Middle Class Pt. 26: Affectation, I. Kant- Immigration's Population Strain- Its Affect on the Environment, Education, Employment and Health Care

Laissez faire: is “a French phrase literally meaning ‘let do’ . . . an injunction against government interference with trade, it became used as a synonym for strict free market economics. It is generally understood to be a doctrine that maintains that private initiative and production are best allowed to be free of economic interventionism and taxation by the state beyond what is necessary to maintain individual liberty, peace, security, and property rights.” (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Affectation: 1) the act of taking on or displaying an attitude or mode of behavior not natural to oneself or not genuinely felt; b) speech or conduct not natural to oneself: artificiality; 2) striving after. (Courtesy of Webster’s Ninth Collegiate Dictionary)

Categorical imperative: Is Immanuel Kant’s primary moral philosophical tenet- “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” Stealing, should it be permitted to you to do, would then be permitted for everyone. One often can choose not to recycle, and often justifies their not doing so because they are just one person; they ask themselves ‘what impact can I possibly make?’ I want to ban this person from speaking, or from living, or little kids might not wish their younger sister to touch her own toys (hey, it has been known to happen- I have possession wars every day in my house . . . two toddlers). If everyone were allowed to follow through on their wishes, mass chaos would ensue. “The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” - John Stuart Mill

Case in point: “Homeland Security Won't Explain Why the Mexican Border Wall Bypasses the Rich and Connected,” by Melissa del Bosque (Texas Observer, February 19, 2008). It seems “the U.S. Department of Homeland Security marches down the Texas border serving condemnation lawsuits to frightened landowners, Brownsville resident Eloisa Tamez, 72, has one simple question. She would like to know why her land is being targeted for destruction by a border wall, while a nearby golf course and resort remain untouched.” Lady, I agree 99 times out of 100 to fight an argument such as this- this is that one time where the fight need not occur because of the bigger picture. The needs of the many are at stake. There are hundreds and hundreds of people in Texas in the same predicament . . . just let it happen. Perhaps the government would like to pay those who own the land for relinquishing their property to the right cause of building a wall and employing more border patrol agents. If no one foregoes their claim to their land, 850,000 to 1.1 million illegals per year will continue to cross the border, especially once the housing market improves.

Cruising: My wife recently went on a cruise with her family. That left me in charge of watching my two middle class toddlers for four straight days- flying solo. I was to pick my wife up from the airport upon her return, which was set for about 3:30 in the afternoon of a recent weekday. My mom called to tell me that there might be 3-7 inches of snow on the ground by rush hour. I instinctively thought- ‘my travels don’t often take me to the freeway during that time,’ so I dismissed this information. Then it occurred to me- oh damn, I do have to drive the freeway during rush hour to pick up my wife at the airport. Suddenly I cared, because I was affected by that news.

Kidding me: If you do not have kids, you probably don’t care about the cost of raising one to adulthood, or about college tuition expenses, excepting that you may still be paying on your own loans. I was raised to be a little less selfish in the wide world scope of things than to just consider my own situation when it comes to societal, political, historical, environmental or athletic issues. I have certainly missed the mark on many occasions, but when I think of the bigger picture, I think my nearly instinctive Kantian philosophical approach (think categorical imperative) is much more realistic. It is imperative to me to be engaged in world events, to know what is going on and why. I can’t track down all of the information about tsunamis in the Orient; or know all about the research that the New England Historic Genealogical Society conducted to determine that Barack Obama is distantly related to Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, James Madison, Winston Churchill, Robert E. Lee and Brad Pitt, while Hillary Clinton is related to Madonna, Celine Dion, Camilla Parker-Bowles and a transvestite from Hoboken.* I can’t know all about how “Being Born Prematurely Continues to Affect People as They Age,” that premies “have higher death rates in childhood and are more likely to be childless in adulthood.” I also cannot know how this might affect me: a Minnesota state senator proposed legislation allowing the incandescent light bulb the freedom to live rather than be aborted in favor of the compact fluorescent bulb whose infancy and energy-efficiency has been so hotly debated of late. Who knew that a bulb’s right to light/life would be so ridiculously contentious; I’ll stop short of bringing Roe v. Wade into this portion of my column. (All three of the latter stories can be found in the A section of the Minneapolis Star Tribune from March 26, 2008, courtesy of Associated Press (family tree), Carla K. Johnson (premature births) and Kevin Diaz (light bulbs) respectively.

