Reply #23: A lot of selective outrage on this issue. [View All]

[bunkerbuster1]

I probably don't need to outline where the selectivity lies.

I'll say this much; it's the only issue where I find the Bush Administration, albeit for the wrong reasons, sounds somewhat reasonable. Naturally the reason they favor more humane treatment of illegals is to provide cheap labor and labor competition for American workers (part of their larger program of keeping most citizens down). But it happens to be the right thing to do, in essence.

Where they, and most all free-marketeers screw up is in the other side of the equation, where we lobby, advocate, twist arms and threaten all manner of nasty shit if other nations fail to reciprocate with vastly improved labor and environmental laws of their own.

If this whole debate winds up having the effect of ensuring a cleaner environment and better working conditions worldwide, then who, theoretically, cares where the workers live? Let me move to Mexico or Ireland or wherever if I want to and work there. People and capital should be able to move wherever it's needed, and can be applied efficiently. So long as we're all living under essentially the same minimum standards, I'm cool with that.