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My Opinion: Lawrence J. De Maria: Policies that bring all of us no credit

By: Lawrence J. De Maria 03/07/2007

When Bank of America recently announced that it planned to aggressively market credit cards to the Latino community, including many people who are in the United States illegally, it was excoriated, rightly in my opinion, by critics of illegal immigration. They argued that the bank, in an unseemly quest for more profits, would in some cases be supporting drug traffickers and terrorists. As it turns out, Bank of America was only following in the steps of Citigroup, which already offers such cards. Other major financial institutions will undoubtedly get in line for a piece of the more than $200 billion in purchasing power that the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants wield.


The credit cards typically come with up-front fees and high interest rates, and applicants must show some sort of identification (but not a Social Security card) and have a bank account in good standing. Most of the applicants, legal and illegal, are probably decent folk. Considering that many Social Security-card-carrying American citizens, including some that can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower, are also crooks, charlatans and murderers, the added danger to the United States is probably not that great. It is unlikely that anyone will use one of the credit cards to buy plutonium.

But what does it say about corporate America, that it is so quick to facilitate illegality, for reasons that are less than altruistic. Would American banks be willing to offer credit cards to homeless veterans, who could undoubtedly produce Social Security cards, and, perhaps, even a Silver Star or two? Not on your life. How the heck would such a person pay the monthly bill? Illegal immigrants are a much safer credit risk and profit center.

Such poor corporate citizenship is part and parcel of the philosophy that American companies must do anything to survive in the "globalized" competitive marketplace. Such things as national interest, security and, dare I say it, patriotism, has little meaning to "American" corporations and Wall Street, where the bottom line is all that matters. I don't pretend to know all the nuances of free trade, and I am certainly no protectionist. But it seems to me that America's industrial base and its workers are being undercut by cheap-labor foreign competitors and government/corporate policies that lay out the welcome mat for illegals who will work for low wages. "Made in America" is being replaced by "Maid in America."

Here's my bottom line: If the United States is just one big corporation in a global conglomerate, let's ditch all the malarkey about democracy and American values, and maximize our potential as the financial clearing house for the world, kind of a super Switzerland, without all the clocks. Our dwindling, overtaxed, under-educated, American Idol-sodden middle class can continue to fund a military that is used to protect foreign economies that undersell and eviscerate that very middle class.

Either you are a country, or not a country. Either you support our laws, or you don't. Either you are proud to be American, or you're not.
Bank of America and Citicorp (and hundreds of other corporations) have made their positions clear.
What about the rest of us?