This is an interesting one because it contradicts the conservative wisdom that it was WWII that yanked us out of the great depression.

In fact, it puts the commentator in an interesting position; Ending the Depression wasn’t just a matter of ordinary citizens working harder; it was, basically, solved either by WWII or the New Deal.

Since WWII was essentially a historical fluke, and wasn’t initiated by the citizens of the US, that leaves the New Deal.

So a Fox News reader is basically saying that Mexico should take a hard swing to the left and initiate comprehensive and gigantic socialist reforms.

Christopher, you’re right. Then again, it really puts the commentator in the interesting position of having no fucking clue what he is talking about.

OK, lemme get this straight. There’s this guy, he lives in a cardboard and tarpaper shack in a sprawling urban slum with no sewage, electricity or clean water. Most of his extended family lives there, along with his wife and 3 children. They have no hope of bettering themselves there, because of the poverty, the corruption, the lack of educational opportunities, the lack of JOBS. Now, apparently, according to this Brad fellow, what this guy should NOT do is head north and try to make some money to get a better life for his family. No, what this guy should do is become a political activist, rally a grass-roots movement among his fellow poor slum-dwellers, and become president, where he can effect the changes to his society that will raise everyone up out of poverty and ignorance and illiteracy, create vast numbers of well-paying jobs, and turn Mexico into the modern, technological, industrial society it really could be, if only…

Right. As I’ve said before, there are a couple kinds of stupid. The willful kind, the kind that utterly ignores facts and reality, is by far the worst kind.

Just Sayin

mikey

But it’s not an answer. The question was, what should the President do to prevent unlawful entry? “Brad’s” answer was,”Mexico should become a better place to live.” I guess the follow-up question is, “We don’t control Mexico–Mexico controls Mexico–so, what can we do to make Mexico a better place to live?” The answer to that is stuff the wingers loathe, like economic development, foreign aid and free trade. Non answers like, “The president can improve things only when other people do stuff” is what sent Geo. Bush 41 careening from 53% of the popular vote in 1988 to 36% in 1992.

“Do something to make it a better place. Quit running away from your problems; take ownership of them.”

Though it may strike Brad as preposterous, this the very reason many immigrate to the US. An example from Oaxaca (from the LA Times recent series on migration and remittances).

Another quality FOX Fan proposal:

“I would repeal the law that makes you a U.S. citizen if born in the U.S. They are a citizen of their mother’s country. It’s an old law that has run its course and not required anymore.” — Jim (Great Falls, VA)

Yeah, I’ll take credit for that one.

No one ever built a successful economy with tacos, Mexlamics!! Get a damn clue-o!1! ROFLMFAO!!!

“Remember the Great Depression? When America sucked to live in and everyone was poor and out of work? Let’s bring that back, and the Mexicans won’t WANT to come here.”

Uh, hmm.

As far as I know, at least part of why Mexico sucks so hard for folks with menial jobs (the ones most likely to come to the US) is the way we’ve basically treated the entire country as a maquiladora and a dump.

The Great Depression was to some extent self-inflicted. Mexico’s problems are largely the rest of being powerless and living next to a superpower.

That said, I wonder why FOX hasn’t reported “Brad” to the government for advocating that Mexico start a world war, since it would probably involve attacking us.

I hate to blogwhore, but if you guys wanna see some good ideas, you should check out Joyanna at Mensnewsdaily.com. She’s got the solution all worked out.

Holy compassionate conservatism! Feel the love at foxnews.com today. I wanna play too:

If I were president, I would grind 50% of the illegal immigrants into a nourishing paste to feed to the other 50% while they build a giant neon sign that says “Fuck You Mexico” which I would never, ever plug in, because fuck you, Mexico, use your own electricity if you want light.

Wasn’t the Great Depression worldwide? Maybe Americans didn’t emigrate because things weren’t better anywhere else. Ofcourse some people moved around within the country. If Brad was alive in the 1930s he’d have patrolled the California-Oklahomostan border.

I guess the follow-up question is, “We don’t control Mexico–Mexico controls Mexico–so, what can we do to make Mexico a better place to live?�

Why, invade, obviously!

If I were president, I would grind 50% of the illegal immigrants into a nourishing paste to feed to the other 50% while they build a giant neon sign that says “Fuck You Mexico� which I would never, ever plug in, because fuck you, Mexico, use your own electricity if you want light.

Yum, enchilada-flavored soylent green?

It’s time these Mexicans take pride in their own country and do something to make it a better place. Quit running away from your problems; take ownership of them.

Hasta luego, amigo.

I’m going to be contrarian here…neither WWII nor the New Deal, as far as I know, “fixed” the Great Depression. The war meant government money pumping into the US economy unrestricted and unemployment dropping, with the postwar providing booms in demand and a welcome increase in the availability of household goods; the New Deal fixed the market ineffectiveness in infrastructure and gave a lot of people a band-aid; but nobody ever fixed the fundamental structural problems in the economy:
* Overproduction in agricultural goods, leading to gluts, the current patchwork of price supports & government cheese, and the devastation of the American family farm;
* The intrinsic insanity of the banking system — FDIC just shifted the insecurity from the banks themselves to the pension funds, and ever since Bretton Woods ended there’s always been a monetary crisis somewhere in the world (I know, strictly post hoc ergo propter hoc…);
* Irrational exuberance in investment. Who needs stock on margin when you’ve got junk bonds and companies that don’t actually do anything?

