1) They will provide a worker’s base that will support Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for baby boomers as they retire, where no substantial base now exists.

2) They can “earn” their American citizenship by being recruited to go and pave the way for American oil companies ceaseless usurpation of Middle Eastern, Asian, and South American oil resources.

3) Cheap labor for Republican business owners.

Do not be mislead into the scapegoat kind of thinking regarding "illegal aliens." "llegal"

after all is a discourse and doesn't mean anything in a nation where crimes are committed

by theives in high places on a daily basis. Immigrants are "undocumented" as citizens

by the state.

African Americans should also remeber that when they left their plantations in the mid 19th

century, it was also considered "illegal." Many fled to Mexico, which is a historical phenomenon

that needs more exploration.

The U.S. government will never insure the immediate and full citizenship of Latino immigrants

(and there is a system at work that privileges European and Cuban American immigrants over

Latinos and Haitians) because it is much more efficient for the state and corporations to

maintain a labor class that exists in a social limbo--they can't get full citizenship and thus, they

can't be guaranteed their full civil rights under the constitution. The model for this was set

with the handling of Chinese migrant laborers in the 19th Century and tested on Latinos at

sporadic moments in the 1920s, 30s, and 50s.

This approach also conveniently plays into state and corporate interests with respect to deflecting

attention away from the root causes of economic recessions and perpetuates American xenophobia.

Immigrants can be blamed for the bad economy as a "cheap labor" source, when it is actually

market overspeculation, state mismanagement, and general corporate malfeasance that actually

causes recessions and economic downturns. Hopefully the rest of American will eventually

get a clue and realize this.

The complicity of spineless Latin American governments is also to blame since they suck up to

U.S. corporate interests and turn a blind eye to how transnationalism capitalism ruins their

economies. The recent making up and sucking up between bush and his Mexican crony, vicente

fox was just a pretense for fox to declare that Mexicans "don't blame the U.S. for their economic

problems anymore." A crock of shit as any Mexican, regardless of education, will tell you. Why

do you thing immigrants come here in the first place, regardless of the dangers posed by

the border itself and asscrofts lockdowns under the patriot acts.

Americans, unfortunately, are more gullable to deception, as the bogus war on Iraq has

proven.

"and there is a system at work that privileges European and Cuban American immigrants over

Latinos and Haitians)"

I wonder why that might be.

Just to stir up some shit here...

There's that idea Marx put forth that depressions happen because people are underpaid, and as the rich get richer and hoard capital, the poor are less able to purchase goods, and a surplus of goods exists, depressing prices.

Profit margins shrink for a while, then the economy picks up a bit, and the capitalists release some of the money they made into the market again.

I'm not schooled in economics, but it seems somewhat plausible. It doesn't seem to really deal with natural resources or services.

PS - I think you're the only person on this site who has any grasp of immigration law history. The level of ignorance about the laws is astounding, especially considering that all the information is available on government sites.

That just shows how stupid Marx is. The money that the "the rich" have is usually invested, it's not lying uder a mattress somewhere.

Depressions happen because of overlending by banks. People and institutions borrow in the expectation that the assets they invest in will increase in value thereby yielding a tidy profit. Eventually, the market loses confidence, the value of assets drops and lenders are left with bad debt.

Over time the capitalist system has refined itself so that these setbacks are becoming less dangerous all the time.

" Over time the capitalist system has refined itself so that these setbacks are becoming less dangerous all the time."

That is, of course, unless you were an Enron investor. Or perhaps a Worldcom investor. Or maybe any ImClone investor excpect Martha Stewart.

Truth is, the higher the inflation, the bigger the drop. I'd hate to be one of those confident investors like old Barney there, when the bottom drops out. Be like getting caught in an avalanche.

The one thing that Americans can count on is the nice cushy economic buffer they have between themselves and the majority of the rest of the countries in the world. Those people are already poor, so they'll be really, really poor when the world economies collapse. But then again, they don't really have much to lose though, do they? No, they're sitting in their grass huts and mud-brick homes getting hard, while the rest of you are getting softer every day. I'd imagine they'll be the ones eatin' your young after the aftermath of the apocalypse...

The government can help to close the gap between rich and poor. Here's how:

1/ Cut taxes dramatically and in proportion to the amount of taxes paid. This includes both corporate and personal income taxes.

2/ Aid and abet American businesses rather than restricting, regulating, and taxing them. Help them to better compete on the world economic stage.

3/ Promote free trade with countries who do not impose import duties on our exports. Impose no import duites of our own except in retaliation against other countries restricting our exports to their country.

4/ Limit the ability of state and local governments to over tax the citizens with excessive property taxes, sales tax, etc.

In other words, the government can best assist in economic development by getting out of the way and helping American industry to prosper.

A booming economy will result. That means increases in jobs and n inevitable labor shortage. That means higher wages and lower unemployment as employers bid for the skills they need to expand and meet market demand.

are you a moron?

These four points are how we got to this crumbling state of affairs.

..for reposting my response to the immigration issue post.

Sorry for the typos, but I think most of the respondents

got the message, including the uninformed.

Look in the mirror to see the moron WTF.

Those four points really are the answer.

Keeping thieving government hands the hell out of our pockets is the way to ensure prosperity for all. Lifting barriers to trade, be it bureaucratic red-tape, tariffs or the Greenpeace industry is the next step.

In return for access to our domestic market, we get to trade with poorer countries. It's a win/win situation.