Social Security and Immigration

We have all heard that our social security system is at risk of collapsing. As the baby boomers move into retirement we predict that the then current work force will not generate enough revenue to fund the program. Part of the solution to this problem could be to bring in a lot of new workers who through their work could help to fully fund social security. How convenient for us (the U. S.) then that we have a ton of people who want to come to our country to work. I think we need to do three things if we want immigration to be one of the effective tools for baling out social security and to help our economy thrive.

First we need to make it easy for workers to come to our country and participate in our economy legally. We need to create policies and staff them that allow good hard working people to participate in our economy when there is a need. If workers are allowed to participate in our economy legally (rather than illegally as so many do today) it is more likely that part of their wages will go to funding social security rather than the immigrants receiving “under the table” wages that don’t contribute to the system.

Second, Workers should be willing to commit to our Country. That is, if they want to benefit from our great economy they should fully commit to our county by becoming citizens with in a reasonable amount of time. Say 3 to 5 years. We want to avoid bringing folks to our country who can then develop valuable skills, make a quick buck and then head back to their countries of origin. Rather, we should want them to commit to our country and continue to use the skills they develop here to continue to build our country and fund our government and its institutions.

Lastly, many of our new workers do not come from a back ground of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. We need to insure our immigration policies are designed to instill these principles into the new workers. All new workers should be required to learn and understand our history and the constitution with its bill of rights. This will insure as that as the make up of our country changes through immigration it will not loose the core principles of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law that have allowed our nation to thrive.

The make up of our nation is changing and will continue to change through immigration. The question is can we manage this change in such a way that our current institutions (like social security) benefit from it and we keep the core principles of nation in tact.

Interesting Related Articles:

http://www.populist.com/05.12.edit.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/05/business/05immigration.html?ex=1270353600&en=78c87ac4641dc383&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland