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Monday, September 20, 2010

Illegal Immigrants: The Free Market People



Some Americans would think most illegal immigrants are socialists, wanting to come here and take over, and live off of welfare. While it might be politically true that their culture would tend to support big governments, they are living more of a free market lifestyle here in the U.S. than we Americans are. The ironic part about this whole immigration debate is that the Republicans, who often preach about the glories of a free market, have failed to see these people as an example of their principals and have instead reverted to socialism to punish them.

Some of you might be scratching your heads right now wondering how an illegal immigrants live in a free market. Well, it's not entirely Free Since they still must work around strict government rules, and it's more of a black market, but it is more free than what your typical American citizen lives in. Yes, they are breaking the law to do so, but ignoring the fact that they, or their employer, are breaking the law, or have to work around the laws, the image of a free market is still there. I'll give you some examples:

1. Illegal immigrants don't have to pay income taxes, pay into social security, or any of the other government mandated schemes. They still have to pay sales taxes when they buy something from a store, but overall, they'll be able to keep more percentage of what they earn than an American.

2. They can work bellow minimum wage. This is what makes it so hard for Americans to compete for lower paying jobs is because they will work for such low wages. Many of them will come here to work for a wage that no typical American could survive on, but they will take the money back home and thrive on it because it can go farther there.

3. They don't apply for government authorization documents. We get assigned a social security number, we get drivers licenses, and go through all of this government bureaucratic process just to carry out or daily lives. While many of them will obtain fake documents and break the law, they don't have to go through the same process we have to get these. The though that you have to get government approval to carry out the many things in your day to day life should anger anyone that loves the free market. However, many who say they support the free market, while supporting this war on illegal immigration, ignore the fact that this is what they are supporting.

4. They sell and transport drugs, weapons, and other banned items. Now, I'm not saying all illegal immigrants do this and certainly plenty of Americans do this, but I thought I would include this anyway. In a free market, you are allowed to buy, sell, use, or trade whatever you want as long as you aren't harming someone else without their consent. Everyone knows drugs are bad for you, but if you still want to take drugs, I think you should be free to do so. Government bans have no place in a free market. People against illegal immigrants will tell of horrible violence along the border, which is true, but it is from the war on drugs creating a black market, which is kind of like a free market, only it comes with many problems that a free market doesn't. A black market sells item x, which is banned, expensive, hard to obtain, and people live under the threat that government is going to lock them in jail. A free market sells item x, which isn't banned, cheap, easy to obtain, and there's no threat of going to jail. Black markets require the use of violence to stay in business. Free markets require peaceful competition to stay in business. Alcohol was banned at one time and we saw the black market explode and people killed each other over it all the time. It was then legalized and liquor store owners never kill each other to get ahead. I think later on I'll write a post devoted to comparing and contrasting the black market and the free market, but to stay on topic, I'll skip the long details.

5. Illegal immigrants are free to go as they please. When Americans want to cross into Mexico, we stop at a government check point, show papers, and get approval to cross over, or come back in. An illegal immigrant doesn't want to go through this process. Imaginary lines drawn on a map does not confine them to one area. The imaginary line that surrounds the area they came out of their mother in does not dictate what rights they have as a human being.

Now what I have just said is actually a black market instead of a free market. However, the only difference in the two is the presence of government rules. Most would think I'm crazy for making an argument to support the free market by using people that most think of as poor. However, they might be poor by American standards, but they are rich when compared to where they originally came from. The only reason they can't get rich here is because government rules won't allow it. It's harder for them to get an education without the right documents and it's harder for them to make lots of money without drawing attention and risk being deported. If we lifted government restrictions on them, they could flourish even more.

The main point I'm trying to make is that Republicans, Conservatives, and even some Libertarians that say they support a free market, but still support closed borders are missing a great opportunity. They see these people as a problem and want to punish them by making stricter government rules to prevent them from succeeding in life. I look at this see these free people not only surviving, but thriving under in a black market, which could easily be made a free market.

Americans against illegal immigration say they are a threat to jobs, so instead of doing away with minimum wage laws, income taxes, and other things that makes it hard for Americans to compete, they want to keep all that junk and spend more of our money to keep them out. If we were by some miraculous way able to keep them out, we would still be losing jobs in this country to countries overseas. I find it almost comical that the same people that want to use the government to protect their jobs from illegal immigrants will likely say how evil unions are and how much they hurt the economy. What bigger and more destructive union is there besides the United States Government? They see illegal immigrants as parasites on our welfare system, while ignoring the vast amount of American parasites who live on it. Instead of doing away with our welfare system and going to private organizations to help out people, we create more laws to discriminate who can and can't get help. They are afraid of all these violent illegal immigrants coming over hear and chopping people's heads off, so they want to put more money into border patrol and law enforcement to go after these people. They could end all the violence along the border and in most American cities overnight if they would end the war on drugs. Not only that, but they would be saving billions of dollars each year and freeing up jails for actual violent criminals like murderers, rapists, and thieves that threaten lives and property.

Instead of saying we should make these free people be more socialist like the rest of America, we should make America be more free like them. Bring ourselves to their level and let them be free and let ourselves be free from government rules. Let everyone compete on a level field for jobs. If we try to bring them to our level, we're going to spend billions, if not trillions more on border security and other government agencies to do so. Like the war on drugs, it will never be effective of stopping illegal immigrants. Besides that, we Americans will still be living under these same restrictive government rules. I say we make it easier for these people to come here by lifting the restrictions we ourselves live under. If we did that, the true supporters of free markets will be killing two birds with one stone.

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