Affectation: This will probably be the movie title for some incredibly morose yarn about an abused, alcoholic moose that is into staged productions about gardening and craves the taste of cymbalta (think of Nicolas Cage’s “Adaptation” and the 2007 best picture nominee “Atonement.” One word, pithy titles for movies that are depressingly artistic and are about forgiveness, purpose, fulfillment, or frustration with one’s untapped intellectual sexuality are overdone, cliché and nearly unwatchable). The one person still reading may yawn now. However, millions of teens, and adults for that matter, crave the spotlight. The word “melodrama” (affectation's latter-day equivalent) is used to describe anyone's angst-ridden schmaltzy lives where nothing important happens to them, until they record each other beating up their classmates and post it on You Tube. People play the victim for affect.

No worries: My diatribe to this point has not been of the affected variety- trying to invent drama where it does not exist. The American drama of the middle class most certainly exists. I have indicated several times that I am at a relatively comfortable stage in my life. What concerns me are future generations of middle class kids. Should I be so narrow-mindedly obsessed, passionately crying out for better fortune in a manner that might be strangely pacifying, I would only be able to focus on things as they stand now. I have two great kids, an adorable wife, a house, two reliable vehicles and a good job. My only addiction is to Mountain Dew and reading. I have decided that heedlessness as it concerns the future of my country is not the way to go. Hakuna matata- the zulu/sotho philosophy promulgated by a meerkat and a warthog in the 80s movie- “The Lion King,” which literally means- “there are no worries here” holds no appeal for me . . . IF . . . there are WORRIES here! Friggin’ warthog and meerkat conditioning a generation (or two) of little kids that they should accept the status quo in everything political! Soooo, my raillery against the animal kingdom has its source- not exactly the Rosebud of Citizen Kane in terms of symbolic origins, but perhaps one that I didn’t need a psychiatrist to unearth. Luckily, I had already reached my cynical potential by that time in my life and the warthog and meerkat, the Will and Ariel Durant of Disney philosophical thought, could not cow me into a belief in the laissez faire standpoint of just leaving well enough alone, especially as it concerns people and issues outside of my control.

Universal law: Hakuna matata v. the Categorical Imperative. The first phrase combines conservative dismissiveness and liberal altruistic arrogance into one disgusting, hands off (laissez faire) approach. The second phrase is Kant’s insightful check on personal and collective liberty properly balanced with diligence and foresight. Hmmm . . . just like Joe Pesci quickly weighed the pros and cons of kicking the ass of some red-neck and collecting the money the very lovely Marissa Tomei won defeating him at billiards or accepting the red-neck’s counter-offer, that of Pesci suffering an ass-kicking and not collecting said winnings . . . I think I will choose Kant.

Quote me on that: About four years prior to the release of The Lion King, I had purchased Peter’s Quotations- a book comprised of thoughts and ideas by some famous and not so famous people. I am quite comfortable quoting others. Some might say, express yourself- show me what you know. I think I have proven that I can do that on a regular basis. When struggling to effectively communicate something, I sometimes seek to reduce the number of my clumsily written sentences when another, much better writer, has so concisely and passionately hit the mark. The following quotation, and many others in the book, strike me as applicable to the overall topic of the American citizen’s collective apathy toward most things political and governmental:

Martin Niemoeller: “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews . . . the trade unionists . . . the Catholics . . . then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.” I imagine that Niemoeller is addressing the Fascist government of Germany preceding and during WWII, and how various citizens were rounded up as part of the ethnic cleansing rampant in Germany during that time. See, if all we do is only worry about ourselves and our own (spouses, children, siblings, parents) and not successfully seek the political change that is only ours if we vote collectively, then the national anxiety, frustration and bitterness will carry on each subsequent election.

