You're right. It's not any difference. I think something does need to be done about illegal immigration - just not by the state, and not by criminalizing it and overburdening law enforcement so that they can't engage the real problem - violence associated with smuggling of drugs and people.

For the record, I have very little sympathy for the people who die in the desert. It does not make any sense to set off across the desert in the middle of summer without water.

But I still am angered by this law largely because it is not about addressing the problem - it is about racism in my opinion. Not even the supporters have explained how it will reduce illegal immigration or the economic consequences.

I mostly agree with the OP, as I can say without a doubt that my life significantly improved every time I have accepted personal responsibility for the situation I was in. I had a terrible time finding a "good job" until I no longer felt entitled to a good job and was willing to start small and advance. Once I did that, I had the job I wanted in less than two years.

Same with personal finance and in my personal relationships. Once I admitted that my situation was of my own fault and not due to any of a number of convenient(and a few maybe even legitimate) excuses, things improved drastically and quickly.

Its a shame though, because personal responsibility and the empowerment that comes with it is not something that can really be taught. It comes through life experience. Some people learn early and get a head start on people like me. Some people never learn and end up poor and retiring on the $700 a month they get from SS.

The biggest thing to take away is that while personal responsibility empowers a person to better themselves far more than any law or agency, its still not right, and shouldnt be legal, to purposefully try to deceive, trick, or obfuscate.

I read a really interesting book on my recent travel called "Sway", about all the different psychological reasons people do irrational things. Like how when men are shopping for a loan, a smiling attractive woman offering the loan was roughly equal to 4 percentage points of interest on the loan. IE: A man offering a 3% loan and an attractive woman offering a 7% loan would get the same amount of responses.

Companies know all of the tricks of the human brain, and all the different buttons to push to try to get you to buy something you dont want or isnt a good deal.

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