigrant illiterates is good for the jurisdiction in question. An additional surge of immigration is a change from what obtains today; therefore one who wants that change has the burden to prove that it will raise the standard of the population thus imposed upon.
John S Bolton (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 14:07
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In Israel, the palestinian menials who were around 10% of the workforce, have been, without any magic, removed, and there has been no significant effect on the prices such as some economic semiliterate would expect. The menials are in modern economies, by far the most replaceable. Capital, and more productive labor, easily replaces them, if, because of their aggression on the citizenry, it is found necessary to wall them out, or if some other factor displaces them.
Alex (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 09:46
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We don't have to explain to the, clueless any more.
jackson zed (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 06:50
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Well the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate how California's labor markets are exempt from the laws of supply and demand.
Go for it.
:jackson
Crystal (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 04:48
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This woman is dead on straight. Jackson, above me, the price of everything would not triple or quadruple....that is a complete fallacy...
jackson zed (not verified)
Sun, 10/03/2004 - 04:45
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I wonder if this woman would hold the same opinion if immigrant labor was somehow magically halted and the price of everything in her local grocery store tripled and quadrupled overnight. How would that outcome affect the proletariat vs. the Westsiders?
Economic illiteracy: the tragedy of our time.
:jackson
John S Bolton (not verified)
Sat, 10/02/2004 - 14:07
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When one sees rich people who are net taxpayers, enthuse over a policy which is against their long-term, and likely also short-term, interest; such as mass third-world immigration into alternative-welfarica, one might think that they are trying to turn money into power. Someone who has lots of money, but no political power, will often try to acqire it with his money. Those who are especially lame at competition for political influence, but rich, will try to emulate the stir-up-the-minorities approach to gaining political influence which has been done and done to death, for forty years, at least. If I'm a millionaire, and I want to sound pro-minority, how can I do this, without being contradicted by minorities who already have a voice here? I know, I can advocate for people who live ouside the country, or for some endangered species of animals who can't contradict me, or maybe for the autistic who can't talk?
Alex (not verified)
Sat, 10/02/2004 - 13:11
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Well said! More than time for all of us to stop this war on us!
How about?
1. Pushing for a Fed. law that states
only 15 year + American citizens are permiited to receive benefit of any govt. benefits?
2. How about a national tax law that states and puts it it to certain groups/tribes that massively immigrated here by stating that we want taxes paid by surnames to be paid to their same type surnames...and tribes who entered in past 15 years pay for own tribal/surname members? Not any of the rest of us.