traptunderice wrote:
Goat wrote:
finding ways to put less people in prison, rather than more
You mean addressing poverty?
Europeans...
They bitched because South American countries block US companies from their national markets, so they pass NAFTA, NAFTA causes rapid unemployment, they bitch when the unemployed come to America, they bitch that they take jobs they themselves wouldn't work, they bitch that they violate our laws despite the fact that their transnational agreement superceded these people's own laws, and now they put them in prison since we caused them to come up here. This whole prison business is very Foucauldian but rather than the creation of subjects, the actual facts point to some vulgar Marxism of shady deals and money-making.
The war on drugs as only amounted to incarceration rates skyrocketing. I wouldn't say it is for the same exact reason as these immigration prisons starting up but I would imagine it's a possibility or at least one of the reasons in the larger explanation.
Ahh, yes, true to form, it's those evil corporations run by White Males that are to blame for all the worlds ills... never mind the corrupt narco/oligarchy in Mexico that looks the other way when it comes to it's own citizenry; or the third world shithole government's (often times dictators) treating their own country and it's people as basically slaves, totally indifferent to their poverty and misery whilst they eat and drink lavishly in any one of their numerous palaces... it
has to be the fault of every Marxists favorite boogyman; The Evil Corporation...
yawn. You need a new schtick.
You look at people and see helpless rabbits in need of mommy (the government) supplying a tit to suckle off of from the cradle to the grave.
Mexico is abundantly wealthy, the government does nothing to curtail the poverty and lack of education in it's own backyard, yet the fault is with America?
Why do you constantly lash out at this country and it's free market policy? You never place any responsibilty on other countries/governments for their own fate and destiny, at least not that I have seen.
You fail to tell the whole story. For example many of those sweatshops overseas that your kind rail about constantly are paying MORE, and offer BETTER working conditions than before those evil transnational corporations set up shop.
Quote:
A 2005 article in the Christian Science Monitor states, "For example, in Honduras, the site of the infamous Kathy Lee Gifford sweatshop scandal, the average apparel worker earns $13.10 per day, yet 44 percent of the country's population lives on less than $2 per day... In Cambodia, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Honduras, the average wage paid by a firm accused of being a sweatshop is more than double the average income in that country's economy."[36]
Quote:
On three documented occasions during the 1990s, anti-sweatshop activists in rich countries have apparently caused increases in childhood prostitution in poor countries. In Bangladesh, there was a closure of several sweatshops which had been run by a German company, and as a result, thousands of Bangladeshi children who had been working in those sweatshops ended up working as prostitutes, turning to crime, or starving to death. In Pakistan, several sweatshops, including ones run by Nike, Reebok, and other corporations, were closed, which caused those Pakistani children to turn to prostitution. In Nepal, a carpet manufacturing company closed several sweatshops, resulting in thousands of Nepalese girls turning to prostitution.[37]
Quote:
The absence of the work opportunities provided by sweatshops can quickly lead to malnourishment or starvation. After the Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Asia, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution." UNICEF's 1997 State of the World's Children study found these alternative jobs "more hazardous and exploitative than garment production."[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop# ... _arguments
So, you see, like real life, things aren't quite as black and white as your narrow little boxed in worldview of "profits are evil" would seem.
Is it perfect? Far from it, but to claim that those people overseas are forced into these jobs is ridiculous. It's not as if they were working 9 to 5 in a suit and an air conditioned office of their very own prior to their garment manufacturing job.
I'm not advocating a pro-sweatshop stance here, but if an argument is going to be made, both sides of the coin should be examined.
Anyway, I'm no fan of NAFTA, but to blame the illegal alien problem on it is disingenious at best. You have to look at the Mexican governments role in the matter as well. NAFTA has been worse for Canada, but they arn't fleeing their country in droves, are they?
Illegal immigration predates NAFTA by many decades.
As for the Arizona bill: it is only a response to the Feds not enforcing it's
own law. All the red herrings in the world will not make it anything other than that.
I also think the "war on drugs" is futile, but legalizing all drugs (I am a strong proponent of legalizing weed, FTR) is ridiculous; the cartels, street dealers and whatnot would simply find something else (possibly even worse than drugs) to traffick in.
