Jim Davies for President

Immigration and Welfare

These two subjects are intertwined; if there were no tax-funded welfare, there would be no immigration "problem".

There is, of course no such thing as a "right to a job", for if there were there would be an obligation on some employer to hire someone even though he did not wish to do so. That is the antithesis of our Principle here, ie the right to own and operate one's own life but nobody else's. If an immigrant can cross a border and enter an unfamiliar culture and outbid (in skills, acceptability of wage, or both) native contenders, then good luck to him. That is what helped build America into the economic powerhouse that it still remains.

So the "problem" comes with welfare. The suspicion lingers that poor foreigners cross American borders in order to sponge off American taxpayers. Research shows otherwise; the claims on welfare made by immigrants are less than those made by native Americans, but it's true that immigrant claims are not zero. So the hostility remains.

It would have no foundation whatsoever if the welfare was cancelled; and under my Presidency that's exactly what will happen; for there will be no tax to pay for it.

That will be true at the Federal level at least. If a State persists in taxing its residents to pay for welfare even for immigrants I will not be able to stop it; but those residents will be free to vote with their feet by moving to a more rational State.

The Scope of Welfare

In its broadest sense "welfare" is the forced transfer of wealth from A to B, and often "B" is not an individual but a corporation - often an inefficient corporation in a dying industry that ought to be left to slowly collapse, so that its employees have ample time to find more rewarding work.

As shown here the size of the problem at the Federal level alone is humongous. Some 58% of the Federal tax-grab is spent on transfers of one kind or another. That enormous sum - currently about $1.2 trillion a year - is a government-constructed electromagnet for unproductive immigration. Elect me, and I will pull its plug.

Reasonably, the compassionate may ask: what is to become of those unable to help themselves?

The answer is that they will fare the same as they always did, before the disastrous 20th Century exterminated true compassion and substituted government "welfare entitlements." And of course, tax having been cancelled there will be ample private funds for the compassionate to do the job.

The Immorality of Borders

It is utterly obscene to prevent a human being from walking across a government border. Borders are entirely irrational anyway, and the notion that two otherwise identically qualified humans should have vastly different opportunities in life solely because one was born South of such an arbitrary line and the other, to its North is a violation of human rights totally indefensible under Libertarian Principles.

Under my Presidency, that immorality will vanish. Anyone who wished to come to America and earn his or her own living will be welcome. But if he fails, no Federal welfare net will come to his rescue.

What I Will Do

Some - even Libertarians - have become absurdly confused in thinking about this dual problem; they suppose that immigration must continue to be restricted until welfare is wound down or eliminated.

Nonsense! The immediate opening of the borders would be a powerful impetus for the abolition of welfare, even if I were not elected to terminate the taxes that fund it!

Fortunately and for that reason, such confusion will not survive my first (and, hopefully, only) term.

What I will do is to zeroize Federal taxes and so deny all funding for both the INS and the vast welfare bureaucracies. At the same time I shall dismiss those employees, in my capacity as Chief Executive.

No doubt there will be a great howling across the land, as millions of public-trough slurpers suddenly have to provide value for their bread. No doubt there will be a call for me to be impeached. I'll risk it; I think that Congresscritters on both "sides" of the aisle will be desperately seeking ways to show how fully they support the popular platform that propelled me to office - so as to stand some chance of retaining theirs.

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