Crash For President: Immigration and Welfare

In what I hope will be the first of many posts on the subject, I'm going to talk about how I'll run things when I become the President of the United States of America.  In this post, I share my ideas on how to fix Immigration, and the rampant abuse of our entitlement programs (i.e. welfare) by Americans.

So, recently Arizona passed a very controversial immigration law, in a very short sighted attempt to curb the illegal immigrants pouring into the state from Mexico.  Illegal immigrants are sneaking into the state, draining public resources, and 'stealing our jobs' from the local populace.  The law requires every immigrant in Arizona to carry their immigration documents with them at all time.  Arizona cops can demand to see these papers pretty much any time they want too (with the help of any thinly veiled context they can come up with on the spot).  The radical right thinks this is a fantastic solution, while the bleeding heart left has gone so far as to compare this to the Nazi's treatment of the Jews, pre-world war 2.  First off, while I am very left of center, I think comparing it to the Nazi's is a bit premature... when they start rounding up illegals into concentration camps and construction begins on the ovens, then we'll talk.  Second, isn't there a law out there somewhere about abusing the Nazi card in an argument?

The public discourse on this topic of late has been focused primarily on who's to blame (hint:  Everyone wants to blame the illegal immigrants!), which I think is a horrible way to go about solving the problem.  Hell, I don't even want to talk about that law.  Instead, I want to look at the root causes of the problems that spawned the new law, instead of trying to treat the symptoms it was written to combat.  I believe that the immigration problem we have is not the cause, but a symptom of  larger problems.  Everyone wants to dog pile on the 'BLAME JOSE!' bandwagon, but that's just because no one wants to take responsibility for our problems.  I don't blame the immigrants, I blame the people who are taking advantage of them when they get over here, and enabling them to make enough money to stay here indefinitely.

Sure, these immigrants are coming over here illegally, and yes, that's bad, but I want to make this clear... I don't blame them for coming over here illegally.  That's not a very popular view point, but put yourself in their shoes for a few minutes.  You find yourself living in a third world country, your government is fundamentally corrupt and you are so poor you can't afford to buy bread.  There's no law enforcement to speak of, hospitals are laughable at best, and you can't drink the water.  You hear about life in the promised land: America!  Easy money, accessible health care and education for your kids...  you'd think life looks pretty good on the other side of the fence too.  If we found ourselves in that situation, I think any one of us would give serious thought to the jumping the fence too.  In that light, knowing that I would make the same choice if I were in their shoes, I can't really find fault with the immigrants who sneak into the country, hoping to find a better life.  I'm not saying I'm happy to pay for that better life, I'm just saying that I understand why they do it.

Anyway, moving on... the question we need to be asking ourselves is this:  Why do these illegals come into the country?  Well, that's an easy answer:  Because they can find work here.  Sure, it's doing the jobs that none of the rest of America wants to do, for wages that none of the rest of the country want to work for, but hey... it's work, and it's better than what they have in Mexico.  People are willing to hire them, despite the illegality of it.  As long as they can find jobs, immigrants will continue to come here, by any means they can.  So, if you insist on placing blame, don't you think it should lie squarely around the necks of the people who hire these illegals?  (For the record, yes, I do!)  These folks are paying less than minimum wage, not paying payroll or social security taxes on these folks, and give away jobs to non-American citizens.  I think it's fair to say this is a major problem.

However, I'm not interested in placing blame here, I'm just trying to get to the root causes and address them.  So, why do you think that these businesses would willingly hire illegal workers, knowing that what they are doing is contributing to the problem and hurting the country?  Again, this is an easy answer:  It's cheaper!  This is the root of so many bad choices in this country... go green or burn coal?  Coal!  Why?  Cheaper!  Buy organic or buy chemically enhanced, mass produced goods?  Bring on the HFCS!  Why?  Cheaper!  You get the point.  The people who hire illegals hire them because it costs them much less than having to hire legal workers and pay into the system (like everyone else!).

