At the post, A Comment on the Undocumented Using Roads and Other Government Services, a commenter writes:
Lefties "feel" for the people just wanting to escape some horrible place and let them in then take from the american taxpayer and give to the new arrivals without any deeper consideration. That's shallow lefty thinking.This is simply poor linkage. There is nothing wrong with having a concern about others ( a "feel") though some people are more sympathetic than others. The problem is one of how those who are sympathetic choose to help such people.
It is one thing to allow them into the country so that they can work. It is another to provide them free services so that they don't work and drain the resources of a country. There are many on the left who have no problem with the latter but it is not the "feeling" that is the problem, it is about the best solution for helping those.
This is where lefties often fail. They just don't think deeply as to what the best solution is and think at a surface level as to a solution that may be a disaster.
But caring about those in a tight situation is NOT the problem. Some people care more than others but the care about the greater world by all of us is actually quite limited. Adam Smith explained this is his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
That said most undocumented entering the United States are not a drain on the resources of the country. I explained this in a video.
Thus those who are anti-immigrant are just as guilty of shallow thinking as lefties who want to help undocumented at any cost. Letting the undocumented in is not the problem.
The rest of the commenter's statement simply ignores the basic fact that I stated in my original post that the undocumented are responsible for much in taxes being paid. Landlords pay taxes on where they rent. Businesses pay taxes where they work and in most cases, the undocumented pay payroll and income taxes where they may see no benefit.
The commenter distorts my position by stating that I am therefore for more taxes but I make clear in the post I am not for any taxes and that I am merely replying to his incorrect claim that the undocumented are getting a free ride by using government services without paying any taxes.
Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher of EconomicPolicyJournal.com and Target Liberty. He also writes EPJ Daily Alert and is author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank and most recently Foundations of Private Property Society Theory: Anarchism for the Civilized Person Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomicsand on LinkedIn. His youtube series is here: Robert Wenzel Talks Economics. More about Wenzel here. Editor's note: This article was originally published at Target Liberty and has been rerun with permission of its author.
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