On Immigration, Unemployment, and Reigniting the Flame of Pride that Should Burn within All Americans

Duncan S. Jackson

Political Science 1101

Garey Wood

Reaction Paper II

On Immigration, Unemployment, and Reigniting the Flame of Pride that Should Burn within All

Americans

            As national political debates became more heated in 2011 many of the issues under

discussion—and the repercussions of said—could be seen on the state and local level; of those,

immigration and unemployment seemed to remain at the forefront of every person’s concerns as

the probability of universal healthcare continued to loom on the horizon. While proposals from

every viewpoint have been and continue to be offered on how to best deal with these problems

individually, I propose the problem(s) are congruent, should be approached as such, and in

finding a solution this country’s residents could once again ignite the flame of national pride that

should burn within the breast of every proud American.

            Illegal immigration has been a serious problem in the United States for scores of years, if

not downright centuries. Recent information from Brietbart.com confirms that, according to the

PEW Hispanic Center’s review of 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, an estimated 850,000 people

—mostly Hispanic in origin—illegally enter this country every year, even though attempted

justification of this fact comes in the form of many who view this from a standpoint of They are

not crossing our borders; our borders have crossed them. Some complain about Homeland

Security’s inability to curtail this (executive power given to Border Patrol would be a step in the

right direction), yet at the same time many welcome these illegals, stating with much pride and

enthusiasm, “They do the jobs we don’t want to do.” Should the fact that one is unrepentantly

lazy be reason enough to continue to allow the flow of illegals into our country? It would seem

that the longer we allow this to happen, the stronger the sentiment becomes.

            According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.com), the following numbers reflect the

current state of unemployment in our country: as of January, 2012 the national unemployment

rate was 8.3% in a country whose population teeters on 309 million (census.gov), while closer to

home Georgia’s numbers, as of December, 2011, reflect 9.7% (bls.com) in a population of just

under 10 million (census.gov). With unemployment rates this high, one must wonder how

approximately twenty-five million able-bodied U.S. citizens on the national level and roughly

one million Georgians feel they have the right to complain when they so willingly turn their

backs on honest labor for an honest wage.

            As alluded to earlier, an epidemic of laziness—coupled with an overall growing sense of

entitlement where social programs is concerned—allows for justification in not re-entering the

workforce as one believes he or she is deserving of the benefits of said programs due to time

spent in previous employment as well as taxes paid over the years in support of these programs.

Familiesusa.org states that “More than fifty-eight million [Americans] rely on Medicaid […],”

while abcnews.go.com reveals that 45.753 million people on the national level and 1.4 million in

Georgia receive food stamps.

Although “there are more than 1,800 federally-supported subsidy programs, losses to […]

taxpayers from fraud, abuse, and other types of improper payments are in the ballpark of one

hundred billion dollars or more” annually (downsizinggovernment.org); of these, the most

abused are: Medicare; Medicaid; housing programs; student aid; and farm subsidies. It is

important to point out that the most costly abuses come from the white collar sector, that is to

say, professionals deemed responsible enough to care for these institutions but who succumb to

the temptation of making the easy dollar—or hundreds of millions, as it were. This is but a small

percentage of those guilty of abuse, however, thus shall we concentrate on those who make up

the larger part.

A former supervisor of mine used to say, “Good enough should never be good enough.”

Since hearing those words for the first time in 1994 they have become a part of my ever-evolving

philosophy on life, yet there are those to whom these very same words have been spoken but the

true meaning not embraced; the motivation it was meant to inspire, nonexistent. Apathy takes

root when one begins to rationalize that less is better; less in this regard being defined as more

reliance on others (social programs, etc.) and less on oneself. Is there a quick fix to this? Can we

convince people that good enough should never be good enough, that self-reliance and self-pride

go hand-in-hand, that good morals and strong character are worthy traits to pass from one

generation to the next, that we are a nation that has the ability to rise from the ashes of a beaten

and weathered economic downfall like a phoenix reborn to once again claim our place as “[…]

that shining city upon the hill.,” of which President Ronald Wilson Reagan spoke? We can, and

in instituting the following I believe we will.

Legaldictionary.com defines illegal immigrant as “An alien (non-citizen) who has

entered the United States without government permission or stayed beyond the termination date

of a visa.” This is what our country endures to the tune of 850,000 people per year. Illegal means

unlawful, and since this immigration is unlawful the United States Government has an obligation

to its legal citizens to stamp out that which is counter-productive to the overall wellbeing of our

nation as a whole. So what will become of the jobs these illegal aliens perform on a daily basis?

