immigration and socialism

[This post is from this Coffee Party comment thread]

>why is the "legal process" the way it is?

Great question. I don't really know all the historical reasons for the current set of immigration laws. I would guess some of them are probably based in racism or chauvinism. Others exist to control the US labor pool to give advantages to the people already here. I agree with you that the immigration laws need to be changed to be more humane. I think we differ greatly in other areas, though. If I recall correctly from other posts, you are an ardent anti-capitalist. I don't share your level of distaste for capitalism. I agree that great abuses take place within a capitalist society, but abuse is not unique to capitalism. Great abuses take place (or have taken place) within all other forms of society, too. I place the blame on the unethical people that exist within all societies. They always seem to find ways to warp and manipulate the system to their advantage to gain more power, and the more power they gain, the more they can work the system to their advantage. This problem is not unique to capitalist societies. Purely socialist societies will suffer from this too, in my opinion. The only society that would not suffer from this problem is one devoid of unethical people. That's not likely to happen any time soon (if ever).

if all forms of society are vulnerable to abuse and manipulation, what are we to do? Well, chose the least bad one, I guess. People have been debating what is the 'least bad one' for quite some time now. I favor a society that tries to maximize freedom of action and belief, protects everyone's rights, has a government accountable to its citizens, creates laws to punish abusers, creates other laws that try to prevent abuse from happening in the first place.

My problem with socialism it puts too many constraints on peoples actions. Wanting to own a business is not inherently evil in my book. My problem with libertarianism is that it doesn't recognize the need for laws to prevent abuse. They seem content to have only laws to punish abusers. I know I'm greatly simplifying socialism and libertarianism, but this post is long enough as it is. And it's lunch time.