National Security, Immigration, and the Great Melting Pot

America truly would not exist without immigrants. However, these same immigrants have come to know this land as their own now, and some would like to refuse access to future immigrant.

Of course, their intentions are not quite as diabolical as that image makes us think. The vast majority of people who are against immigration don't simply want to deprive hard-working immigrants from the advantages of the United States and its economy. Instead they are concerned with the economic and national security risk associated with immigration. 

After all, our fathers weren't exactly the nicest to the native people when they immigrated here to America. So how are we to know that the immigrants that come into America will have the best interest of Americans at heart? How do we know that they aren't just terrorists who are taking the opportunity to enter America to cause havoc? 

This is indeed why we have a screening process. This is why illegal immigration can be such a big deal. We do need to ensure that the immigrants have pure motives of pursuing the American dream, enjoying liberty, bettering themselves, and not motivations to take down the government or the people within. 

But somewhere along the way, our screening process has become a bit too restrictive. You see, in addition to this legitimate concern about the the intent, the government has decided to that it needs to keep the immigrant community from taking over the economy. 

It seems simple enough, right? If too many immigrants enter into the country, then they will take up jobs that Americans need in the market, and thus cause problems in the economy of America. 

But Judy Gans, Director of the University of Arizona’s Immigration Program at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, explains that these workers are not taking jobs away from the American worker. 

"Noncitizens are filling some real gaps in the work force. This is a complementary workforce, not a replacement workforce. We have a larger workforce, so the economic pie is bigger.” 

Not only are immigrants not a burden on the economy, but indeed they support and strengthen our economy in very essential ways. As the Cato Institute reported,  

"Immigrants, today as in the past, come to America to work, save, and build a better life for their families. They make our economy more productive, boosting output by billions of dollars and filling gaps in our labor market. Large sectors of our economy, from tourism and health care to education and high tech, would be crippled if our borders were closed to immigrant workers. According to the National Research Council, the typical immigrant family and its descendents will pay $80,000 more in taxes during their lifetimes than they consume in government services."

Immigration is a boom to our economy, and great for our society. After all, without immigration, we would be without pizza, tacos, and hamburgers!

There is limited reason to limit immigration except for terrorist threats. It is paramount that we work in this area to secure the borders to keep armed assailants from entering into the country. But is that currently a significant problem in our nation today?

As of March 2012, the Pew Research Center found that there are 11.7 million illegal immigrants in our country today. Scary yes but let's look at the whole picture here. These illegal immigrants don't seem to be committing acts of terrorism, or increasing the number of crimes.

Indeed a 2010 report by Stuart Anderson of the Cato Institute found that immigrants (legal and illegal alike) commit far fewer crimes than their natural-born counterparts.

But still these people broke the law to enter into this country, so surely they will break the law again once they are here. Well, not exactly. Immigrants become illegal for various reasons.

Yes, some may have been denied a visa and found their way across the border. Others though fall into a far more innocuous category. Let's say someone entered into this country legally on a work visa, and then overstays that visa. Guess who's now an illegal immigrant? Let's say someone entered into this country legally, and moves within the same area without reporting a change of address to the INS. Guess who's now an illegal immigrant? 

Indeed the aforementioned Judy Gans explains,

"Our immigration laws are more complex than the tax code, which is something of an accomplishment. It is an inordinately complicated system that is expensive to comply with... These are the realities that are driving this: We don’t provide adequate legal channels for economic migration. If the legal channels aren’t there, there is tremendous pressure for workers to come in through another source.” 

We need to simplify our screening process and allow for a greater opportunity for those from other countries to enter legally. Yes, we do need to protect our borders and view illegal immigration as a crime and punish it accordingly. But let's be reasonable in our screening process. We are a nation of immigrants; thus, we should make it easier for foreigners to enter this fine country legally. Our economy (and our food) will be better off if we do.

The Most Terrible Time of Year

It's the most dreadful time of the year,
With the paperwork filing
And everyone telling you, "Nothing is clear!"
It's the most terrible time of the year,
It's the droop - droopiest season of all.
With those tax experts fuming and depressing meetings
When the IRS calls
It's the droop - droopiest season of all.


So I decided to try to write a parody of a song because although I don't have the talent for music, I thought the income tax deserved this type of treatment.

Yes, tomorrow is tax day. Hopefully, you are well aware of this fact and have already filed your taxes. If not, good luck to you! The tax system is overly complex as you know, and this might create difficulty when you file your taxes.

