Maggie's Farm

I think you can try to make your point without the "Mezzican" slur. Most of my family is Hispanic, (I am not), and I doubt they would find the term congenial, to say the least.

But the issue is problematic. I agree strongly in the goodness of open borders (in terms of human welfare), but agree that it can bring in problems as well. These are especially true in a world with strong public safety nets. The risk is that immigrants will come for handouts. The other risk is that the people bring their culture with them, and the culture is in great part what created the lower living standards they are fleeing from.

I would suggest an extremely strict program of widespread (meaning large in numbers) legal immigration. Immigrants would have to pass background checks, prove gainful employment, avoid any illegal activity and contribute a higher percentage to SS. After twenty years of proven value-added activity and proficiency at English, they can become citizens. This would need to be accompanied by a strict process of requiring businesses to immediately shift from hiring illegals to hiring legal immigrants (strong punishments).

Another idea is to coordinate with the country that they are departing from to build American Enterprise zones or charter cities. Let's bring American institutions to them rather than requiring them to come here. They can be in the middle of the desert. The idea here is we will not allow any immigration at all unless you allow us to build a charter city or two. This solves the problem without creating one here. Preferably we would see charter cities and extensive legal immigration.

Allow me to clarify, Mike.

I support substantial (orders of magnitude) increases in legal immigration along with a strong restriction in illegal immigration and employment. Replace the illegal path with a legal path.

Included in this path is a requirement that the person become and remain gainfully employed and pay higher SS. As they eventually become citizens they will qualify for citizen benefits including the SS which they have helped fund.

Fears that new workers will steal jobs long term is just a version of the fallacy that there is a limited number of jobs. In reality, every worker brings similar purchase needs and the network of reciprocity and cooperation called free enterprise self amplifies the size of the pie. Such is exactly the trend we see globally over the last generation, and indeed is what we have seen for 250 years.

On the issue of safety nets, I see this as a valuable service which most effective complex societies address. I recommend voluntary, non coercive means such as insurance and charity, but I also see the role for government redistribution where controlled for exploitation and mooching. Granted, it is rarely controlled well, but I could write a recipe to do so on a cocktail, napkin in two minutes. The problem is political not logical.