Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Open the Doors

Although the recent protests have caused me to flinch a bit, I am still wholly in favor of opening our borders to all of those of wish to flock about our grand land. This is certainly a step. Don't get me wrong - I think that citizenship should be "earned." And the Senate Bill mandates the same. What we are talking about here is merely habitation. Most of those who tend to wander across our southern border do so in search work. They are not after free healthcare or a seat on the school board. Rather, they are just looking to make a few bucks. Indeed, from what I hear, many foreign workers can earn a lifetime’s wages, relative to earnings in their home country, in just a few years in the States. This is what makes the global economy so magnificent and why the anti-globalization whack jobs will, thankfully, always lose the argument. Capitalism – the real laissez faire model – efficiently allocates resources in a way that always, over time, results in a positive sum gain for all. Earth to Sean Hannity – that means we are all better off. We (you, me, Sean and Home Depot) create a pretty hefty labor demand, and the hombres y mujeres keep on keepin’ on across the boarder to meet those demands. To be certain, I don’t want to pay a premium price to some nativist redneck who thinks he can charge more than his worth simply because he was lucky enough to be born within the confines of these arbitrary borders. This country was designed to be meritocracy – such is the essence of the American Dream and similarly served as the fountainhead for our collective achievements. On that note, I think that the kid who built my tile floors and painted my house in a single fourteen-hour day deserves a place in my world. Certainly more so than the Katrina-evacuees, many of whom do nothing more than suck the blood of their fellow citizens by day while robbing them by night. Maybe we should just set up an exchange program? "Dear President Fox, for every worker you send to us, we'll send one subsidy leach your way..."