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PaperclipPerfector  8mo ago (text post)   26606 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 4, 2023

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On a purely material level, working age immigrants with useful skills are pretty much a free lunch.

Only if they pay enough taxes to cover their use of government services. Which if they have kids they very likely don't.

a) workers create value for society beyond what they pay in tax to the government.
b) their children are also going to grow up to be taxpayers, so if you're going to consider the cost of their education you also have to consider the benefits of their labor.
c) the specific scenario mentioned above is a man alone (yes, he has a family he has ambitions to bring to the US, but they're not in the country and drawing benefits, and if they do that's going to be another working adult)

workers create value for society beyond what they pay in tax to the government.

Ah, that wonderful abstraction, "society". Show me, if I'm the guy having to pay all the taxes to pay for their kid's schools and playgrounds and free lunches and whatever, how that value gets to me?

their children are also going to grow up to be taxpayers

Or they'll be welfare recipients. But I think it's better to consider this on a current cash basis, the future being notoriously hard to predict.

If society is too abstract, substitute "L's employer and customers".

Show me, if I'm the guy having to pay all the taxes to pay for their kid's schools and playgrounds and free lunches and whatever, how that value gets to me?

L becomes an auto-mechanic, lowering the cost of auto-mechanic services by $0.01, saving you $0.25 over the next 20 years and more than offsetting the $0.10 you paid for his child's education. L also contributes to aggregate demand as a consumer, raising demand for your labor and causing your salary to rise $0.005.

Or they'll be welfare recipients.

2nd gen Hispanic immigrants have earnings significantly higher than their parents.

L becomes an auto-mechanic, lowering the cost of auto-mechanic services by $0.01, saving you $0.25 over the next 20 years and more than offsetting the $0.10 you paid for his child's education.

Oh no, I actually paid $2.00 for his children's education. And only got $0.001 of the savings of the auto mechanic service, the rest being captured by his employer.

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