Terrornomics 101

Today I went back to school. Its was the first time I stepped foot in a class room to learn something non-job related in almost 16 years. Gulp. One minute I'm clicking a button labeled "Enroll" in a web browser, the next minute "Macroeconomics 001" is apon me. I wasn't entirely sure I was going to enjoy the experience, but so far so good.

However the jury is still out until I've suffered the other trauma it entails - exams. Exams might not seem like a big deal to most people, but the last time I did any of those was also 16 years ago when I did eight three-hour exams pretty much back to back over four days. If you thought that the last Lord of the Rings movie was long, try watching it eight times over four days sitting on a hard seat in a class room wearingsubfusc and during that time try to recall and answer questions on everything you have learned in the last three years. Remember there is no popcorn or soda either to help you cogitate either (which is fortunate because even going to the bathroom will be an ordeal you didn't really want to have to endure).

However, during class after the first hour of tedious but mandatory formalities things began to improve, especially when the first reference to Bush policies came up. By the time teacher had made his third reference to Bush policies I knew it wasn't a fluke reference to whoever happened to be President at the current time. After he went on to describe Bush's policy of giving residency to illegal immigrants as "terrorism against Mexicans" I was definitely hooked.

So why is giving greencards to millions of illegal immigrants "terrorism against Mexicans"?

Well America has a looming problem - a giant bubble of baby boomers about to retire. As teacher was at pains to point out, social security being bankrupt has nothing whatsoever to do with a big bank account labled "social security savings" being down to zero. Quite the contrary, thanks to syphoning of surplus social security contributions to offset the annual deficit that "account" has always had next to zero in it for years. In fact its at a huge negative thanks to issuing of bonds against it to finance the national debt. So what is social security being bankrupt all about then? Well its all about there being not enough productive social security paying 19-65 year olds contributing to social security to in turn make the payments to those retiring baby boomers.

You see there's nothing special about social security, its just a tax leveyed on your payroll. And the irony is that social security payments are capped at a fixed dollar amount. So the super rich millionaires and billionaires who sit at the top of a huge and distinctly wide bottomed pyramid of less well of folks, actually pay no more social security than someone earing abou $80,000 a year. The reason this is unfair is that it took legions of minimum wage workers to generate the corporate profits that pump up their salary and wealth to where it is today. Since 1970 the wealth of the top 1% of this country has multiplied many times over, while the average wage and living standards for the rest of us have declined. So for the vast majority of us the last thirty years, supposedly the hayday of modern civilisation, haven't been anything at all to write home about. That's why poverty rate in the USA are higher than they were thirty years ago, and... well I think I've blogged about all this before haven't I.

So, the cunning plan from Bush to fix all this is that you give residency to 75% of the 8 to 10 million estimated illegals in the USA, most of who are naturally from south of the border. As teacher said, just how many people fly 10,000 miles to come to the USA illegaly compared to those who can walk or drive over? Then you let those people pay their social security while they are working, now legally, whereas the probably paid none before. That creates a huge infusion of new social security payments that go a long way to curing the problem without burdening the rich Republican voters with increased social security payments.

Then the clever bit. Include a little clause in the residency of illegals bill that encourages them to leave the country for Mexico - when they retire because they can still draw social security from there. However for most this will be a pitance and the biggest cost will be healthcare which, you guessed it, is going to have to be paid for by the Mexican people. In the mean time for sponsoring this Bill you hopefully endear yourself to all the Latino voters as the great patriarch who liberated all those illegals that had previously being getting the shaft for anyone who could stick it to them. Hence the claim about terrorism against Mexicans - you exploit the workers to contribute to our social security fund and then when retired send them home to be cared for by their own country.

I'm not saying its all bad, things certainly aren't great for illegals, and back home things aren't a bed a roses either - just ask Brazil and the rest of South and Central America what they think of American foreign policies right now. Nor have I managed to dig up a figure for how big the baby boomer bubble is (the inbalance of dependent old age folks to social security paying workers) to see if the magnitudes of the theory make sense. However it goes to show when you learn a bit about economics it shows up all kinds of policies in a new light and I definitely think this theory that unexpected Bush benevolance to Latinos probably has some darker exploitative sub-texts worth considering. So next time you hear about some Bush election year grand give away don't be so quick to hail him as the great paragon of human rights^** and golden gift horse that he has recently been claiming to be. When there's an offer that sounds too good to be true, there's usually something amiss...

^*It appears that no one has ever used that word before. It means: the study of the economics of policies and actions relating to terrorism

^**Link courtesy of Chicken or Beef?