Illegal Immigration - The Broader Threat

My friend and CPA, encouraged the subject line of this post. He said I should really focus on this illegal immigration problem because, as he sees it, it should be our nations number one priority. He believes and rightly so that illegal immigration is a major snag in our governments efforts to protect and defend our national security and our national economy.

Illegal immigration policy is being bandied about by the opposing political forces as a means to an end, that ultimately, using current proposals from either side of the issue, will not solve the real and the most dangerous problem surrounding this issue. Both sides of the issue are on a disinformation campaign because they are getting political capital from this long abused process of immigrant farm worker exploitation. What is this process? It goes like this quick business economics primer: In order to get the maximum return on your investment in any business you minimize costs of production and therefore be able to maximize your profit structure, right? In the case of agribusiness the same holds true whether you're a small family farmer, a corporation, or a cooperative. Knowing this you immediately set about trying to trim production costs. In the case of food production where many delicate perishable food items cannot be machine harvested, particularly delicate vegetables and fruits, you have to rely on the hands of human labor. Here's where the problem starts.

Human labor is very expensive in any modern economy. The more things cost the more you have to pay employees in order for them to thrive in the same economy. It's a vicious circle that many folks don't seem to grasp or don't want to comprehend for whatever reasons. Suffice it to say though that in the case of perishable food production these labor costs where borne by the poor, share croppers (a form of subsidized slavery), and anyone just looking to make a few bucks in the past. These people along with migrant workers from Mexico did this kind of work in our country for most of the previous century. When large farms and big agribusiness took over the lions share of the perishable food production business there where not enough of these homegrown workers, for whatever reasons, to fill the bill. In California the answer was, is, and always has been south of the border. Migrant workers from Mexico had been toiling in the fields of plenty for generations. Why not just exploit that source rather than have to deal with domestic workers and all the attendant red tape and expense, sounds economically correct right?

There was one road block though, the red tape involved with documenting these migrant workers in the numbers necessary and in a timely manner was, and some say still, too oppressive. (Many say a federal and state bureaucratic nightmare so laced with prejudice and outright racist intent as to be totally impractical.) The answer: Screw the law we (the migrant workers) will just sneak across the border and get those field-hand jobs that pay more that most folks make in Mexico. This sounds all good and glorious to the socialists in this country who believe in power to the worker and all other such socialist communist tripe on the one hand and to those who benefit from a cheap labor force on the other. Another words the illegals are being exploited by both sides. A very real problem is that illegal workers were and are willing to take far less money for the same amount of work thereby undercutting the legal migrant workers who are paying taxes and are trying to do the right thing. Once that process became the name of the game then there was no more incentive for anyone to even try to come here legally.

With the advent of strict regulations that govern the treatment and pay of field workers by the State of California and the Federal Government everyone who uses this kind of labor now defers the hiring of these workers to "contractors" who in many cases are more of a problem regarding worker pay and rights than the big business interests where accused of doing in the past. But since these "contractors" are mostly of Mexican descent and are not white farm owners and businessmen and there are enough port-a-potties in the field then nobody seems to give a damn how much the illegal workers are being exploited. Also it's a known fact that these illegal workers are being paid under the table tax free so there is another problem. To make matters worse the socialists (pronounced Demoncratic Party) in the State of California give away the store, when it comes to social benefits, to people who are not citizens of our country. These same illegals are funneling most of their illegally made money and services back into Mexico bypassing our economy entirely. So what we have is a huge sucking sound, as Ross Perot described, as millions of hard earned badly needed taxpayer dollars are flowing illegally out of our country into the hands Mexican residents.

Now lets look at the politics of this situation and see who the players are and their agendas. The players are many but can really be condensed into a few groups by following the money. Using this barometer we can narrow it to three groups. The immigrant/victims rights group consisting of the all the socialists, leftists, and Demoncrats. Then there are the conservatives, national defenders, taxpayer rights groups, constitutionalists, libertarians, and conservatives i.e. the Republican party. The third group is big business interests which by the way are apolitical and are only concerned with how the politics of this issue effects their bottom line. When you look at things this way you begin to understand how this became the mess it is today.

It also becomes clearer how to the deal with illegal immigration and what measures need to taken. I will not go into all those measures here because I think they should be obvious to anyone with a smidgen of intelligence. Suffice it to say though that we must deal with the issues and concerns of each group in a fair way that benefits the constituents of each group. But the one, the most important issue that cannot be quibbled with or obstructed or obfusticated, is that illegal immigration must stop totally and completely! We will never be able to insure that we have done the utmost possible to not endure the terror that faces Israel on a daily basis if do not take effective measures to stop illegal immigration. Countries everywhere else in the world who have foolishly opened their borders to just anyone now face the same terror as the citizens of Israel as witnessed in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and others. Further more we should never, never have to endure another day like 9/11. Failure to stop such an atrocity by people elected to power positions in the Federal and State governments is in direct violation of their oath to protect and defend the people of our country. These same elected officials should be held accountable in proportion to this responsibility. There will be never another 9/11 if politicians and officials responsible for our local, state, and national security are given the all the resources and support necessary to carry out this vital mission. If after all that and they still fail then those responsible should be drummed out of office and jailed post haste for failure to "protect and defend".

