Let me preface this with a brief disclaimer. When I speak of The Invasion, I am not only speaking about illegal immigration from Mexico. As well, I have no problem at all with immigration as that is what our beautiful Country was based on (Land of the Free? Maybe.) I will, however, like to provide an idea as to how we might be able to quell the effects of illegal immigration stemming from our neighbors to the South.
There have been many theories on how to stem the flow illegal immigration coming across the USA/Mexico border. Of these, two in particular stick out. First, the dreaded "fence". I recently read an article in the latest edition of National Geographic about this very subject. It detailed a border town in Arizona by the name of Nacos. There is an ongoing border fence project being erected in this town. It currently spans 11 miles and cuts directly through the middle of the town. 800 Residents on the US side and 8000 on the Mexico side.
Scores of residents (on both sides) actually support the idea of the fence, yet hate how it looks. To many, however, it brings back memories and visions of an infamous fence in Berlin. The argument has been made that the fundamental difference in the two fences are that while the Berlin Wall was designed to keep people in East Germany, the US/Mexico fence is designed to keep people out of the US. Sadly, looking at it from the other side of the fence (pun intended), the opposite of keeping people out, is keeping people in. Of course, the argument will be made that the fine people can leave their country another way (Central America?), but for what? Is the quality of living in Central American countries anywhere close to it in the United States or Canada?
The second theory / application took place years ago. It was a method employed by the Government in which all illegal immigrants being deported would be detained near the border until such time the numbers would fill a steam ship that would then carry them to the Southern tip of Mexico. The idea being that it would be so difficult of a journey back to the United States, many would not risk the trek. While this solved a lot of problems, the issue still remained. The border was open and (as an illegal immigrant) you were fine until you were caught. I don't specifically remember which administration backed this method, but I want to say it was most likely either Eisenhower or Truman.
As you can see, there exist fundamental flaws in both of these ideas / plans. Now, to the meat.
I had an epiphany yesterday. I have determined that we are going about this all wrong. The fight the invasion, we must use a combination of the same tactics and tax reform to fight back. This will not work with just a few individuals. It will need the backing of both Governments and citizens as a whole.
The first step is Tax Reform. Currently, the inherent flaw with an Income Tax is that only those that actually pay are punished. Of course, there are those few tax offenders that actually get caught, but for the most part, by the time their fraud has been investigated, they have already fled the country. This is precisely the reason I am for a flat sales tax. Sure, the cost of consumer goods would rise significantly, but think about the offset of sales vs. income tax. In Texas currently there is a 7.25% sales tax for the State and an optional (up to) 1% for local governments. Making the maximum sales tax 8.25%. I propose that a flat 30% sales tax be had. This would include the 8.25% maximum tax for State and Local governments, making the Federal income tax 21.75%.
Yes, that new camera would cost you $1000 instead of $700, but how much would that extra $300 mean if your paycheck was 20-30% higher? As well, people who buy more expensive consumer goods, pay the "luxury" tax. You want a new $50,000 Mercedes? You pay $65,000 for it. But you could also buy a $20,000 VW Rabbit and only pay $26,000 for it. This also provides solution to the problem of undocumented workers not paying income tax. I don't have specific numbers for this, but pose the following question. If the 20 Million illegal immigrants in the US payed income tax, would the country be in as much debt as we are now?
The second step is to open the border 100%. Of course, this would be a logistical nightmare, especially with security these days. The key is to take land as it becomes available. Start expanding South. People complain about border towns and how poor they are. If we move the "logical" (not physical) border further South, cities and towns will start expanding further southward to make use of natural resources still available. Mexico is extremely rich in natural resources, up to and including black gold (oil), natural gas and coal. Let's move the good things about the USA southward into Mexico. Clean water, readily available food and jobs. This was of course what NAFTA was supposed to introduce, but hasn't. I find it ironic that the passing of NAFTA has only made things worse.
I realize this is an extremely unorthodox recommendation, but at least it's a fresh idea. We haven't had many of those recently. It's a terrible shame our government spends so much time policing the rest of the world, and still cannot manage to make a decent change to our own Country.
--M