Monday, August 9, 2010

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Monday, August 2, 2010

Robots are stealing our jobs!

SB1070 supporters are the modern day Luddites of America!

A friend of mine recently forwarded me an email containing this quote that he thought was analogous to Arizona's SB1070 immigration situation:

The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Robert Sarver, opposes AZ's new immigration laws. Arizona's Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver's criticism of the new law:

"What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are, but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn't be ejected. Furthermore, what if Suns' ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?" -Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

I'm no economist, but this was my reply:

Hi (Anonymous),

I think this is a bad analogy.

America does not belong to pro SB1070 folks, like the Suns basketball team belongs to Sarver.

Sarver is solely sovereign over the ticketing policy at his games. Pro SB1070 Americans are not sovereign over the entire United States land area, especially the privately held land (my house for example).

If I own a house, I should be able to have anyone I want over for dinner without fear of a charge of aiding and abetting. There is nothing wrong with serving dinner, there is nothing wrong with eating dinner, so absent immigration laws, what could be wrong with having an immigrant over for dinner?

If I own a business, I should be free to employ whomever I want on my property as well. There is nothing wrong with employing someone, there is nothing wrong with being employed by someone, so absent immigration laws, what could be wrong with hiring an immigrant to work for your company?

Americans DO NOT have a right to any job, ANYWHERE. If a Mexican, Russian, Polish, Japanese, etc worker, is willing to do my job better or cheaper or both than I, he should get my job and I should learn more skills or agree to work for less pay. For me to suggest otherwise would be to promote the idea that the US economy should suffer so that I could keep a job that I no longer deserve.

This is why I despise soviet style, authoritarian communism, or majority rule politics (democracy), it severely limits human freedom to only the things that the majority will allow (and forces me to fund these restrictions against my will by the way). This would not be so bad if it was only in cases where someone was aggressing against another person, but simply traveling on a public road that pro-open borders Americans are forced to pay for as well, is not in itself immoral.

Many Americans have no problem with limitless immigration (myself included). I don't care if every person that wants to live in the US were here tomorrow, as long as they support themselves and respect my freedom and my property. In fact, I believe it would strengthen our economy and make America an even wealthier, more powerful nation.

I would rather welcome immigrants and lead them by example to the traditional (largely forgotten) American principals of liberty than to persecute them simply because they broke a pointless law. If all they did was break a law, if that's their only transgression, not actually harming someone or something, then the law serves no purpose in my mind.

If someone commits murder they are wrong because they killed someone, not simply because they "broke the law". The reason I am a Christian Anarchist / Voluntaryist / Libertarian (same difference) is because I believe that more often than not, what is offered as legitimate law / government is not really legitimate at all, but simply a means for people to abuse others and camouflage their actions behind their supposed "respect for the law".

For example, one can say:

"I don't think it's right that the IRS takes your money by force, but we have to respect the law!"

When I hear this from someone, what I hear is:

"I want (defense, police, courts, health care, roads, etc...fill in the blank) and rather than provide it for myself or purchase it from the market, or even steal it from you directly, I will vote for a politician who will take it from you by force through legislation"

They can then hide behind their direct or proxy actions by claiming that they respect "the rule of law" or Gods command that we submit to the higher powers.

Well how do we tell the difference between a God ordained higher power and someone or something that simply has power?

For me it's just this simple:

If they are punishing evil and praising good, I should submit and pay tribute to them like the bible says, if they are a terror to good works, and therefore not what the bible is referring to, I should rebuke and withdraw my support for them. This is why I am opposed to SB1070 and 90% of the actions of our federal, state, and local governments, they are overwhelmingly a terror to good works and a vehicle / means for evil people to commit evil acts and claim false legitimacy through legal/political obfuscation.