[geeks] the end of the internet as we know it.

[Jonathan Patschke]

On Tue, 4 Aug 2009, nate at portents.com wrote:

> Isn't the immigration bureaucracy the result of commercial lobbying on
> the part of agribusiness?

Probably that plus the red scare and whatever silly crap reasons came
before that.  There has always been -some- reason we can't have those
nasty Polish/Irish/Chinese/Communist/Mexican people crossing the border.

However, if there were no bureaucracy, the agribusiness folks would have
nothing to manipulate.

>> Or, yeah, we could do your thing and pass more laws and/or step up police
>> enforcement.  That's worked swimmingly so far.
>
> Well I'd argue that no more laws are needed, we already have all the
> laws we need, we're just not enforcing them.

We have plenty more laws than we need.  So many, in fact, that Congress
can't be arsed to read them before passing them.

> In the last 10 years any "stepping up" of police enforcement has been
> for show and nobody has dared tried to really enforce anything.

The stepping up hasn't been nearly as much for show as it is to do what
politics does best: reward friends and punish enemies.  A ConAgra plant
will never be raided; smaller firms get raided all the time.

People will be corrupt forever.  Take away the system, and the damage they
can invoke is decreased.  As it is, the immigration system hurts far more
than it hurts, the security it provides is facade, and its presence is a
convenient excuse for other forms of federal tyranny (warrantless
checkpoints within 100 miles of the borders, etc.).

> What I'm proposing won't happen, but here goes - I consider the CEOs and
> upper management of the major agribusiness companies in this country
> who've benefited from illegal immigrants to be the equivalent of mafia
> crime bosses

Oh, they're not crime bosses.  The crime bosses are the ones in the
government.  The corporate executives (regardless of industry) who buy
the favor of the powerful are nothing more than "friends of the family".

-- 
Jonathan Patschke < "There is great satisfaction in building good tools
Elgin, TX          > for other people to use."
USA               <                                     --Freeman Dyson