Dante: Among those other quotations are Dante’s version of Niemoeller’s quote directly above, with of course, (it is Dante), more umph: “The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality.”

AND
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke (The words- "good men" need not be restricted to iconic politicians, inventors or soldiers . . . a conscientious voter- good enough.)

AND one more
“Hey, immigrants! Beat it! Country’s full!” - Bart Simpson.

Ok, ok, that one really isn’t contained in the book. I have to transition somehow to my concluding remarks on the sub-topic of immigration and how it affects everyone in the United States, including the liberals who assist them in their arrival and the middle class who want them out. Unfortunately, due to the overall length of the material I have compiled over the course of the past year that I consider pertinent to the topic, the conclusion of this sub-topic will take two columns, so without further adieu, here goes:

1) The headline- “Hospitals Feeling Strain from Illegal Immigrants:” Dana Canedy, August 25, 2002- Hospital strain.

The story: a penniless Guatemalan illegal immigrant with no health insurance, injuries which have left him with severe brain damage, limited mobility, and accumulated bills of almost $1 million, after a head-on collision. “Many illegal immigrants . . . use emergency rooms as their primary source of routine and critical health care.” Florida, California, Texas and Arizona are those hardest hit by this type of “financial burden on health care centers that treat them.” (Not surprisingly- of the debates I saw, in Florida and California, I don’t really recall a lot of dialogue on the topic of immigration in the debates- in FLORIDA, where major Medicare meats major immigration. The media is complicit in this stifling of one of the major topics in politics, because I don’t recall the moderators, (who are members of the big media), asking any questions concerning immigration. “ ‘We have people coming to our country in good faith to work, but we have no system in place as a nation as to what to do when these people get sick,’ ” said a spokeswoman for Martin Memorial Medical Center (Florida). “By some estimates, hospitals are collectively writing off as much as $2 billion a year in unpaid medical bills to treat the illegal immigrants.” The story, from 2002, indicates that there were an estimated 8 million illegals in the U.S. through 2000, up from 5 million in 1996.

Further comments: Take the money trapped within the earnings report file I referred to last time, and use that to pay for illegals charging up massive medical bills. With that, illegals are paying their own medical bills. We still need that wall and federal agents but this would be a start, to remove the burden of taxpayers. There might not be a one to one correlation between money unaccounted for by the IRS (see part 25) and money that thousands of hospitals have been short-changed on over the years from an illegal immigrant patient standpoint, but the two are anything but mutually exclusive. In addition, no Earned Income Credit (EIC) money should be distributed to illegals in excess of what was paid in for taxes. I concluded that the vast majority of illegals actually are paying taxes (see part 25). I long for the days when there were only 5 million illegals in the country and considered that a massive problem. That shows us how naive we were and how naive we will be in 12 more years when there are 100 million illegals. Build a wall and employ more border patrol agents. Do a Google search on “illegal immigrants closing of emergency rooms” and perhaps you will see what type of problem we have here.

2) The headline- “U.S. to Pay Medical Bills for Illegal Immigration:” Associated Press, May 10, 2005- Medical Bills

The story: “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued final guidance . . . that sets up a system for reimbursement. Lawmakers set aside $1 billion over four years for the program.” Says the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, “ ‘It seems to me that if the federal government has abdicated its responsibility for immigration enforcement, then it’s responsible for making those jurisdictions [states with illegal immigration populations] whole,’ ”

