Controversial Topic Discussion

"Ideally (I told you I'm idealistic) we would scrap all forms of "border defense" and spend that significant amount of money on programs to help Mexico improve its economy and infrastructure such that the desire to immigrate to the US would not be there. This isn't going to happen in my lifetime..."

I love where you are going here. I just wish you wouldn't stop before you get there.

Your hope may be idealistic, but your denial of it as a possible reality, in the near future, is pessimistic. You are right in that such a thing probably isn't going to happen in your lifetime, but it is possible for such a thing to happen. What keeps it from happening is tribalism, under the guise of patriotism, and the wholly misguided notion that there is something about cultural heritage that makes it, somehow, more important than cultural progression.

This is where we are at as a world society; it is time to globalize or dis-integrate. The fragmented nature of our global society is directly at odds with the spread of goods, technology, and most importantly, information that are the hallmarks of the present age. These two phenomenon can not peacefully coincide. There is no way to live peacefully if we are going to try and preserve our outdated, isolated, social groups. We, as a global community, can either work towards a unifying culture and towards a global society that tears down the economic barriers built around so much of the world's population, leveling the playing field, or we can huddle in the familiar safety of familial groups awaiting the next conflict. It really is that simple.

I've never understood the complaint that we are outsourcing or that illegal immigrants are taking our jobs. They are people who are in every way the same as the people who live within, and were born within, the U.S. borders. A person with a job is a person with a job. Why should we care what tribe they belong to? Sure the U.S. may take something of an economic hit for a little while as we help to raise others up to a more reasonable standard of living, but why is that a bad thing? Wouldn't the ideal world be one in which we, as a global society, reach some economic equilibrium that offers all the world's people the chance to live a life at a reasonable standard of living?

I think illegal immigration is a problem of our own making, not due to weak border enforcement, but due to our utter disregard for the well being of those who fly a different colored piece of cloth.