An American Petition
On March 21st, I submitted a blog post titled “A Middle Eastern Petition,” about how some of the funding for the recent “Cartoon Riots” in Pakistan was coming from Pakistani merchants, in what looked like an attempt to reduce foreign competition. Today, my concern is with another attempt to squash foreign competition in the form of the labor coming over our southern border. Not only is Congress attacking the illegal immigration issue, but so are many state legislatures (see URL: http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/29/D8GLH6H00.html).
There are now several different proposals floating around the halls of Congress. Some proposals of these are designed to keep people out whether they are criminals or not, skilled or not, have terrorist ties or not, or sick or not. Such proposals reduce the labor resources available to the country, limiting our ability to produce, increasing scarcity of both goods and resources.
Just as the Middle Eastern “Cartoon Riots” have a variety of motives, including the rent-seeking motive mentioned in my previous blog post, so does the clampdown on immigration in the U.S. Bastiat, in his first chapter of Economic Sophisms, wrote about “Scarcity and Abundance” (go to chapter 1 in series 1), and how we cannot make ourselves better off as a society by increasing scarcity. This, however, is exactly what so many of our citizens and their representatives seem to think. It is, to them, imperative to cut the country’s workforce.
Here, with us so close to New Orleans, we should notice that many of the workers that are in New Orleans now with the rebuilding effort are Hispanic. They are living in tent communities in places like City Park. I don’t know if any are illegal immigrants or not, but the fear that hiring immigrants that would come from some of these new immigration proposals would surely both increase the cost of rebuilding New Orleans as well as make it take a lot longer.
That keeping out foreign competition would make us worse off was shown clearly in Bastiat’s “A Petition,” (go to chapter 7 of the first series, and again, this little three page essay is a must read). Further, as mentioned in my “A Middle Eastern Petition” post, the rent seeking that goes on to erect entry barriers entails the use of valuable resources, resources that are used to keep production down instead of producing anything of value, so that there is an additional cost to putting up walls to competition. Not only is there a great deal of waste created in erecting the entry barriers, there is a similar waste that is created by laws designed to keep workers out in everything from the illegal smuggling of human beings and a significant number dying in trying to enter the country, as well as the waste in resources that are now devoted to related occupations, such as forgers, to produce fake documents.
While being more careful about the folks we let into the country may be a good thing, so that we can reduce the flow of criminals, terrorists and freeloaders, we need to welcome people who come here to contribute their labor in exchange for a better life.
Morris Coats
April 5th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
Like many others, this article hits so close to my hometown and includes our neighboring cities of Kenner and New Orleans. I continue my recent stand that we cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater. In our community alone, there are hundreds of Hispanic workers who have successfully hauled tree limbs, replaced missing roof shingles, and repaired wind-blown storefronts. They have gone about their business peacefully; most residing in legal RV and trailer sites. Our parish tax roles are up, and our crime rate is not. Sounds like these immigrants, legal or not, are here to earn a decent living. And I have yet to hear any local resident complain that he/she lost out on an employment opportunity due to an immigrant. The feds as well as our states need to look at this immigration issue very cautiously. I think we all agree that keeping criminals and terrorists outside our American borders is an undisputed priority. However, we must use economic wisdom targeting immigration at all government levels, especially when supporting the erection of elaborate barriers and establishing wasteful, unnecessary immigration laws. Welcoming diligent laborers, even those not yet legitimate U.S. citizens, should be handled delicately. Rebuilding disaster areas does take time, money, and willing, skilled hands. Yet, Georgia’s limitation of medical and unemployment benefits solely to legal immigrants, along with New Hampshire’s illegal immigrant business fines, do not seem overbearing. Arizona’s wall, however, sounds all too familiar. As for a $50 million radar patrol system, my first question would be how many bids were submitted for this state project? And what is the going price for radar these days, anyway? Let’s utilize our advanced technology – but wisely and efficiently. States must reach an agreement in the “crossfire between Congress and the public.†We cannot afford to compromise homeland security; however, I reiterate my support for opening a window of opportunity to illegal immigrants who contribute to American society while attempting to better their own lives as well as the lives of their loved ones. Let’s give ‘em a break.
April 5th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Although I am sure several people may complain about illegal immigrates, they must first stop and think “What if those people weren’t here? Who would be doing their jobs? And for how much?†I agree it may be somewhat annoying that many immigrates are illegal and are not paying in taxes to the government as citizens must do. But let’s think for just a minute, most of these immigrates are doing HARD LABOR jobs that most Americans refuse to do, especially at the price that the immigrates are being paid. So in the long run putting up these barriers may only hurt. Some jobs like building houses, laying bricks, among other jobs, may cost much more. Without these people, the supply would decrease therefore increasing the price of several things in this country. So while these people are being used by several employers, but they are at the same time bettering themselves. So why not allow these people to better themselves while at the same time helping us.