Further comments: . . . at the cost of the citizens paying taxes to support such social aid programs? Do a google search on immigrants medical bills and prepare to be disgusted. Build a wall, employ more border patrol agents and stop writing editorials like this- fence border rush - “Editorial: Court should halt rush to complete fence on border.” Kill an American robin, trample some marshlands, build the damn fence! Environmentalists may be shocked by that, well, see #7b below. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said: "Criminal activity at the border does not stop for endless debate or protracted litigation. Congress and the public have been adamant that they want and expect border security. We're serious about delivering it." We'll see. I had heard that the head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was trying to stop the building of the wall- I was not aware of the particulars. A cursory web search did not provide any information relative to this news snippet. Perhaps the DHS is too busy extracting lungless frogs from the baracuda polygamist ranch, fearing the frogs were in imminent danger**- polygamists and lungless frog.

3) The headline: “Census Bureau: Number of U.S. Uninsured Rises to 47 Million Americans: Almost 5 Percent Increase Since 2005”: Teddy Dineley Johnson, January 8, 2008- uninsured Americans

The story: “Annual Census Bureau estimates released in August [2007] show 47 million people, or 15.8 percent of the U.S. population, were without health insurance during 2006 — a 4.9 percent increase. In 2005, census figures showed that 44.8 million people, or about 15.3 percent of the population, lacked health insurance coverage.” The article includes the words Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP; one word that is noticeably absent- immigration. Not good: “The percentage of uninsured children younger than 18 rose from 10.9 percent in 2005 to 11.7 percent in 2006.”

Further comments: The number of children born to white and black Americans has largely gone down over the past ten years. Yet the number of uninsured people living in this country continues to rise. I do not find a lot of benefit to the cost of my benefits (i.e. health insurance) rising at my place of employment so that I can pay the cost of untold numbers of immigrants receiving health care. Maybe we ought to start publishing the number of uninsured and underinsured AMERICANS in papers and websites that deliver us half of the story. I hate the fact that any child of any nationality would be without the medicine and medical care they might need- it breaks my heart. However, the numbers given in dozens of articles I have perused concerning the lack of health insurance coverage rarely differentiate between an American, an immigrant or an illegal immigrant not having health insurance. Quite a substantial oversight. One article that does comment on this distinction was written by Julia A. Seymour- “Health Care Lie: ’47 Million Uninsured Americans.’ ” health care lie July 18, 2007. Seymour goes after Michael Moore, significant national newspapers and four of the leading candidates, (at the time) for the presidency for their continued misrepresentation of the numbers of uninsured citizens. “A closer look at the [Census Bureau] report reveals the Census data include 9.487 million people who are ‘not a citizen.’ ” I thought so. More staggering is the number of legal immigrants with health care that middle class American citizens are subsidizing. That also breaks my heart. Note- plenty of people who can afford health care should also be counted among the remaining 37 million (according to Seymour)- so the uninsured aren’t all poor people crying out for medical care.

Consider one more thing on this sub-sub topic of health care for immigrants: If nearly 10 million non-citizens are classified by PLENTY of the politicians as figuring among the 47 million who are uninsured, imagine how many uninsured immigrants will be counted among that number and how many former non-citizens will need insurance when the amnesty bill passes. Pretty soon the G.I.L.F. you saw on the golf course four years ago and almost found attractive enough to set up with one of your better friends who is into brittle-boned women won’t seem so unattractive in retrospect. We now rationalize that $3 for a gallon of gas is good because we've been conditioned to by the government. The problem of immigration just keeps getting worse and worse, causing us to lower our expectations and be cowed into accepting anything the country is willing to do to combat it. (Note: in the G.I.L.F. metaphor above, the 'G'- for grandmother is the symbol for our desperation concerning all things related to illegal immigration. You can figure out what G.I.L.F. means all by yourself.)

