Letters to the Editor

Ideology can be idiotic

The other day I came out of Target and was engaged by a man who wanted my signature on a petition to kill the Dream Act.

The Dream Act would give scaled levels of residency to undocumented immigrants. As an example, if they have been here five years, finished high school, two years of college or have served in the military, etc., they could become legal residents.

My response to the petitioner — “How about we put the people that employ the illegals in jail, and really fix the problem” — was met with the petitioner’s ideology that was in my view idiotic.

He launched into a tirade about how it’s anyone’s Constitutional right to employ anyone they want regardless of their legal status, and that the government must never be allowed to intervene when a contract between an employer and an employee. He cited an example where, if an employer wanted to pay $5 per hour and an employee was OK with that, then the government has no say.

Furthermore, the petitioner told me that the profit made by that contract was wholly the property of the employer and, if the employer got rich, so be it.

I have heard this Libertarian rant before, but I am always shocked by the people who spew it, as they seem determined to make others believe that people earning wages that barely pay for food, a.k.a. slavery, is a good thing for America.

I do not believe that a burgeoning population of poor and uneducated people is good for America, unless we all want to enjoy the benefits of a third-world nation where a few are filthy rich and everyone else is scrambling to survive.

The idiocy in the petitioner’s ideology rang true when he told me that he was earning $5 per hour pushing petitions, and he was OK with it.

All I could do was to wish him a wonderful life in poverty.

Dave Patterson

Ramona