Simply saying that cutting off the supply of illegals will solve the problem is a big steaming pile of crap.  We'll never be able to cut off the supply fully, and even if we could, what do you think would happen?  Think it through... these businesses that hire illegals now will have to hire legal employees, which cost more.  These businesses will have to raise their prices, or go out of business.  The rest of us will feel the effects as these costs trickle up through the system.  As things get more and more expensive, we'll look for cheaper and cheaper options.  We'll begin to import more (cheaper) goods to offset the higher cost of domestic goods... which of course, defeats the entire purpose of trying to keep American jobs in American hands.  Sound impossible?  When was the last time you called tech support?  Did you enjoy talking to Raji?  I know he enjoyed talking to you...  Simply cutting off the supply of cheap labor here will not fix the problem, it will only offset it, and cause a whole new host of problems to rise up.

Anyway, enough of that for now... lets set that aside for a little bit and switch gears.  We'll get back to this later, I promise...

As I said earlier, I'm fairly far left of center.  I don't describe myself as a bleeding heart liberal, but I do like big government, and I think that our 'entitlement' programs like Welfare, medicare, food stamps, etc, are useful to society.  However, I'm not so blind that I can't see that these systems are broken.  Welfare, in particular, needs some attention.  Welfare was designed to be a 'hand-up' for people who were down on their luck or found themselves in a bad situation.  However, it has become little more than a 'hand-out' program now, and people who are on the system rarely look to get off it.  It's basically 'free money', and we've never asked them for anything in return for it.  Of course, if someone offered you a free check every month to sit on your ass all day, I think some of you might consider that option as well.  That's not a difficult choice to understand.

So, let me see if I can't take what we've talked about so far and roll it all up in a handy little recap...  We've got illegal immigrants rushing into the country because there are plentiful jobs that no one else wants.  We've got business owners and private citizens hiring illegals because they are less expensive than hiring legitimate full time employees.  We've got an ever increasing segment of people with no job and nothing to do all day but sit around, and are already GIVING them tax payer money.  Hmmm.... if only there was a way to use one problem to fix the other... Oh wait, I've got it!

Lets start with the welfare handouts.  You want money from the government?  Sure, no problem.  Report to work at 08:00.  Work?  I didn't sign up for this shit!  Sure you did.  Money for Nothing and Chics for Free is just a song, pal.  Here in the real world, we work for our money.  You want money, food, and a hand up from the government, we're happy to help.  But you're going to start pulling your weight to earn it.  But, but, but... I have kids to care for!  I can't spend all day working and leave my kids unattended!  Don't worry, we've got that covered!  Check this out...

If you're on welfare, you join a government subsidized work force.  You'll get your standard welfare benefits, plus a small cash stipend to spend as you please.  If you fail to report to work, the government fails to mail out your welfare package.  But, what will we do with all these workers, you ask?  That is a great question... hey, what about all those employers who hire illegals because they're cheaper than the regular workforce?  These business owners can hire out from the welfare workforce for around what they are paying illegal workers now.  As long as it doesn't cost more (or much more) than hiring illegals, there's no incentive for the business owners to hire illegals over citizens.  The government will subsidize the whole thing, making sure the workers on welfare get their benefits, while the employers pay what they can afford without having to raise their prices.

Anyone who doesn't get hired out to local businesses, farmers, construction companies, or whatever, can do public works stuff.  We need clean up crews on the streets (who aren't in orange jump suits and chains, preferably).  We need people to clean up graffiti around town.  We need Census takers.  There's always work that needs to be done around our country.  Oh, and lets not forget the welfare parents... we'll need day care facilities to care for the children of these workers!  The best part is that we can staff those daycare centers with other welfare workers.  The employers pay into the system to hire people out at the same low cost to them that they are used to when working with illegals.  They don't have to increase their prices, so we don't feel the burden higher up in the system.  The government subsidizes the rest.  We're already giving away most of that money as free welfare anyway, why not get something out of the investment?

So, you might ask what happens if someone gets assigned to a job they don't want to do?  Well, if they're so down on their luck that have no other choice but to go on welfare, they really don't get to be too picky about what work is out there for you.  Beggars and Chooses, you see...  If you don't like constantly being on street cleaning duty, that's incentive to go out and get a real job.  Hey, look at that!  We've found motivation to get off of welfare.