4) The headline- “Senate Immigration Bill Would Allow 100 Million New Legal Immigrants over the Next Twenty Years”: Robert Rector, May 15, 2006- new legal immigrants

The story: prior to an amendment reducing the number of illegals who would have been allowed in over the next 20 years to approximately 66 million, senate bill 2611, proposed by a democrat, would have allowed in about 103 million- “one-third of the current population of the United States.” The bill would have provided amnesty to about 10 million illegals, but the bill would also “quintuple the rate of legal immigration into the United States, raising, over time, the inflow of legal immigrants from around one million per year to over five million per year.” The article lists the three legal statuses for immigrants rightfully entering the country and indicates which new ways many more immigrants would have been legally welcomed into our country under government allowance should the bill have passed. See the link provided for more information. The most noteworthy expansion of legal immigration falls under the heading- “Expanded family chain migration.” It seems that the “net increase in the number of immigrants under this provision would be around 254,000 per year, or 5.1 million over 20 years.”

Further comments: The percent of population growth due to immigration is now at 60%. Wooing more immigrants to our country is like wooing more crows to a scarecrow made out of worms. The self-fulfilling prophecy: we wonder where the work force is going to come from to pick lettuce, to clean rooms at the Days Inn, to work at McDonald’s, at Wal-Mart, or at the meat packing plant. We become hysterical with worry. Here, hakuna matata actually applies. Politicians, mostly liberal ones, state that we need them, for who is willing to work those jobs. How many immigrants would we really need if they were not here comprising a decent segment of the population who shops at Wal-Mart, eats at McDonalds and eats some of the lettuce that they pick? In short, do we need them because they are here; and would we need all of them for those jobs if they left? See this link for information that our population is growing because of Hispanic fertility rates and would decline if left up to whites and blacks to reproduce, to live as heirs with middle class woes. If the fertility rates of whites and blacks collectively have gone down in the last decade (look it up) how necessary will the immigrant workers actually be (see #6 below)? You cannot justify that America needs to keep growing in order to become more global in terms of trade, etc. We are plenty global enough in allowing free-trade agreements that have lost the middle class hundreds of thousands of jobs because corporate oligarchists have outsourced them- (see #5 below). The argument that we need more homes built, that the new housing market is suffering- is nonsense. The new housing market will dry up eventually when every last patch of dirt in the country is zoned for either a home, a strip mall or some suburban wasteland of a department store- Kohl’s, Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc. Would we need to bulldoze our earth and continually build new homes if the somewhat declining nature of fertility rates among whites and blacks persisted? Nope. Contractors, I would get into the portion of the topic that involves your going to hell when you die, but that would be another ill-warranted digression on my part. Perhaps, since you are complete failures as contractual human beings, not delivering on promises such as key deliverables, price, estimated time of completion, just not showing up for weeks at a time . . . if we get that wall built, perhaps you could become a border control agent. Just a thought.

Further comments P.S.: I was concerned about the politicians who might attempt to allow in more legals or redefine the legality of immigration well before I read Rector’s article (see part 23). After 20 years, taking legal immigration allowances under this proposal (103 million) and factoring in the estimate from last time (part 25, from the FAIR- Federation for American Immigration Reform total of 1.1 million illegals per year- 1.1 illegals
rver">FAIR illegals) for a total of 122 million- we would nearly double our current population in 50 years. Why don’t we just allow a Legal Permanent Resident’s (LPR) former sister-in-law’s brother’s neighbor’s nephew’s chicken into our country? I have not been this confounded since I heard Dolly Parton sing the line- “feelin’ up my senseis.” Who would have guessed she would include her sexual exploits in the lyrics of a country song, admitting to her dalliances with multiple members of the titled Japanese nationality. (Er, look up sensei in Wikipedia). Build a wall and employ more border patrol agents.

