Events That Should Never Occur

What a Monday! First, immigrants march across the nation, making Howard Zinn proud. I've no doubt that many Latino immigrants take jobs away from Americans. But does the usurpation of jobs that have never been "white" jobs actually drive wages down? Studies vary, as you might expect, but here is a sample. Points 14, 16 and 17 are especially pertinent. General trends suggest immigration neither raises unemployment levels nor decreases wage levels appreciably in the destination countries. Wage variation depends, in part, on elasticity between wage demand and native labor supply. If America were still largely agrarian and American labor were not just desired but required to keep the country chugging, we wouldn't be worrying about the illegal immigration problem. Our problem is that we have a surplus of native labor too stubborn to take the jobs we suggest illegals are stealing. America may be the standard bearer for capitalism but that does not mean her citizens are all so brainwashed as to follow free market lieutenants demanding suicide missions - we want government to take care of us, protect us, enable us, but we also demand government do so at the lowest cost possible. From a strict economic perspective, if we just slapped massive tariffs on oranges or landscaping services (or, indeed, any industry redolent with illegal labor), we could discourage employers from hiring illegal immigrants. But that's not really the issue here, is it? We enjoy having a consumer surplus and we enjoy that oranges cost $2.99 per pound instead of $6.99 and we certainly enjoy that, for $250, five Mexican men will cut our grass, move shrubs into aesthetically pleasing arrangements, pull weeds and generally beautify our obnoxious four-acre plots of land. So, what do some of the more radical anti-immigration types propose? Tom Tancredo, when he's not calling immigrants a "scourge," proposes kicking out the illegals and raising the wages of those jobs they take so Americans will want them. But then our oranges will cost more! To which constituency should we pander: the people who love cheap goods or the people who want the greatest fiscal benefit for native Americans?

While we're discussing money matters, let me first note I understand next to nothing about macroeconomics. One thing I do know, however, is that if your government runs out of money, you're proper screwed. The advent of the information age has given us "flash mobs," but this may be the first time in history I've seen a flash layoff. How does a commnwealth go bankrupt? Well, though the term applies to Puerto Rico, it's actually an unincorporated American territory, meaning it has only those "natural" rights imparted by Constitutional jurisdiction (freedom of speech, for example). Does that mean the mainland U.S. is under no directive to assist our tiny, annexed neighbor? I'm not necessarily suggesting that our immigration issues and our commonwealth issues stem from a common source, but, well, it sure seems so, doesn't it? Since the United States ratcheted up its imperial ambitions shortly before the turn of the 20th century (Teddy Roosevelt's "big stick"ism, if I recall) we've roundly thumped all Spanish presence in our backyard while ignoring an important fact: since the 1400s the history of the Americas has been violent conquering and reconquering of indigenous peoples and the imposition of newer and wackier forms of government. How dare we blame the immigrants for seeking some peace? Amnesty for the illegal immigrants, aid for the Puerto Ricans - we owe them that much, don't we?