Immigrant populations are drawn to urban areas like Trenton, but now we senior citizens may want to re-examine our thinking on the subject.
Last Thursday, March 10, Stephen Goss, Chief Actuary for the Social Security Administration, addressed the National Economics Club at the China Garden in Washington, DC. The audience of seasoned Washington insiders was surprised by Mr. Goss' case that illegal immigrants benefit our economy in general and Social Security in particular.
Everyone is concerned about Social Security. Whether you are one of the present beneficiaries,(with a benefit average of about a thousand dollars a month)or one of the baby boomers who will retire in the next decade(wondering if there will be enough left in the Social Security Trust Fund) everyone has a stake in the issue. Everyone except the working illegals. They pay in and account for almost ten percent of total payments each year, billions of the trillions that go in and out of the Treasury and Trust ledgers.
Mr. Goss pointed out that Social Security was a break even up to about 1983 when the birth rate of Americans dropped. From that point on, the number of persons working to support the per person benefit was no longer working. For the average $1000 monthly payment for a beneficiary it takes about 3 people to keep things even. There are fewer people in the work force now because the population is dropping, so there are only about 2 people to carry the load that was paid in by those three. This means that the trust makes up the difference.
The fact is that immigrants have more babies and are helping to bring the birth rate back up. They work and pay into the system and unless they become legal or report under legal names, their payments are straight income to the trust fund because they will not be able to claim benefits.
In those states where there are efforts to control or expel the immigrant population, it is perhaps short sided because they contribute to the economy in ways that have not been recognized. Not only are they producing income for the Social Security Trust Fund, not only are they unlikely to benefit from the system that helps retirees to survive in old age, they use and provide local services and products and enrich their communities.
There is a strong conservative push to tighten up immigration laws in this country. We lost a lot of our naivete after 9/11. The rest of the world does not automatically think we are the greatest thing since sliced bread. We must keep our borders secure in order to survive in this new age of terrorism and no one will dispute that.
That said however, we have to take a second look at the practical aspects of the contribution that these hard working determined people are making to our culture. Unless one is American Aborigine...one's ancestors came from another country.
Perhaps an amnesty compromise now would let us have our cake and eat it too.
People rock.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Problem is that no one seems to care about the strain they put on the rest of the system. Emergency rooms, overcrowding, insurance woes, illegal auto registration...the list goes on....and who pays for that? The rest of us who are already paying too much! Yay for social security but it should not come at the expense of quality of life for all of us who actually do things legally!
ReplyDelete