What would I do to stop illegal immigration?

Law #1: Any American citizen who gets paid to smuggle people into the country illegally faces revocation of their citizenship and deportation to the country in question.

Law #2: Any American company that employs illegal immigrants faces an exponentially increasing punishment. After the fifth time they’re caught, the business is disbanded.

Law #3: Any American company found to solicit illegal immigrants for hire is immediately disbanded, and the officers of the company go straight to jail, or a pit of stinging nettles and poison sumac. No saving throw.

Any time you want to stamp out a particularly rampant crime, follow the money and smack the guy who gets it in the face.

(Oh, and if I ever get the opportunity to whisper in the president’s ear, I won’t be giving the fucker advice on immigration.)

debaser: at one point during the Great Depression there were more Americans applying to emigrate to the Soviet Union than foreigners applying to emigrate to the US.

Somehow I don’t think ‘Brad’ realises this. Maybe at that low point the ‘get up and go’ US entrepeneurial spirit ‘got up and went’.

Overseas, that is.

Did we sneak into other countries to solve our problems? No, we fixed our own country through hard work.

Damn straight, that’s just good American can-do spirit. Like the way the Pilgrims fixed the problem of religious persecution in England.

Ok, ALL of you are being dorks. But when would that be any different from any other day. First of all, who gives a shit what FOX faux news posts to its network? The people that get their news from that network won’t give a rat’s ass about or neighbors to the south anyhow. I on the other hand do. I say we roll out some hard core industries like porn and home depot. They can compete in dirty movies arena, make some money like that. Use the materials from home depot to build a moat to keep the college kids from entering the south to score their dope and get laid. If the college kids want to score some dope and punai then they have to pay a toll (more income). Problem solved! Maybe they can start a pilgrim sex scene or maybe a drive through where they show pilgrims screwing the indians. Ok, so I didn’t make any sense and I caused an even bigger problem. But isn’t it more fun to make problems than to solve them???

Brian, dude, you raise a lot of interesting questions, which I will definitely think about for my next hard-hitting news report. At the same time, you are making my head hurt…

\”Remember the Great Depression? When America sucked to live in and everyone was poor and out of work? Let\’s bring
that back, and the Mexicans won\’t WANT to come here.\”
I Think Bush is well ahead of you on that one.

Just put up WELCOME TO CANADA signs along the U.S./Mexican border.

The funny thing is that a) the rest of the world mostly sucked too, so there wasn’t anywhere better to go during the Great Depression, and b) during that time upwards of 100,000 Americans emigrated to the Soviet Union looking for a better life.

Reinforcing what someone above pointed out, Americans DID in fact migrate to other places where they thought they could find work. The fact that the places they went to happened to be within our borders really didn’t bear on it, particularly since the migrants were discriminated against as much as today’s immigrants are.

I like that idea where they turn Mexico into a giant Amsterdam. Being that I’ll be retiring soon, and I’m a stone cold pervert, I’d be down there doing lines, shrooming up, and dipping my wick in any brown ink I could find. I just wish I didn’t look like the lady teacher in the Jimmy Neutron cartoon. Ice Ice Baby, too cold, too cold.

p.s. I’m stroking it right now.

Aww, bleeding hearts.. how nice. More people die EVERY DAY because of illegal immigrants than in Iraq. Here’s what I would do to stop illegal immigration into US:

#1: Land mine the border, shoot any mojado in between the eyes on his way in. It sounds brutal, but only a hundred or so would have to die before they realize they’re not getting in.

#2 After step 1 is complete, lay down a 700 mile patch of sod/grass on the border. Anymore that tried to come across would get so involved in trying to mow the grass that they would forget about raping women and go back home.

#3 Deport all illegals here back home.

#4 Nuke Mexico.

Hello! Of course people didn’t sneak thier ways into other countries during the great depression, they didn’t have to. President Herbert Hoover passed the Immigration Act of 1924 which sent one – two million mexicans back to mexico; in which half of them were born in the U.S. Enforcing this, the United States wasn’t shy in using an estimated 2.69 million Chicanos for their military. Approximately one-third of them were a draft-age, and 12 mexican americans won medals of Honor during WW2 more than any other ethnic group. In the same sense, the whole thing about “sending mexicans back to their country” will never reach its full potential. American loves having them around for cheap labor and working class jobs. You think the average american citizen will want these jobs??? I don’t think so…….

well most of you are a bunch of mother fuckers!! How the hell do you think the U.S. gets anything done around here. Mexican people are hard workers!! So you want to send them back to mexico most americans their ancestors are from other countries so are we gonna send everyone back to the country they originally came from?? There would be know one left . and to Joseph G. maybe you should crawl back in the hole you came from!!!