My greatest practical concern is with the infrastructure and institutions of this country. The USA has assimilated waves of immigrants within its borders before- but the sheer numbers we're looking at are daunting. And this has nothing at all to do with ethnicity, religion, culture, or even educational background. This country is looking at an increase of tens of millions of people from immigration- both legal and illegal- over the next 20-25 years. I don't care if they're all college-educated Scots. That's an awful lot of people. In order to keep this a highly developed nation, they'll require a level of services that I'm not sure we can construct that quickly.

At some point, these issues have to be brought up and addressed in ways that don't dissolve into emotional accusations, demagoguery, and hysteria. That is not helpful or responsive, no matter what faction or viewpoint might feel inclined to run the issues like that.

Maybe the thing to do is to begin charging hefty prices or additional tax burdens to legal immigrants. That's an idea that I haven't heard anything about, although I have a tough time thinking that it would be original with me.

My issue is not whether or not we have the territory to accommodate tens of millions more people in this country. We do. The question is how fast we can expand the water treatment facilities, the schools, the civic capabilities, the energy requirements, and the ability to provide adequate employment opportunities across the board without disadvantaging native-born Americans, or having the country slip out of the status of being a developed nation or a democratic republic.

I'm on record as being sort of a hard-nose about the excessive materialism and consumerism in this society. That doesn't mean that I want dirty water, illiteracy, an inadequate number of doctors, or a decline in basic amenities like a fully functioning electrical grid, or well-maintained roads. And this country is facing economic pressures as it is. If we're going to add a large number of additional residents in a very short time- which is what the trends look like- I think they need to be able to pay their own way, and to be in the asset column rather than the liability column.

And if you think my attitude sounds cold- well, ignoring the problem is not going to help. What will really be cold is if the parts of the country- and I'm not just talking about California; far from it, in fact- start to buckle and crumble under the burden, and slip backwards into impoverished and undeveloped conditions.

No easy answers on this one.

I think a big part of the solution is reducing demand.

As long as illegal immigrants can get jobs from American employers, they'll keep coming. The employers who hire them are the real target.

For decades California has promoted itself to the rest of the USA as a paradise. A place where the weather is always wonderful, everyone has a fast car, the people are all beautiful, life is relaxed and easy, and there's lots of money. Where the morals are relaxed if they exist at all, and the endings are all happy.

IOW, a place where the old rules don't apply.

Having the movie studios and much of the TV production business there has made that promotion not only easy but almost unconscious. (How many TV shows portray life in and around LAX or SF, compared to the rest of the USA?)

When I was kid, the radio stations played the Beach Boys and similar music from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A whole generation of kids whose vacation consisted of a week at the Jersey Shore were bombarded with images of endless summer, surfing, fast cars and girls who never said no. Nobody in a Beach Boys song has to worry about a job (how do they pay for the surfboards and cars?) and they're happy almost all the time. Heck, they don't even have winter.

It is not a coincidence that Bruce Springsteen came from New Jersey. Springsteen portrays the reality for most of us, in stark contrast to the Beach Boy myths.

There's also the Disneyfication of culture and technology, in which everything looks easy, pretty and wholesome, and the reality is hidden away. Don't ask where the electricity comes from or where the trash and sewage go, just smile at the giant cartoon rodents...

The problem is, Californians still believe the myths and won't face the reality, until it smacks them in the face. Deregulate electricity? Sure! Limit taxes but not spending? Why not? Elect not one but two movie actors to the governorship, regardless of qualifications?

It would also help if Mexico had a stronger middle class and and higher wages for its workers in the agricultural and industrial sector. The Mexican middle class took some serious hits back in the days of Salinas and Zedillo, and I think American dollar and trade policy helped to enable that slide. In the long term, that's worked for the Mexican oligarchy and for American neo-feudalists, against the interests of the people of both Mexico and this country.

Many Mexican immigrants- the legal ones, in particular- prefer Mexico as a place to live, and large numbers of them return there annually, on a seasonal basis. Because they're legal immigrants, crossing back and forth over the border isn't any big deal to them. You can sometimes read their loyalties on the bumperstickers of their trucks, which express sentiments along the lines of "I'd Rather Be In Sinaloa/Michoacan/Chihuahua", etc.

But here is where the money is. And I can tell you, they get up early in the morning, and work late. I've done a few runs out of Ortega's West in my time. Those farm wages are low by American standards, but they do get paid.

We have been robbed blind by the Democrats and Republicans for the past 30 years with defense, corporate welfare, transferring jobs and manufacturing overseas, eroding our tax base and running scams to steal from the public and then there is the WAR game.

No it isn't California's fault. It is the whole damn country because we have voted for crooks, liars and fascists because that is the only choice we have on the ballots.