5) The headline- “A Corporate ‘Feeding Frenzy’ Visas Push is about Helping Companies Rather than Workers”: Dan Stein, March 25, 2008- visa push

The story: Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman “recently admitted the real agenda: ‘Significantly opening up immigration to skilled workers . . . would compete with high-income people, driving more income equality.’ In 2007, he further opined that, ‘Our skilled wages are higher than anywhere in the world. If we open up a significant window for skilled (foreign) workers, that would suppress the skilled-wage level and end the concentration of income.’ . . . “Since 1990, Congress has allowed U.S. and multinational businesses to use foreign ‘nonimmigrant’ visa programs to drive down wages and displace American workers. What began as a short-term fix for a supposed ‘short-term’ shortage of programmers has turned into another elitist feeding frenzy for greedy people at the top of the food chain.”

Further comments education: Perhaps we should seek to end the concentration of income among the richest 1-10% . . . nah. So, the former need for programmers, as the story relates, was the driving force to gather qualified immigrants to take American jobs, American middle class jobs. Many of those currently attending, or soon to be heading to college in the next five years are seeing their cumulative lifetime earnings go down before their eyes if they are paying any attention and aren’t shooting videos of their classmates pummeling fellow cheerleaders. If future college graduate earnings are reduced because of competition with foreign workers, an American graduate’s ability to pay a school loan off in 10-15 years will be impossible, given the interest rates. American employees will be making less, which will make them less able to afford the college loan payments (consider all of the other necessary costs they may need to be paying for (health insurance, car, car insurance, etc.) that will need to be paid against after graduation. Assume the average college graduate is 23 years of age in 2026 and assumes a loan repayment amount of between $12-$100 thousand*** which enabled them to obtain a degree geared toward acquiring a job in the U.S workforce. Consider that the job is handed to someone who was red-carpeted into our country and who drives down the earnings of both potential employees, because given an immigrant’s presence here, there is greater competition for that job.**** This approach adversely affects an American graduate’s earning potential over his or her lifetime. Considering college loans are front-loaded with interest payments, graduates will be paying on college debts until they are 55 years of age- wouldn't you be if you borrowed $60 to $100k?

Further comments wages: Greenspan's line about- "our skilled wages are higher than anywhere in the world." While accurate, is a statement made in a vacuum. I say again, for about the 500th time- cost of living increases are not matching inflation. We're supposedly more productive in the workforce than ever before, but this is not showing up in our paychecks. His baseline comparion country is . . . some African nation where they still pay for a clay bowl with a handful of rice? Greenspan must assume that we are capable of eating the rice we no longer have from the bowl we purchased to store the rice. I defy anyone to find that middle class taxpayers are making out ok in the wage increase vs. inflation of necessary cost goods and services (food, gas, mortgage, health insurance, education). Enough already.

Further comments health: Rent for an apartment, food, the cost of a wedding, the price of the average reliable vehicle- those things won’t be any cheaper for my son and daughter in 15 years than they are now and they’ll need several million dollars for their retirement considering how expensive health care will be. Presently, when you retire, the company you worked for discontinues subsidizing your health care. After retirement, when health care costs rise, the company doesn’t pick up half the tab anymore. My recently retired mother saw her health insurance rise an unsubsidized $70 a month earlier this year. The best advice I will be able to give to my kids- ‘plan on not being sick when you are 65’ (which is the current retirement age, but which will surely increase in the next 20 years, considering scientific advancements as they relate to social aid programs). Potentially, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may all be insolvent by then; we can’t hope for illegal immigrant contributions to rescue us from that mess. Health care has gone up 52% in the last six years. We don’t have a problem with immigration as it concerns the middle class? You are distracted by shiny objects aren’t you? I guess my last four posts were a waste of time. Any religious liberals with any sense of guilt should ask their congressional representatives to pass a law allowing the drive-thru confessional. Liberals in Outbacks are going to be entirely too busy retrospectively finding fault with the sin of an overindulged sense of immigrational good Samaritanness because . . . (see 7b below) . . .