Indeed, the tax system is greatly complex and complicated. The tax code has over 70,000 pages, there are 1.2 million paid tax preparers in the United States, and the tax system is modified at a fast pace, in recent history, the tax system has been changed at an average of two times a day.

It's no wonder that it is a pain to file taxes.  In 2000, taxpayers spent 3.2 billion hours preparing taxes for the federal government.

But the cost with dealing with our complex income tax system goes beyond some simple inconvenience. It also costs the United States taxpayers and the economy as the whole money. In 2006, taxpayers spent 265 billion dollars, not on paying their taxes specifically, but just to see how much they would have to pay.

And of course, the complexity is a hassle that businesses would rather avoid entirely. In fact, Richard T. Page explained in The Tulane Journal of International & Comparative Law in 2009,

"The former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors has suggested that "from an income tax perspective, the United States has become one of the least attractive industrial countries in which to locate the headquarters of a multinational corporation." ... Perhaps this helps explain why the United States went from hosting eighteen of the world's twenty largest companies' headquarters in 1962 to just eight in 2008.”

But besides the impact that the complexity of our progressive income tax can have on the economy, I fear a much larger impact.

The fact is that not complying with the federal code is a crime and is punishable with fines and incarceration. Think of Al Capone. He was put in prison not for any of the crimes he committed, but because he was guilty of tax evasion.

Now I admit that if you do try to pay taxes, you likely won't be incarcerated for any mistakes that you might make. But let's not be naive. The tax code allows the opportunity for the government to reinterpret what the code means in order to punish or silence any of their critics should they deem it necessary. The power of the government should not be that strong.

Nor on a less conspiracy theory route, should the United States citizens have to fear breaking the law when they are doing their best to comply. They could very well err. Indeed, University of Law School Professor Deborah Shenk claims that almost all of taxpayers will make a mistake when filing taxes.

You could be guilty right now. Is this really a good tax system? Writing this section of this post was extremely difficult as no one understands the tax system even enough to explain how complex it is.

But complexity of our tax system is only one part of the problem with our income tax. The root cause of this problem can have a lot to do with the objectives of progressive redistribution of wealth prevalent within the system.

Economist Friedrich A. Hayek explains the history of the progressive income tax,

"As is true of many similar measures, progressive taxation has assumed its present importance as a result of having been smuggled in under false pretenses.  When at the time of the French Revolution and again during the socialist agitation preceding the revolutions of 1848 it was frankly advocated as a  means of redistributing incomes, it was decisively rejected...When, in the 1830's they came to be more widely advocated, J. R. McCulloch expressed the chief objection in the often quoted statement: "The moment you abandon the cardinal principle of exacting from all individuals the same proportion of their income or of their property, you are at sea without rudder or compass, and there is no amount of injustice and folly you may not commit."  In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels frankly proposed "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax" as one of the  measures by which, after the first stage of the revolution, "the proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeois, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state." ... But the general attitude was still well summed up in A. Thiers's statement that "proportionality is a principle, but progression is simply hateful arbitrariness,"' or John Stuart Mill's description of progression as "a mild form of robbery."

Here we have it. The big problem with our tax system today is that it is based on the same principles of redistribution of wealth that we have often seen to be problematic. It is built upon the socialist ideas.

Perhaps the worst part of the whole thing is that it doesn't even work in its proper way. Due to the complexity of the tax code and the loopholes in the system, the system does not take from the rich and give to the poor as it intends, but rather takes from the poor and gives to the rich. As Beverly Moran, Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University, explained in 2010,

"On paper, progressive rates can appear dramatic. At times, the highest marginal rate has risen to 90% of taxable income. Working solely from the statute as written, progressive rates seem ideal for downward wealth redistribution; but the dramatic appearance of rates on paper are just part of the story. Progressive rates are applied to ordinary income, including income from wages, but a lower rate applies to income from the sale of capital assets, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. Progressive rates are more public than real because as income and wealth rises, sources of taxable income shift from wages to capital gains....The result is that, as income rises, tax rates actually fall.”

Yes indeed, such brilliance is our tax system! It has complexity and works towards redistribution, in the way opposite of intended. But it's not just a problem with the way the system is allocated now. As Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute explains,

 "The income tax is not an example of a good idea gone bad. It was bad from the beginning, and it just keeps getting worse. The income tax distorts financial planning and business investment, and it encourages tax avoidance and evasion. Because the income tax is built on an unworkable base of “income,” the law is continually changing. Let’s simplify Americans’ finances and disband the tax army by pursuing fundamental tax reform."