Comments on: How Can Immigration Reform Cure the Nation’s Ills? http://www.thepolight.org/?p=671 News for people who don't watch Fox News Network Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:13:30 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: jescocom http://www.thepolight.org/?p=671&cpage=1#comment-135 jescocom Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:25:29 +0000 http://www.thepolight.org/?p=671#comment-135 Tara, I agree with you that we should help, not harm Mexico and it people and I think farm subsidies are a joke. They were put in place to teach farmers to rotate their crops after he dust bowl and to regulate the price of food. Anytime the government gets involved people find ways to game the system. My grandfather was a grocery store owner and screen door maker and repairer during the depression. He used to lease 1000 acres for $35 to $50 per year. He would then get $2,000 to not plant the land. Next year he would get a sharecropper to work the land and lease another parcel of land from someone else. Even though what he did was perfectly legal, he was taking advantage of the land owners who did not know they could do the same thing. My father was a young man and did not condone his actions, so he moved away and let his brother and sisters have all the inheritance when his parents died. With that said, you can see why I don't believe in government provided farm subsidies or any other government subsides. There is always some way to get around the rules and screw the little man. Tara, I agree with you that we should help, not harm Mexico and it people and I think farm subsidies are a joke. They were put in place to teach farmers to rotate their crops after he dust bowl and to regulate the price of food. Anytime the government gets involved people find ways to game the system. My grandfather was a grocery store owner and screen door maker and repairer during the depression. He used to lease 1000 acres for $35 to $50 per year. He would then get $2,000 to not plant the land. Next year he would get a sharecropper to work the land and lease another parcel of land from someone else. Even though what he did was perfectly legal, he was taking advantage of the land owners who did not know they could do the same thing. My father was a young man and did not condone his actions, so he moved away and let his brother and sisters have all the inheritance when his parents died. With that said, you can see why I don't believe in government provided farm subsidies or any other government subsides. There is always some way to get around the rules and screw the little man.

]]> By: Tara http://www.thepolight.org/?p=671&cpage=1#comment-134 Tara Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:00:23 +0000 http://www.thepolight.org/?p=671#comment-134 I have thought long and hard about this issue. I live in CA. The problem is extreme. My town, a tiny town on the coast just north of SF, might just have more illegals than legals by this point. I feel for their pain, and their desire for a better life, and yet, their presence has very much changed the tenor of my town, and how the non-illegals have had to change to accommodate our new situation (less housing, less jobs, more traffic, catcalls from illegals gathering by the library, etc.). One friend no longer sets up her crafting tables to vend on the streets here because she couldn't take the leers and whistling....I'm sorry, I'm a liberal, but also a realist - the illegals aren't perfect, and many of them are lecherous, and behave in a demeaning way towards women. I agree, that most of them don't seem to engage in criminal behavior. They just want to make a living, and send $ back home. I also agree, and have thought of those same laws - in fact - it's kind of madness that anyone can get a job withOUT a Social Security Card, isn't it? It seems that a good deal of the problem would be alleviated by forcing employers and landlords to only hire or rent to legal residents, then we'd only have the millions of employers that pay under the table, and the landlords already breaking the law with illegal units to worry about! But at least, the corporations like Walmart and other chains that hire illegals (where do teenagers find work, nowadays btw??) would be forced to stop. So I agree with your ideas for laws, it would help somewhat...but I think we need to look one step further...WHY is their country no longer able to support them? Have you done any research on the Farm Bill? I am not an expert, but from what I can gather, the US Farm Bill ONLY subsidizes 4 crops (this is why Organic produce costs so much, and produce prices in general have risen sky-high). One of those crops is CORN. The US subsidizes those who grow corn, and then dumps the excess in Mexico, for cheaper prices than if the Mexicans buy Mexican corn and corn products. I think that's the gist of it. Our abominable agriculture practices have virtually wiped out the Mexican farmer's ability to make a decent living. So we also need to address that - we don't want to wipe them out, and force them to leave, and go home to no job or monetary prospects...that's plain cruel! Better to build up Mexico, and other South American countries so the illegals have a reason to want to return to their native land. I have thought long and hard about this issue. I live in CA. The problem is extreme. My town, a tiny town on the coast just north of SF, might just have more illegals than legals by this point. I feel for their pain, and their desire for a better life, and yet, their presence has very much changed the tenor of my town, and how the non-illegals have had to change to accommodate our new situation (less housing, less jobs, more traffic, catcalls from illegals gathering by the library, etc.). One friend no longer sets up her crafting tables to vend on the streets here because she couldn't take the leers and whistling….I'm sorry, I'm a liberal, but also a realist – the illegals aren't perfect, and many of them are lecherous, and behave in a demeaning way towards women.

I agree, that most of them don't seem to engage in criminal behavior. They just want to make a living, and send $ back home.

I also agree, and have thought of those same laws – in fact – it's kind of madness that anyone can get a job withOUT a Social Security Card, isn't it? It seems that a good deal of the problem would be alleviated by forcing employers and landlords to only hire or rent to legal residents, then we'd only have the millions of employers that pay under the table, and the landlords already breaking the law with illegal units to worry about! But at least, the corporations like Walmart and other chains that hire illegals (where do teenagers find work, nowadays btw??) would be forced to stop.

So I agree with your ideas for laws, it would help somewhat…but I think we need to look one step further…WHY is their country no longer able to support them?

Have you done any research on the Farm Bill? I am not an expert, but from what I can gather, the US Farm Bill ONLY subsidizes 4 crops (this is why Organic produce costs so much, and produce prices in general have risen sky-high). One of those crops is CORN. The US subsidizes those who grow corn, and then dumps the excess in Mexico, for cheaper prices than if the Mexicans buy Mexican corn and corn products. I think that's the gist of it. Our abominable agriculture practices have virtually wiped out the Mexican farmer's ability to make a decent living. So we also need to address that – we don't want to wipe them out, and force them to leave, and go home to no job or monetary prospects…that's plain cruel!

Better to build up Mexico, and other South American countries so the illegals have a reason to want to return to their native land.

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