May 31, 2009

Immigration Policy
That was an interesting petition about the illegal aliens and social security. I have some questions about it. First, I'd like to examine why they came north from their homeland, entered a foreign culture and risk arrest ( after risking death crossing the desert). If there wasn't an opportunity for them, they wouldn't make the trip. The jobs they do are in the category of the cane cutters in the sugar industry; there are nowhere near enough legal Americans willing to do the work. The govt have to run a complicated temp worker program for the cane, bringing temp cutters in from the Caribbean countries for the harvest working them in conditions that can best be described as indenture, or temporary slavery. They have no provision for the fruit and veg picking, so the vacuum got filled illegally, prompted by the employers as much as the workers.
Why don't the Mexican's stay home? Maybe because the farms they used to have don't exist any more, because the USA has taken 100% of the water out of the Colorado River before it crosses the border to Mexico. Now US water regulators are sealing leaks in the reservoirs near the Mexican border, because enough water seeps out to support a few dozen vegetable farms on the Mexican side. How do you figure the Egyptians will respond if the countries the Nile passes thru decide that it's their water, and take it all? Does fairness figure into this at all, or only cash and guns? In California they're growing cattle fodder with the water that used to feed Northern Mexico before there were nations and borders. If no services are supplied for a workforce that's doing a needed service, they will increasingly be pushed to desperation. They actually have no real option to go back to Mexico. If they're pushed hard enough economically, they'll turn to crime. Pretty much all of us will steal rather than starve. I think it may be cheaper to avoid that. Also, as long as they are illegal, they have no option to appeal to the law if their employers treat them illegaly or unfairly. That further weakens any sort of agricultural union, any counterbalance to the power of corporate agriculture. Take a really good, dispassionate look at what corporate agriculture has done to the US economy, and environment, and tell me they don't need to have some opposition to temper their decision making. What total percentage of my social security check would end up being siphoned off to provide decent living conditions for this small sliver of the population? Would I actually miss it? I know I can't live on my SS pension in the states, which is part of the reason I can't actually afford to sail on around the world and return home. I need to stay in a less expensive country. But a 3 or 4 % reduction won't make a damn bit of difference. In any case, if the subsidies the US govt is paying to big agriculture were rescinded, that would far more than pay for SS for immigrant farm workers. The country needs the workers, and needs to have leverage to encourage social responsibility from them as it does the rest of the workforce. A program to allow them to become legal citizens or residents is the only answer I see. Ted