When it comes to preventing any such tragedy as currently occurs in Iraq daily or regularly in Israel then no issue is more important than that of our personal, local, state, and national security at this time in our history. Illegal immigration is the number one threat to our local, state, and national security as well as our economy at this time. We must take the necessary measures to stop ALL border incursions. We must vigorously prosecute those who would encourage, support, or profit from illegal immigration no matter who they are, individuals, corporations, whomever! We must send a strong message to the Mexican government that we will take what ever action necessary to defend our borders and that they must stop encouraging the illegal incursions or drastic economic measures will taken against them. We have a right to this security and no one has the right to supplant our right to security and peace of mind! We need to be able to send our children to school without fear of their bus or school being blown up by some asshole who snuck across our border in the van of a smuggler. We need real 360 degree border defense that deals with everyday human needs and also does everything humanly possible to see that those who would blow us up never succeed in their mission.
TIC

Great Tragedy Spawns Great Deeds or The Tale of The Ugly American

The aftermath of the tsunami tragedy has rekindled the message that America is NOT a country entirely inhabited by greedy lusting materialistic infidels. The America haters are having to keep quiet or eat crow. What's more revealing about our American soul is the amount of money goods and services from the private sector far outweigh that of any other country or countries combined and eventually will overshadow that of the US government.
So where is the UGLY AMERICAN now?
Well he or she is digging into their pockets to put change in a Girl Scouts bucket in front of a store or writing a check to a charity engaged in the relief work or buying something they need from a business that has pledged part of it's profits to support the victims.
If this is being an Ugly American gimme more of it please!

Tsunami Aid?

With all the media attention to this disaster and I do mean attention. I wonder if anyone is paying attention to the amount of money the media is making off this horrible tragedy. I mean all the media, WORLD WIDE! But in particular here in the US and Europe. If the media is so concerned about how much everyone is giving then they need to look in the mirror and see how much money they are making off this tragedy.
I call upon all the media world wide to donate every penny they are making off this tragedy and other tragedies to charity. I also call upon them to donate this money only to effective charities that are really doing the most efficient job of being a charity in this world effort to confront and heal this terrible wound.
Folks ring their bell and let the media know you want them to pony up their share also or you will take your viewership or readership elsewhere!

Tax Reform?

Tax reform made a small blip on the news radar recently with announcement of the Presidents new "tax reform panel". The media seems very luke warm to this ever having any impact or ever doing anything serious towards really reforming the tax code, i.e. sacking the IRS as it as exists today and replacing it with a national sales tax or flat tax.
My personal view is that the government and the media seem to delight in cavorting this "carrot" in front of our collective noses in order to keep us believing year after year that somehow magically this economic slavery called income taxes, social security taxes and other such legal tax extortion will be lifted from us. Not likely, the way things are going!
The only way for this to really happen is for a new idealism is this country based on the need to be constantly vigilant and politically engaged in the very soul of our political world. To be self sufficient and not reliant on the government for a handout. A handout by the way that comes out the pocket of every hard working American and small busimess in this country. Many people falsely believe that the rich are paying these handouts, but that cannot be further from the truth. If the individual rich are paying out large sums of money to the government they have lousy CPA's or they just like giving the government their money for whatever reasons. Don't think this is true? Then why do you think the politicians never raise the zero tax levels above the income level of the working folks and the small business owner. It's obvious, because the aforementioned are paying the lions share of the taxes in this country. The political power base know's this and for them to act or say otherwise is dishonest and outright lying. There is no such thing as "taxing the rich". That is a lie perpetuated by both sides of the political isle for their own purposes. The leftist progressives perpetuate this lie as showing that are trying redistribute the wealth of the rich, while the right says the rich are being victimized. Neither of which is true, as I stated before.
Governments are supposed to be for and by the people, but what we have now at all levels are special interest agenda driven governments. Especially at the federal and state level. Many of these agendas tend to focus on making sure that these special interest groups or their constituencies receive the lions share of the tax payers money.
To make matters worse these governments setup a legal extortion system where by if you refuse to pay these taxes they can legally steal everything you have. Folks this is what the mafia does, only for them to do so is illegal. Either way you look at it, it's extortion and it's wrong. Any tax that threatens a persons income or property is immoral and flatly wrong! Taxes on goods and certain services, money changing hands in commerce, I can agree with because then these governments revenue would be tied directly to the economy and then these governments would be forced take measures that insure the survival of and the growth of our economy. Also irreversible laws must be enacted that prohibits these governments to legally steal from their citizens by enacting any form of income or property taxes.
I am sure this will upset all the agenda driven constituencies, but that is too bad. This country was NOT founded on the principle of welfare either corporate or social, especially bourn on the backs of working men and women and people trying to build and maintain a business. This is a travesty and must stop.
It would be great if I could see the same concern for our economic future and safety and security of our income and property as is being shown for other high profile interests in the world today. If we could collectively engage ourselves at all levels of government, if we had the time, we could be a mighty force for change that would sweep the world. Remember you have no real freedom if your money and your property can be taken from you. Just because it's legal does not make it moral or right.
In particular the Sixteenth amendment must be REPEALED. Careful study of the history of this amendment is awash in scandal, hi-jinks, and fraud. Based on what we know today of how voting was so predominately rigged in this country at the time, the way this amendment was put into law would be under a thunderous legal attack today. Unfortunately though due to a spineless Supreme Court, we are saddled with this atrocity until it is repealed.
Time to get involved folks and send a message to your your elected officials that you want real tax reform not just a carrot and a stick!