Should you financially support my mother-in-law or sister-in-law, if they legally immigrated to the US? Both are of very limited financial means. Government benefits here in the US are actually better than in Germany. Is it up to you to pay to offer them a better life? My wife and I don’t have any family to share events with or nearby for our sons to share life’s love-lessons with. And, isn’t that our problem, not yours?
Under pressure of both common-sense, elevated unemployment in the US that is likely to last, and increased opposition to amnesty schemes, the Obama administration speaks a good game about improving enforcement of illegal immigration laws, and with due credit has actually taken some positive steps. But, one of its other goals is to increase what is called “family unification,” or letting in near and extended family members of those legally here and those millions to be made legal if the Obamites have their way. At the same time, laws to require those who bring them in to be responsible for supporting them are eliminated or opposed.
Today’s editorial in my local newspaper speaks of “The New Normal,” where increasing numbers of Americans are looking for jobs abroad, “[A]nd those who are willing to move to a new city – or even a new country – for their next opportunity are the ones who will be the most likely to succeed. It has always been thus. And in a global economy, this is how it will remain for many years to come. It’s the new normal. The sooner Americans accept that, the better off they’ll be.”
It’s not just increased numbers of American citizens looking for jobs abroad. Increased numbers of Indian and Chinese scientists who gained their advanced education in the US and have been major contributors to our entrepreneurial economy are, instead of staying here, returning to India and China for better opportunities. It is these and other educated immigrants who are not a drain upon the US, actually adding more than the average American. It is the uneducated and their uneconomic relatives that are the major drain upon our government budgets. Some in latter generations may rise, but in the meantime our own poorest are most harmed by their wage lowering competition, and our richest helped by their enthusiastic hard work for low wages.
A regular fairly liberal columnist in my local newspaper rightfully bemoans, "One of the sorrows of contemporary life is the broad failure to create paying jobs for preteens and teenagers. We scold children (and childish adults) for being financially illiterate, oblivious to the virtues of thrift. But what do we expect of those forced to live exclusively off the parental dole?... But the idle rate for children — 80 percent? 90 percent? — also signals a sort of cultural distress. Imagine children by the millions, holed up with video games on a sunny day. Or trooping off to soccer practice in the minivan, oblivious that the uniform costs real money. In high school, the closest many come to real labor is community service, light work for the college application. One of the most important jobs of a parent is to be a child’s employment counselor, starting with essential chores around the house. Help them find honest work that hurts so good.”
The new normal needs to be emphasis on raising our children to honor and do honest labor and jobs. Before that, our emphasis – our own new normal -- needs to be on us growing up ourselves and facing up to the impossibility of fewer taxpayers paying more to support the lazy and irresponsible. Enterprise-stifling government expansion and more meddling bureaucrats is not the answer. It’s the problem.
