[lit-ideas] Re: question on immigration
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:01:26 -0500
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 3/27/2006 1:29:20 AM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: question on immigration
>
>>
>>
> Carol's points about the cost of the Iraq War, the
> tax breaks to the superrich, also make sense. We
> should end offshored corporate tax havens and tax
> shelters immediately.
>
> All the forms of institutionalized
> parasitism--whether "illegal" immigration or
> offshore corporate tax sheltering--should be
> reduced. At the same time we should treat everyone
> with generosity and respect.
>
> These are not necessarily contradictory impulses,
> but part of the same impulse--to make a better
> society.
>
Eric, this is exactly the opposite of what's going on in the U.S. and the
world. Capitalism follows the money, whether here or in Mexico or China.
Following the money means going to places where you can pay people zilch
while lighting cigars with $100 bills (or whatever they did in the Gilded
Age). That's why it's so counterproductive that Mexicans are rolling over
and playing dead instead of uniting as a country and doing what the
Americans did in the early 20th century, demanding rights and a social
contract worth signing. Americans can't really do that (as far as I can
see) because we don't have the production facilities anymore. Who would we
strike against? Citibank? The Chinese can't do it because of their
government, they'd be squelched in an instant, with corporate backing. A
better society isn't going to happen any time soon, and certainly isn't
going to be initiated top down. It's funny how the world is so small that
we need a global Joe Hill. Where would he come from? Certainly not
Mexico. Not China. Not the U.S. ...
In a little digression, China is still overwhelmingly agrarian. Those
peasants are among the poorest on the planet yet heavily taxed. If they
ever demand their share of the pie ... More likely, they'll keep streaming
into the cities and keep wages down for a long time to come.
In another digression, I saw a show on the Three Gorges Dam a while back.
It's unimaginably huge, so much water is being displaced that it actually
changed the rotation of the earth by a second (or some other small but
still impressive number). Yet it's built in an earthquake area. It's
supposedly built to accommodate earthquakes, but the Titanic wasn't
supposed to sink either. If that water was unleashed, effectively, there
goes China, and my cheap cat food from Wal-Mart along with it.
For Ursula. It's sad that the Americans were kind of the blip on the
historical radar screen where for a few hundred years ideals materialized
and blossomed. Now, in these New Middle Ages, it looks like it's swinging
back to business as usual. Maybe we still have a chance if Hillary can
make it. She's not perfect, but between her and Bill ... But she doesn't
have a chance. Wouldn't it be nice if Al Gore were her running mate? I'm
rambling ...
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