Tax Benefits of Immigration

It sure seems like it’s going to be easy to balance the federal budget. If Moore’s assumptions are correct (which is almost a certainty given his pre-eminent position at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution and Hudson Institute), we could simply allow say 50 million people to immigrate to the United States each year for the next 50 years.

Wow, just think what 2.5 billion consumer-taxpayers would contribute to the national economy over their lifetime! The thought alone is enough to trigger the salivation reflex in the most dispassionate chamber-of-commerce-types among us.

OK, so there are going to be some naysayers, illiterate in the ways of contemporary economics, who will argue that the addition of so many people to our nation over such a short period of time will seriously erode the quality of life for the 250 million-plus that are already here. Can you believe the temerity of those who would embrace such heresy? Besides, there is no way that Moore would have excluded a quality-of-life variable from his brilliantly incisive “balance the budget” algorithm.

Or would he? Even if he did, as anyone residing in Southern California somewhat continuously for the past decade knows, millions of newcomers can easily be assimilated into a relatively small geographical region with minimal impact on its social fabric. Indeed, it should be apparent to all living in this area that our lives have been immeasurably enriched with better schools, less crowded freeways, cleaner air, quieter, less violent neighborhoods and a dramatic reduction in sociopathic behavior.

Let us hope that Moore’s vision of America becomes reality. And to hell with the spotted owl.

C.E. JONES

Huntington Beach