Their exodus will surely leave a surplus of vacancies, most of which will be in farming and

landscaping, but these vacancies can be readily filled with the unemployed. I understand that

many will not want to give up what benefits they currently enjoy from social programs, yet for

this particular five-year program to work they will not have need to; that is to say, not

immediately. Able-bodied Americans: those coasting on unemployment benefits, welfare,

TANF, or other social programs are whom I wish to target. There is absolutely no reason these

people cannot assume the roles in the workplace which are currently filled by illegal immigrants.

Upon whose shoulders will it fall to declare who is able-bodied and who is not? To be

sure, any and all who receive unemployment must be considered able-bodied as part of their

weekly certification process is to truthfully state they are able and actively seeking employment.

Insomuch as recipients of social program benefits are concerned, there has been talk of monthly

drug screenings for these individuals; it just goes to reason that any money spent screening for

illegal drugs could be spent assessing one’s overall health, and if the individual is deemed

healthy enough to work then he or she should be made to fill the void left by the now-deported

illegal immigrant.

Unemployment or social program benefits to these people would not be immediately

terminated, for it should be the sincere desire of our government to ensure the success of each

individual, to make each more economically viable in his or her own right. What I would

propose is a grace period of perhaps twelve months in which each person entering the workforce

would see a reduction of their benefits by just twenty-five percent—surely the wages earned

would more than make up for this small loss—and at the end of the twelve-month grace period

each would continue to receive reduced benefits as they became more self-sufficient. Year two

would see another twenty-five percent reduction in benefits; year three would see the beginning

of payment for social program benefits, such as fifty dollars per month for Medicaid, or one

hundred dollars per month for two hundred dollars in food stamps. Year four would see a further

reduction in benefits, and by year five, everyone should be self-sufficient.

The success of this five-year plan relies on the individual adhering to policy and

procedure, true, but it must also rely upon the government’s inflexibility to said policies and

procedures; if it is determined an able-bodied individual leaves the workforce—this is not to say

discontinues working altogether as he or she may find more suitable employment elsewhere and

transfer to said—then his or her benefits would be stopped immediately and not be reactivated

until re-entering the workforce; reactivation would not begin the process anew, but would begin

at the termination point.

A program such as this should not be viewed as beneficial to just those on social

programs or unemployment, but the thousands of felons released from our prisons every year as

well. Generally speaking, felons have two strikes against them when attempting to reintegrate

themselves into society; which are (1) lack of education, and (2) their record as a felon. Allowing

these individuals to participate in this program would assist in making this class of people self-

reliant as well, and perhaps the need to return to a life of crime because their options have

remained limited for so long would become nonexistent. Additionally, good conduct and service

could be awarded in that if an ex-convict were to remain gainfully employed for a consecutive

two-year period then his or her right to vote could be reinstated.

In theory all these factors have the potential to ensure the success of the program, making

Americans self-reliant while taking a huge financial burden off the shoulders of our government,

but we must look beyond the surface to see what we as individuals and we as a people would

truly gain. Overall, the need for our country to institute a universal healthcare program would

become nonexistent as reliance on social programs would increasingly wane with our new-found

autonomy; furthermore, I honestly feel that our most ubiquitous bane at this juncture in our

nation’s history is the lack of pride we have in our country and ourselves.

My personal, empirical observations since 9/11 have shown me that the American people

can come together as one, that we as a nation can rise together and face tyranny not out of fear,

but more a sense of duty to ourselves and our country. Since that time, however, I have seen

many commercial enterprises proudly state “We support our troops” not out of some supposed

sense of national pride, but because it is good for business. Now, just ten-and-a-half years

removed from the bombing of the World Trade Center, what I see is a country of 9/10ers, that is

to say, a nation of complacent beings more worried over the problems in their lives than finding

a solution to their problems, and the country’s as well.

The time to pull ourselves from the primordial ooze of insouciance has come. We must

hold ourselves accountable for our present, and teach our children to prepare for their future.

Pride in oneself as an American and in America itself must be reignited, and I believe that

through hard work, self-reliance, and exercising good moral judgment—all of which we must

pass on to the next generation—we as a people can once again stand proud as the leaders of the

free world.

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