And the Survey Says...

Today, whilst home for lunch, I ran across a survey that was addressed to my grandfather. The survey said that it would randomize answers, so feel free to record your true thoughts as it would be totally anonymous. It went on to further state that the purpose of the survey was to reach you, average Joe USA!

Well, right off the bat, I thought this was funny. My grandfather is almost 93 years old. He told me the other day I should be careful who sees me drink beer, what with prohibition and all.

Definitely not 'average Joe USA' material, but I suppose there's no way for the US government to know that...aside from using age as a determining factor for the recipients of said survey.

Anyway, most of the questions seemed pretty straight forward. Things like, "Do you know what the current cap is set at for number of immigrants entering the US per year?" and "Do you think that illegal immigration is currently a problem in the US?"

That is to say, most of the questions I found myself not even really thinking about. No, I don't know the current cap, yes I do think that the US has a problem with illegal immigration, and no I don't think the US should make more allowances for the number of languages currently spoken in our country."

In retrospect, I might have been sitting on a tall horse while answering these questions, but I'm pretty tired of having to sit through 30 seconds of Spanish before I get to the English prompts in an automated phone call.

So, anyway, the questions were cut and dried until I got to this one:

"Do you think the United States can withstand an unlimited amount of immigrants without ripping the fabric of our current economical system."

Now, I can't remember the question word for word, and I don't have the paper in front of me right now, but you get the gist. Can an unlimited amount of people flood into our country without causing a total societal collapse.

At first, I answered 'no' in the same quick fashion I had answered the previous questions. "No, of course it can't take that! Think of all the additional people us working folks will have to support. There isn't enough jobs!"

At this point, I put the paper down and pondered for a moment.

More people should mean more jobs. More people, as long as they are capable people, are going to go out and get a job, so that they can in turn create more jobs, simply by being American. They buy groceries, gas, subscribe to cable TV, and the market grows simply by their residence.

But then, on the other hand, too many people who aren't capable of doing the jobs that need to be done to support a larger society could be detrimental to our society.

So, I pondered, and then realized it didn't really matter anyway, as the survey wasn't addressed to me in the first place, so I put it down and came back to work.

A few other thoughts on immigration I'd like to get out here:

I'm all for people coming to this country, but I'm totally against illegal immigration, and think that a solution to that particular problem needs to be found. You can't go to the movies without a ticket, or rather if you get caught, you're asked to go to the back of the line and wait to purchase a ticket, so why should it be any different with residency. Shouldn't illegal immigrants, when found, be asked to leave and apply the correct way? Why should they get the perks while their countrymen stand in line, and follow the rules?

Immigration is what made this country great. I'm only a few generations removed from a boatload of Norwegians myself. If it wasn't for immigration, we'd all still be sitting around a fire outside of our tee-pees, wondering where the buffalo were.

Well, I wouldn't be, because I wouldn't be here, but someone would be.

Anyway, food for thought...