Dear Everyone;
A little ways back on 5/14/07 I wrote a somewhat tongue in cheek riposte to a Viewpoint op-ed in the SF Examiner and the SF Examiner finally published with a couple of Libertarian viewpoints expressed in the article - without affiliation this time.
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
http://www.examiner.com/a-752311~Letters__May_29__2007.html
Immigration disconnect
Tamar Jacoby’s immigration solution raised interesting points [“Amnesty’s one thing; a real solution’s another,” Viewpoint]. His article noted 1.5 million foreign workers come here because of U.S. economic needs. Today there are 6.8 million U.S. non-farm unemployed.
Questions need to be asked as to why the U.S. economy needs 1.5 million foreign workers when there are four times as many unemployed people citizens. U.S. unemployed workers should be getting the jobs that foreign workers are being hired for.
Repeal federal and state minimum wage laws. Exempt income and payroll taxes for everyone earning below the federal poverty guidelines and the employer from matching payroll taxes. Repeal state income taxes for low-income workers and put a floor of $100 on sales taxes. Employers can then hire U.S. unemployed workers, reducing the unemployment rolls and the need for foreign workers — legal or illegal.
Ron Getty
San Francisco