Robbing Pedro
To pay Pablo
Well, that didn’t take long. I’ve seen this happen a hundred times, and it’s one of the primary reasons I think all governments everywhere and at all times are completely worthless and utterly untenable.
In the recent US elections, the MAGA crew united en masse to elect some ideas, among them being an end to out-of-control illegal immigration, thanks to millions of folks pouring over the border in the past four years. The minute the MAGAs won, they started arguing over what flavor of “no immigration” they wanted. Pre-election: enforce the existing laws. Post-election: no, not THOSE laws.
Ultimately, the problem is giving government the power to take a slice of your pie and re-distribute it according to majority rule. You always end up arguing with millions of other folks about how the pie should be doled out and to whom, and not whether anyone should get a piece of your pie in the first place.
The solution is quite simple, though no one wants to hear it: stop all social safety nets and go with a strict meritocracy. That’s it. Problem solved. Take away the government’s ability to hand out “freebies,” and let everyone sink or swim on the basis of their talents, skills and achievements, widely known as “equality”.
In the case of the US, everything went sideways with FDR and his “progressive democratic socialism”. If you eliminate Social Security and the personal income tax, nearly all of the social issues that have divided the country for a century vanish overnight. If Congresscritters no longer have the ability to buy votes by handing out shiny baubles they stole from you, then suddenly government is nothing more than a Zamboni going in endless circles to keep the ice smooth and level, and we certainly can’t have THAT.
Here’s the crux of the immigration problem and the current argument over H-1B visas: Social Security (tied to your taxpayer number) is a Ponzi scheme that forces the upcoming generation to provide “free” bennies to the outgoing generation — and it is flat broke and always has been. The system garnishes the wages of every productive person to dole out to every non-productive person.
Over the past century, the definition of “productive” person has shrunk, while the definition of “non-productive” person has grown, to the point that there aren’t enough “productives” to pay for all the bennies (e.g. housing, education, health care) of the “non-productives”. This has led to a political crisis, where half the country is battling the other half over who should get how much of the “free” stuff.
The core issue with the H-1B visas currently raging in the US is not who gets to work in the US for a couple of years, but how many people the US can spear with a Social Security Number (SSN).
The US and Eritrea are the only two countries on the planet that garnish wages of tax number-holders wherever they reside anywhere in the world on any “income” and assets they have from any source.
In the US, the Social Security Number (SSN) is the taxpayer number, and every H-1B visa recipient is required to get an SSN. The catch is that once someone has an SSN, they are required to pay US federal taxes for the rest of their lives, no matter where they live and/or earn income. That’s the part no one ever talks about, especially Congresscritters.
If the H-1B visa holder leaves US employment and wants to cancel their SSN, it is a very long, painful and expensive process and almost no one does it. In most countries, there is a final audit based on an application, usually filed by the employer/sponsor, and generally the taxpayer number is cancelled along with the work visa.
I currently have permanent residency in Indonesia called an ITAP, and an Indonesian taxpayer number called an NPWP. If I get a “job” at a company, they have to apply for my work permit, called an IMTA. If I get a job in Singapore and pay taxes there, I owe no tax in Indonesia, even though I have an ITAP and NPWP. However, I would still be required to pay US taxes because of my SSN, no matter where I live or work.
As an aside, I should note that “wages” are not “income,” they are remuneration to make me whole for my time, skills and talents used by an “employer”. Income is strictly defined as profits generated by an asset after deducting cost of acquisition and maintenance. That’s why we are no longer called “personnel,” and now classified as “resources”.
At ground zero of all US federal immigration laws and policies is the unspoken imperative to hang an SSN albatross on every neck they possibly can. Having foreigners with H-1Bs working from 3 years to to a maximum of 6 years in the US causes very few problems in the general economy. It is the panicked scramble to get as many people as possible locked into the Social Security system that is the root of all evil.
Without an ever-expanding roster of SSN holders, the federal government will not be able to afford the ever-increasing bloat of “free” bennies used to buy votes and loyalty.
And when the spigot runs dry? Well, one assumes that the Founders gave us the Second Amendment for those kinds of situations.
Here’s the scam: allow as many people as possible into the country, legally or not. Eventually, they will end up with an SSN, either through the H-1B process, or automatically at birth when an immigrant child is born at a hospital. Viola! An ever-expanding pool of taxpayers to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme.
Corporations are encouraged to bring in foreign workers and border gates are torn off the hinges. We need paychecks to garnish or the game is over!
When the MAGA folks finally (if ever) think this thing through, they will find that they either need to compromise on immigration, or fundamentally rewire the federal government. There is no little-bit-here-little-bit-there solution. Any other way out is just kicking the can down the road, and the road ends pretty soon. This is basically how we got here in the first place. We get to keep all the bennies we so jealously guard, and hand the whole mess off to the next generation.
Here’s what needs to happen. The Trumpians need to offer everyone in the Social Security system a lump-sum payout based on years paid in, and then shut the system down. Draw a line on Medicare/Medicaid at, say, birth year 1980, and allow the system to wind down by attrition. Turn all social safety nets over to families, private charities and religious institutions, where they belong.
Shut down the Military Industrial Complex and distribute all the hardware to the State National Guards. Shut down all the departments and agencies, like FDA, CDC, EPA, NIH, FBI, CIA, et cetera ad nauseum, and return those functions to private entities like Good Housekeeping and Underwriters’ Laboratories, and let the States do their own investigations within their own jurisdictions.
Cut off all the special bennies for Congresscritters, like special health care insurance, free travel junkets, special pension funds, and so forth. Watch how fast they fix things when they have to live with their messes. Give each Congresscritter an annual lump sum based on distance from Worthlesston DC (travel allowance for commercial ground/air transport), and let them budget their own affairs. All government pay raises/cuts must go to a national public vote every two years. Limit House members to three consecutive terms, and Senators to one consecutive term. Let Presidents serve as many terms as they want, but no more than two terms consecutively. Get rid of all these useless lifers. Oh, and no one with a law degree can serve in a public office. Full stop.
The key, however, is ending the Social Security/Medicare system. There is no other way out. This is the primary rationale for the personal income tax, and The Source of shiny baubles that keep us permanently attached to government.
Arguing over how much and what kinds of immigration to allow is nothing more than mopping the decks of the Titanic to prevent slip-and-fall lawsuits.
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Today’s film en topique is one of those oft-forgotten gems that is so apropos right now: All the King’s Men (1949). Showcasing the talents of Broderick Crawford and John Ireland, this superb drama follows a populist politician to victory, only to become entrapped in the corruption he was elected to get rid of.
Chumming the waters on the Far Side:
E-book: Paper Golem: Corporate Personhood & the Legal Fiction
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As boffo an article as you may find
NEEDLES! playing music and singing songs on the far side works best for me-after B's sermons twice a week is all the medicine I need to cure those walking blues-and always brings a happy laugh! Laughter is the medicine for the soul -thank you