[spdrun]

But water should be priced to reflect its actual cost, not subsidized. Also, pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides required to maintain a lawn should be priced to reflect their environmental cost and restricted in use.

Runoff from lawns poisons the ocean, and chemicals are used far more liberally for lawns than for farms.

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How would a “benefits entitlement” card even work, considering most schools are local or state funded and immigration is nationally controlled?

In most states outside of CA, school funding is largely from property taxes. Commercial property is taxed higher than residential, generally speaking. Therefore any employer that has a place of business is already paying more school tax.

As far as welfare beenfits, I could see denying them to non-citizens. But not unemployment or social security, if the guest worker has worked for the requisite time period and paid into the system.

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Changing the indoor temperature/humidity is very different from terraforming an entire neighborhood to look like a place 3000 miles away.

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I have quite a few conservative friends — some of them are even open minded enough to enjoy arguing about politics 🙂 As long as they’re respectful about it, and are truly conservative vs being bigoted, they’ll remain friends.

As far as religion, I’m more of an agnostic, but I’m seeing someone who’s a somewhat religious Catholic, went to see the Pope and all that. Tolerant, but religious nonetheless.

I disagree that safety nets and open borders are incompatible. Require ID for government services, don’t provide them to non-citizens. Open borders =/= open citizenship. There should still be a naturalization process.

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I’d agree that CA should build more desalination plants. But I don’t agree that we should form nature to fit an ideal that’s from a different biome. Every part of the country has its own beauty. Why not enjoy California as it is?

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That’s just the ease of travel and mass communication. Last I checked, the last time state borders were closed was during the Civil War.

There’s something to be said about congregating with those who are similar. Maybe that’s why as a 2nd generation American, I feel more empathy with Latinos who are either immigrants, or children of immigrants, than with people whose distant ancestors came off the Mayflower.

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[quote=CA renter]We prefer to have different cultures, governments, economies, etc. so that people can choose something other than what they currently have. Migration has always been a part of human history, and I would never want it to be otherwise, but eliminating borders and consolidating governments, currencies, trade rules, economies, religious preferences, ethnicities, (even races) etc. is not a positive thing, IMO.
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Open borders won’t eliminate diversity in the way that you’re thinking. The US is very regionally diverse, yet has open borders between states.

The EU is also reasonably diverse and has open borders for citizens of any EU country. European borders were also practically open between the Napoleonic Wars and WW I. We only started putting up real walls in the early 1900s.

[spdrun]

It also seems to give scholarships, promote cultural events, provide academic help to those who need it.

I highly doubt that the majority of its members care a union of California and Mexico. Especially since Mexico is a conquered region as well, and far from the ideal of Aztlan.

[spdrun]

OK, but do the majority of immigrants from Mexico/Latin America actually believe in this stuff?

There’s plenty of crazy and crypto-fascism to go around — ever hear of white separatism?

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Question is, if we had truly open borders worldwide, would that be such a bad thing? Everyone would have the choice of what sort of government they’d want to live under. It would make tyranny and bad government a lot harder to enforce.

Open borders and globalism should be long-term ideals, since no one should be stuck because they had the misfortune to be born in one region of the world or another.

[spdrun]

Assimilation works in both directions. America is a fundamentally cold, distant, touch-phobic culture. Comes down from the Puritans and other Protestant fanatics. The Mexicans that I’ve met have been much more social, friendlier, and more spontaneous than Americans. Maybe a mixture of Mexican and American culture will be a positive influence on both sides.

New York City wouldn’t be what it is without immigrants from various Latinate countries, both in the Americas and in Europe. There were also many of the same fears in the 1890s. About Italians, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Jews, what have you. All gangsters, thieves, Communists, or out to take us over. OMG!

As far as the dropout rate, this is true for poor white areas as well. Was also true for Irish, Italian, etc immigrants in the early 1900s. Things will adjust as time goes on and generations pass.

California won’t ever be majority Mexican-born. The majority will likely be composed of second and third generation Americans, with some aspects of both cultures.

Again. Who cares? I in fact welcome it. And Asians, and any other immigrants who want to come to CA, work hard, and build a life. It will make it a more interesting place.

[spdrun]

And again, who cares? Even if California ends up being majority Latino and/or Mexican, how will this affect you? The political system won’t change that much since it’s governed by the Federal and state constitution, both of which are hard to change.

Maybe you’ll end up with the good aspects of the culture south of the border — without the rampant crime and corruption.

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Nah, if most Mexican immigrants wanted to live in Mexico, they’d have stayed there. I really doubt this is a serious trend.

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[quote=CA renter]I’ve had Mexican-American friends tell me that the Mexicans were going to “take back” their territory in a bloodless war, simply by out-populating the white Americans. [/quote]

Think about what you’re saying.

Real question is, so what if they do and the US west ends up majority Mexican/Latino? How does that affect you? I don’t think that anyone is seriously proposing that Upper California should rejoin Mexico — most immigrants come here to escape bad political conditions down there.

Also, intermarriage tends to be more common among children of Latino immigrants, so we might end up with a “Californian” identity rather than a “Mexican” one in 100 years.

In short, who cares, unless you have some outdated notions of ethnic purity?

And this is an AWESOME trend. One out of five Californians now marries outside their race…
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/interracial-marriages-u-s-hit-all-time-high-4-8-million-article-1.1023643

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