6) The headline- “Why We Need a Smaller U.S. Population and How We Can Achieve It”: is the title of just one of the position statement papers I gathered from Negative Population Growth NPG more than three years ago (so I cannot vouch for their online availability). The papers contain many of the same statistics culled from the 2000 United States Census Bureau, and the authors make many of the same claims, penning concerns about this country’s fortune as it is related to immigration- legal or otherwise. As of 2001, the U.S. population was “284 million, a 13 percent increase in the last decade . . . the Census Bureau’s high series projections—which have proven more accurate in recent years—project a population of 553 million by 2050.” Sharon McCloe Stein, the Executive Director of NPG in 2001 includes these points in her written testimony to the Immigration and Claims Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives’ on July 19, 2001 (nearly 7 years and 5.9 to 7.7 million illegal aliens ago).

a) “two-thirds of future growth will result from immigrants arriving since 1994 and their descendents” sometimes referred to as chain immigration;

b) Environmental concerns- “There is an overwhelming national and international scientific consensus on the relationship between population growth and environmental degradation . . . Demands for resources increase, and pollution, deforestation, waste, habitat destruction, and soil erosion rise. More homes, factories and roads must be built, reducing agricultural land and open space. (Already in the U.S., we lose three acres of farmland and open space every minute to meet the needs of an expanding population.) More energy and water are used, further eroding our limited natural resources . . .” For the conservatives who tend to pooh-pooh any doom and gloom talk, and like to harken back to the energy crises of the 1970s as a negative indicator of our current domestic good fortune (that would be sarcasm)- “Between 1970 and 1990 . . . total energy consumption increased by 36%, with more than 90% of this increase in energy consumption due entirely to population growth.” A conservative might say- the global population would have increased whether immigrants were entering the friendly confines of the United States or not. Quite so, but the fact remains that if Latin America’s, India’s or Laos’ population increased by 10%-20% in 30 years it wouldn’t have impacted the United States so negatively. One cannot believe that the presence of ten-thousand immigrants will have the same affect on twenty Americans would the immigrants have stayed in Mexico as if they were to come to the U.S. If someone would contend this- they are so naive they probably think that a steering committee is a group of people who decide on whether a male bovine should be castrated.

c) quality of life concerns- “Police forces, roads, and schools no longer satisfy the demands of a growing population. Farmland and forests are sacrificed to strip malls and housing developments. More and more schools, sanitary systems, roads, libraries, and water services must be built. Meanwhile, congestion increases, pollution rises, and school overcrowding goes up.” To piggyback off what I wrote in b above- I would rather have a Mexican or Indian student suffer from the issue of overcrowding than an American child, and have them suffer that injustice in Mexico and India. The categorical imperative's auspices can only extend so far. Do not forget that when you build schools, sewers, housing developments, roads, traffic lights, libraries, parks, etc. you are increasing the taxes of all economic classes in order to pay for such services, including those who can least afford the strain. When you build houses, schools, roads, shopping centers, etc. you build on former farmlands that grew crops like corn, wheat, and other grains, vegetables, etc. When might we be dependent on other nations for the importation of food due to the lack of available tracts of land on which to plant due to the land being overcrowded with people?

d) education concerns- “Department of Education officials say that by 2100, the nation’s schools will have to find room for 94 million students—nearly double the number of school-age children, ages five to 17, the nation has now.” By then, guess who the majority of those students will be. Thinking of 2100- imagine your great-grand children struggling in an overcrowded school resigned to the idea that he or she will have to compete with 10 million students entering the workforce in a three year period, competing for 4 million available jobs. Much more information is available at- population growth, written by Sharon McCloe Stein.

See also: reducing written by Donald Mann, growthism- written by Leon F. Bouvier, checklist written by Lindsey Grant, smaller U.S. population- written by Donald Mann.

I cannot agree to all of the proposals introduced or conclusions reached in the immediately preceding papers, but much of what they write is reasonably presented and their desires match the concerns the overwhelming majority of Americans have about the sustainability of life in the United States from an employment, educational, economic, social and environmental standpoint. The last site included immediately above, written by Donald Mann, proves that Americans are least responsible for the sustainability of life in this country from an over-population perspective, (though I'll admit, not from a consumption and waste standpoint): “Our fertility rate hovered around 1.8 from 1973 to 1987, but has risen steeply since then to 2.1 in 1991.” If it is true that “immigration accounts for 40 to 50 percent of our annual population increase,” there is little doubt that immigration is a big reason for our employment, educational, economic, social and environmental travails.

