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No good deed escapes punishment in politics
Eric Breitenstein
- Independent Florida Alligator (U. Florida)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (U-WIRE) -- By now Linda Chavez is just a memory.
She withdrew her candidacy for being Bush's secretary of labor because of allegations that she kept an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, Marta Mercado, in her home. Mercado had no money or food and was introduced to Chavez by a friend. Chavez agreed to take her in and gave her money, most of which was allegedly sent to her family in Guatemala. Mercado started taking English classes and even found a part-time job.
This sounds like the first rung on the ladder to the American Dream. For Chavez, it turned out to be the beginning of a nightmare. She didn't pay taxes on the money she gave to Mercado, nor did she do a background check to determine her immigration status. Chavez violated both labor and immigration laws.
Laws that force employers to become de facto federal agents and police their employees' INS statuses are based on a melding of two dubious legal doctrines called "status crime" and "civic duty." In the former, people are punished because of what they are (immigrants, drug users, Jews, etc.), not for what they do; in the latter, persecution is claimed to be for the benefit of the state, thus making crimes out of activities -- hiring an illegal alien -- that harm no individual directly. Both are hallmarks of Nazi jurisprudence, and both were condemned at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal.
Such laws also lead right to racial profiling; thus, they might violate anti-discrimination statutes. It would have been outrageous if Chavez had told Mercado that she would have to live on the street because she didn't have a green card.
The question is whether the government should punish employers who hire illegal aliens, or whether it should do a better job of preventing illegal immigration in the first place. Once immigrants are here, making it a crime to help them is simply inhumane.
This brings us to the other laws Chavez is accused of violating. She did not pay Social Security taxes on the "wages" she gave to Mercado, nor did she require Mercado to turn over some of her money to the government.
Social Security is not only an enormous scam, but it is also biased against minorities and the poor. The return on Social Security "investments" is a paltry 1.5 percent annually. A savings account at any bank could do better than that. In addition, the life expectancies of minorities and the poor are significantly lower than those of the rich and the white. This can often result in a net loss on the investments of minorities and the poor.
We now have the cynical scenario of the lower-middle-class African-American who worked all his life only to die before he can receive an adequate return from the Social Security system.
As with many redistribution schemes, those who can least afford it are forced to subsidize the incomes of those who don't need it. Social Security is not only a total failure, but it is also an immoral con game that may actually take from the poor and give to the rich.
I suggest two things. One, do away with "illegal" immigration by opening our borders. We are a nation of immigrants. There is no one reading this who doesn't owe an ultimate allegiance to some brave soul who left (or was taken from) a homeland for the New World; the hypocrisy behind (anti-) immigration laws is appalling.
Two, completely privatize the Social Security system. The idea that the current system helps the poor retiree is as close to Orwellian doublethink as one can get. When Argentina partially privatized its system several years ago, so many workers opted out of the disastrous public portion that it had to be abolished. Other countries have experienced similar success.
Privatization gives the worker ownership of his own retirement account, which no government official can ever touch. It gives control of the money to its rightful owner, who can choose to do with it as he pleases. It returns power to the workers.
Finally, this is not a column solely in defense of Chavez. It is a call to stop making criminals out of people who help others. The laws Chavez broke are neither just nor necessary. Employers and employees should be free to contract with each other without government interference. Stop punishing good deeds.
Erin Breitenstein's column originally appeared in the University of Florida's Independent Florida Alligator on Jan. 19. Send comments to letters@daily.umn.edu
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