Employment of illegal aliens is a form of slavery - because they are workers with no vote, so they cannot vote to change the rules of their employment. But the fact that they are still counted in the census gives the employers in their area of residence disproportionate political power - since his vote actually represents more people than himself, but who are not able to vote, and he votes for those who will perpetuate the system.
Other than the involuntary nature of slavery, the conditions are identical.
I once raised the topic of illegal immigration with my local Republican Central Committee. One of the members was a farm owner who immediately asked me if I wanted to pay a much higher price for lettuce, and then pointed out that the best thing about employing illegals was that they could not vote.
At that point, I decided that these people weren't Republicans, a party started on the concept of citizen Free Labor, but rather Southern Democrats without the nationalism. A rather squalid mix, if you ask me.
I agree. I see the same argument with those who claim some right to low cost technology. $1000 for a PC is too much, so we send the parts suppliers to China and get a $600 PC. Then, $600 is too much, so we send seminconductor fabrication to China to get a $500 PC. Then, $500 is too much, so the US engineers must be eliminated in favor of $30K chinese ones to get a $400 PC. What's next? Would we want Chinese prison labor to work at the seminconductor fabs for free, so we can have a $200 PC?
And what I love is - what businesses are we trying to support domestically with these lower costs? As in the example of mexican illegals - how much economic benefit is a restaurant providing that we should look aside at illegal immigration, which brings other costs to the society? does someone needing a $300 PC to run a small business selling crap on EBAY justify ditching the US technology industry?
re: post #34. Great point.