* Just kidding about that transvestite relation. Obama is related to former iconic heads of state, actually respected by those with historical perspective and Clinton is distantly related to a former British paramour and a woman whose shock value (Madonna) for wearing bras while wailing in concert, is her claim to fame. I thought that noteworthy. If Obama were related to Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, John Keats and the jesus christ divested of his divinity, I still wouldn’t vote for him.

** Just a joke. Federal agents took command of the situation. I guess it is true . . . everything IS bigger in Texas- even polygamy.

*** I am being both liberal and conservative with my estimate of average college loan dollar amounts. Being liberal- the low-end range of potential debt I set at $12 thousand may be reasonable if students only matriculate to a community college. For all I know a two year degree, considering how unlikely it is that the workforce will need as many skilled laborers in two decades, may do the trick. Sure makes one qualified to pick the lettuce heads that our immigrant bosses will consume, whose parents were granted amnesty in the second decade of the 21st century. (I would elaborate on why I think this but I am already spinning enough plates as it is). $60 grand (for a public university education) is not too far off from the average loan amount as it stands now- see (http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/24/pf/college/college_costs/index.htm) by Rob Kelley. The article indicates, “with room and board, four-year public colleges average $12,796 for in-state residents,” that “loans have grown to become a bigger part of aid packages, while grant aid [the kind of financial help you don’t have to pay back] has shrunken.” Consider where college costs will be in 15 years when the middle class kids I am most concerned about are matriculating to college . . . $60k is a conservative high-end estimate. At least others are thinking about immigration’s affect on education- “ ‘It’s affecting my children at school, . . . they’re suffering trying to get these immigrant kids up to speed.’ ” (From the article- “Illegal Immigrants Are Bolstering Social Security with Billions.” http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/10128 see part 25). The cost of college tuition goes up about 6% every year (6.3 percent in 2006-07, 7.1 percent in 2005-06). See the money.cnn.com article above. One more- “Assuming tuition keeps rising the way it has, in 16 years a college diploma will cost $150,000 to $300,000.” The article- “Saving for College” Josh Garskof, American Baby, November 2007 pg. 64.

****- keep in mind. Immigrants of any type are not going to want to clean hotel rooms and pick lettuce for long, so the governmental and political temporary solution of acquiring blue-collar workers to perform menial tasks will only serve that purpose until they tire of the labor and think about their own bank accounts, health insurance benefits, next of kin, retirement accounts, etc.

Please also see: http://www.msnbc.com/id/23055901/print/1/displaymode/1098/- An Associated Press Article- “House Aims to Hold Down College Costs,” February 7, 2008. In the article are the following pieces of information: 1) Dems and Reps think that “college costs have been rising faster than inflation,” . . . 2) that the “Average annual tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities total about $6,200 this year . . . 3) Public two-year colleges run about $2,360 on average.” The article also includes information about the 4) boondoggle of exorbitant, unknown prices that textbook publishers ask for their books- “Students may spend less than the estimated $900 they now spend on textbooks each year if the [proposed] bill becomes law.”

In addition, see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24163367/ for information where federal agents arrested nearly 300 people in raids of chicken plants in five states because of immigration fraud and identity theft. The information I deliver can’t be all bad. Now, if we could just guarantee the permanency of their deportation, we may be more satisfied with this particular result. Course, I wonder how many necessary, hard-working, illegal immigrants we could welcome into the country, paying them an acceptable wage for their work, in exchange for worthless white trash and black thugs that walk our streets looking for trouble. However, I. Kant’s maxim would seem to prohibit this approach.