I’m for globalization of soldiarity which will stop capitalism - a project that can’t be done “in one country” - not to create guest workers and hollow out Zambia…I’m not a Jeffrey Sachs fan but his heart’s in the right place and he has a goodl ine there.

NYTimes, “Should We Globalize Labor Too?” by JasonDeParle, highlighting the premise of Lant Pritchett [ http://tinyurl.com/yq7673 ]. As best I can tell, it’s not behind a paywall.

And, *in* (not it) a city like Detroit…

… Mrs. Thibodeaux can *tell* (not ell) by looking.

Sheesh!

I don’t dismiss what I believe to one of the largest core complaints: “Her strong feelings about the immigration issue came gradually, she said. A nephew who works as a house painter had trouble finding high-paying work because of competition from illegal immigrants.” And, it a city like Detroit, well paying jobs in the face of diminished auto manufacturing is a very big deal. But that problem began with corporations, not with the immigrants - whatever their status.

And, no doubt stuff like, “Some Mexican teenagers hassled her on the street, seeming to mock her because she walks with a cane. She spotted immigrants shopping with food stamps at the grocery store.” only adds fuel to the fire.

But without any genuine or secure means of confirming eligibility status, what are agencies like social services and employers in general supposed to do when the other arm of the sissors is a discrimination lawsuit. I don’t dismiss those either; I’ve seem them. Of course maybe Mrs. Thibodeaux can ell by looking. I sure as the hell can’t.

I don’t dismiss what I believe to one of the largest core complaints: “

You can call them undocumented workers, illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, or as the sublimely stupid Harry Reid said “undocumented Americans,” but the fact of the matter is that the majority of them are hear because of the last “flawed bill.” A flawed bill is not “better than nothing,” a flawed bill is bad law.

I have a lot of sympathy with that view, but law is not an immutable thing. If a law isn’t working, and basically can’t work, it should change, if it’s politically possible.

“It truly is a matter of principle rather than politics.”

If the principle you invoke is “the rule of law”, OK. But see above. And also accept that opposition to immigration reform, or acceptance of more draconian immigration reform, is often motivated by other, less-desireable, principles as well.

I admit hypocrisy: I’ve been an “illegal alien” here in Japan, and as my business has prospered, I’ve even hired one from time to time. Japan has its own style of “looking the other way” that helped make both situations possible for me.

How do I rationalize it? Over and above the Rule of Law, I see another principle: human flourishing depends on the right to seek opportunity, so long as it doesn’t harm others. Individual flourishing is the best hedge against the War of All Against All. True, anything that degrades respect for the rule of law hurts us all to some extent, in ways for which there is no accurate accounting. But costs must be balanced against benefits, even where the computation is necessarily approximate. In this, call me an optimist: where the principle of liberty to seek non-harmful opportunities conflicts with the rule of law, the world generally gets better for flouting law. I can’t give you an accurate accounting to support that optimistic assumption; nor can anyone else, I think. But I know that my life is better because of the willingness of some people to let me break the law in the way I did when I was “illegal,” and I also know that I’ve improved the lives of others when I myself hosted “illegals”. (I hate arguments from anecdotal evidence, but it’s all I have here.)

With the failure of this particular (admittedly flawed) bill, I guess I’m with Grumpy Old Man and listener on the sidelines: paralysis of government and maintenance of the status quo may, after all, be the best of all possible worlds just now. It’s too bad, but life goes on.

Go to Celeste Fremon’s site for an outrage other than this or Paris Hilton.

I’ll be happy when I see people getting jailed for war crimes.