10. Immigration. There is an extent to which the immigration argument that undocumented workers from abroad take American jobs is reasonable. The true of that is hard to refute. It is equally hard to say that immigrants, even those with illegal status, should be sent back to the nations they came from immediately and without any provision for their economic futures. The immigration issue debate has become more v
iolent as the recession has continued. It may be that the federal government’s best course would be to ignore the issue of who has come to America and focus on the economic impact of the migration. Some states have exacerbated jobless problems due to immigrants and others are not affected at all. The southern states that border Mexico are those that have had the worst economic impact. Other states like Ohio and Illinois have substantial labor problems that have nothing to do with immigration at all. The most logical solution to the problem is to provide supplemental aid to states that have large illegal immigrant populations to create more public sector jobs–jobs that the states and municipalities within them may find essential but that cannot be performed due to the recession. It may be harder to find a job in New Mexico because of immigrants. That does not mean that there is still not important work to do in some of the state’s financially beleaguered regions. The emotion surrounding the immigration issue makes it one of the most difficult unemployment issues of all to solve.
Too much has been made of the similarity between the current economic times and those of the 1930s and the Roosevelt government’s reaction. American is not a rural country now. It is not a manufacturing one either. Most of the work force is now in the service sectors, and this has created a large set of problems that cannot be helped by FDR-like solutions.
The solutions to improving the unemployment problems that are the most difficult politically and emotionally are the trends away from capitalism that more government aid creates. Pre-WWII was a period of great government support for workers, and post-WWII in the US was perhaps the greatest expansion of a capitalist economy in history. If Americans choose more social support from the federal government, this does not mean that this course can not be changed when economic stability is more assured. This will be a decision that citizens and politicians can and will make in the future just as they do with each new set of circumstances and each new generation.
Another hurdle is more immediate. Many economists and institution like the IMF have made it clear that America’s national debt will reach levels which will become progressively more difficult to fund over the next ten years. That could produce a long period of austerity which would change the lives of ten of millions of Americans who rely now or will rely on the social safety net. That leaves the federal government and the voters with a decision. Either the US can choose to do as little as possible to address unemployment, or it can take the risk of spending hundreds of billions of to get the jobless rate back to recovery levels and hope that the economy grows in tandem with that.
Douglas A. McIntyre
