albertsperspective

Social benefit programs work when there are more people paying in and fewer people receiving benefits. Social Security and Medicare programs must have been based on a model that assumed perpetual growth of a working population that would always outnumber (or out-pay) those receiving benefits. But now, it appears that the large post World War II Baby Boom generation may bankrupt these programs as it moves into retirement age and depends on the support of a smaller working population.

Fortunately, the United States is in a position to establish policies that can support the continuation of programs like Social Security and Medicare by taking advantage of its continuing standing in the world as a land of opportunity – a place where people can come from all over the world and find success, in much the same way that our forebears did.

We should view the current immigration policy question as an opportunity to help our economy through increased immigration. Increasing immigration adds population and leads to increasing demand for products and services; and that in turn leads to more jobs and economic growth and more people paying taxes and supporting programs like Social Security and Medicare. Of course, the immigration must be legal to positively affect the tax base, so we need to make it possible for illegal immigrants to become legal and pay their fair share of taxes to help make the system work. While sending illegal immigrants home “to the back of the line” may satisfy some, a more pragmatic approach would assist in their prompt transformation to tax payer status (maybe with a little tax penalty in the first few years to compensate for their time as non-payers).

Population growth has been and can be the engine of economic growth, and we should see immigration as a means to restore the advantages of growth and the beneficial programs that it can support.