This accomplishes several things.  First off, it lets the employers keep operating at or near the same cost as they do now.  They no longer need to hire illegals, and the money that is currently going to illegals or being sent back to Mexico gets to stay in the US Economy.  When there are no jobs for Illegals to 'take', they lose their primary reason for crossing the border in the first place.  This also gets the welfare recipients out of the hand-out mentality and back into the hand-up mentality.  There is a great deal to be said for working an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and being made to work a job you don't really enjoy will motivate them to find one they are happier with.  Kids grow up watching mommy and daddy working, instead living off of Uncle Sam, and they come to expect to work as well.  If people working for welfare want to better themselves or get a better job, they've just earned some work experience to build on.

Sure, there are some problems with this (as well as every other) solution.  For example, illegals will still come here to try and get health care.  Fine.. if they're dying or seriously injured, of course we should try to save them.  I'm a big fan of this radical concept called 'basic human rights', and I believe no one should be turned away from a hospital if they're bleeding from multiple stab wounds.  However, I don't think it's out of the question to verify immigration status if a patient can't produce any kind of health insurance or pay for their treatment.  If they're an illegal, we patch them up and hand them off to INS when they're discharged.  I really don't expect this to be a big problem, once the supply of jobs dries up for illegals.  Doubt that?  Look north.  Canada's got completely free health care.  How many American's without insurance jump the (non-existent) fence to Canada to get fixed up when they're sick?  Sorry pal, it really doesn't happen.

Another potential problem would be placing welfare workers in the right kind of work.  I really wouldn't want to see an abusive alcoholic father be staffed to a daycare center, for example, and I wouldn't expect to place a small woman with back problems in the fields picking strawberries every day.  We would have to do some basic screening and aptitude tests to make sure the right people were pulled for the right work.  That's really not all that complicated.  We would also have to put sensible restrictions on who could or could not pull from the welfare worker corp, as well as what kind of jobs those workers could fill.  If you don't, eventually everyone is trying to hire from that pool, and the people working in those sectors legitimately suffer undue competition (however, one of the biggest arguments in the immigration issue right now is that illegals only take the jobs that decent American's don't want... so pick a side and stick with it).  There would also have to be some pretty harsh penalties for employing illegals after the system goes live and a serious effort behind enforcing these laws after the system was implemented.

Really, the only side of this that I haven't addressed yet is what to do with the illegals who are already here, taking advantage of public services without paying anything into them.  So, what should we do with them?  Hey, That's easy too.  Make them a part of the system.  Legalize them, or at least simplify the path to legalization and remove the threat of deportation for illegals who apply to the system.  People can say this all they want:  'If they want to immigrate, they should do it LEGALLY'... but if the legal path to immigration is prohibitively expensive and time consuming, it's not a practical option.... applying for green card alone costs $1,000 as of 2007, and that's if you try to do it without the help of a lawyer.  Applying for citizenship can take years.  If they are coming to America because they're too poor to provide for themselves in Mexico, how are they going to save up that much cash for a green card?  (FYI:  $1 dollar is approximately 13 pesos... so 13,000 peso's for a green card.  Average minimum wage in Mexico is about 55 pesos per day.  Do the math and tell me how well that works for you...  So can we all please get off the 'they should just do it legally' bandwagon?  Source).

I think the benefits of this system would far outweigh the burdens.  You keep US money in US hands, you make jobs for people who need them, and you keep costs low for the people who have to hire illegals now.  You remove the reason we have so many illegal immigrants trying to get into the country.  News flash folks:  people do things for reasons.  No reason mean no action.  Yes, the government will foot the bill for some of this.  I'm for big government, remember?  I don't mind.  You don't think this system will work?  That's fine too.  Bring me a better plan, preferably one that doesn't rely on trickle down economics or have anything to do with Haliburton.  If you can show me a better, mutually beneficial solution for these problems, then maybe I'll have found my VP candidate!

Crash for President!