Hurray for Greenspan
It takes a well respested, non-governmental person to get some balls rolling... let's hope Greenspan can do it.
I've been saying for awhile that our attitude towards immigration is inherently flawed. Certainly, the people who are here illegally (and let's not play word games by calling them "undocumented") should have some sort of penalty for that. However, I think it's important to keep things in perspective. The "crime" they are committing is a misdemeanor and its only a "crime" because of who they are ( i.e. its not JUST their actions like DUI and Murder... I am not even able to commit their crime... even if I wanted to).
There are alot of people who come here legally and then, for a variety of reasons, fall out of the system. Many, if not most, of these cases are due to the highly restrictive nature of our immigration laws. We keep the number of immigrants down to a very, very small fraction of the total populace (less then .1% the last time I checked). We also have a tremendously ineffective guest worker program.
And why do we do this?
I think alot of people are just plain racist. There are people that talk about preserving our, "Way of life" and that just smacks of disguised racism or other bigotry (at least to me). Maybe those people are just unapolagetically xenophobic. Either way, we shouldn't be basing our decisions about immigration on those kinds of attitudes.
Alot of people point to the economy and say that aliens (legal or illegal) are a drain. This is patently absurd. It is largely driven by some false idea that there's a finite number of jobs in the country and that's simply not true. Additionally, for every cheap laborer that builds a house, there's a cheap house for you and I to buy...
Congress needs to have a serious discussion about the immigration system and what kinds of numbers we'd like to see coming in. The current system isn't just broken... It's not a system at all...
Tangential Note: Is it amusing to anyone else that Greenspan talking about Immigration warrants a headline spot right ABOVE Bernanke talking about the Economy ? I just find that amusing... Poor Bernanke :(
4 Comments:
Absolutely friggin right! Greenspan is right. You are right. But, what pisses a lot of people off is that people who are not citizens are receiving benefits that tax the already dysfunctional welfare system. Reform the welfare system and perhaps eliminate at least some of the anger.
I actually talked to a guy at work who's a canadian citizen here on a student/work visa... Here's the list of benefits he gets:
Emergency hospital visits (same as any uninsured american... he's insured so it doesn't matter to him)
Unemployment: This is specifically limited to how much he's paid in to the system
Social Security: He gets no retirement benefit though he pays into the system (sucks for him)... However, if he were to become a citizen he would (obviously) get the benefits
Medicare/Medicaid: Nada
A legal resident alien doesn't enjoy very many welfare system benefits... I think the problem is being grossly over stated
I agree it's being overstated, especially because more illegal immigrants pay into the system directly or indirectly (through their employer) and are not eligible for SS benefits, but the emergency room benefits are not grossly overstated. The immigrants know this benefit is there for them, basically free healthcare any time day or night. ER services are extremely expensive and since at any given time their are 11 million or so potential users that are not paying for ER services yet using such services, you can understand how Americans that Do pay for those expensive services through fees, insurance, and taxation (usually at the county and state levels) would be angry about it. Not to mention, that when Americans do need those ER services they are in line behind immigrants that are not paying one red cent. In my neck of the woods this is hardly an issue, but in places populated heavily by immigrants that also happen to be large cities where media and politicians are always looking for a soundbite, you can see where the stories come from. They are not necessarily untrue. Reform is not only needed in the immigration arena, but in health care too. Most people would not have any problem with immigration, leagl or otherwise, if it didn't adversely affect their wallets. In fact, immigration lowers the costs of most things through cheap labor, but when the consumer also sees "Made in China" on their goods, they don't remember that. OK, I'm rambling.
I recently read s story about how the children of illegal immigrants (not sure if they were really all illegal) were mooching off the school system and not even attempting to learn, abusing teachers verbally and sometimes physically, among other things. I think the problem there is not an immigrant problem but a school problem in general. Schools are afraid to discipline students in any way for fear of being sued, or being called racist if a white administrator accuses an Hispanic student of disrupting a class or something along those lines. I can imagine it is very difficult for any school administrators to run schools where the parents are not willing to go along with the school's version of discipline, always siding with the child hoping they can sue for a fat payday at taxpayer expense. I say, like Congress, throw the bums out. No one has a right to an education. It is a privilege despite what most people would say publicly.
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