We need a plumber.
First, we need to understand how value is created.
This is the difference between "getting" money and "making" money. America was built on the notion of making money, and creating value.
A fundamental example of this is a simple rocking chair, the kind you might find sitting for sale in front of the Cracker Barrel, or at a roadside general store on U.S. 60, surrounded by other antiques and trinkets.
A small oak tree has little monetary value in and of itself. A man chops it down, saws up the lumber, and brings it into his workshop. Through his labor, he has increased the value of the wood by a small percent, as the lumber is now raw material that can be made into any number of things. The man can sell the lumber as it is, or keep it to create something himself....in this case he keeps it.
The man, using his skills and the sweat of his brow, cuts and shapes and sands the lumber. He glues and nails pieces together, polishes, stains, and over a period of time and effort transforms the raw material into something useful: A rocking chair.
Like a chemical reaction, the man has placed two ingredients into a glass beaker on a bunsen burner; 1: The raw material. 2: His skill. His effort serves as fuel for the flame. The flame heats the two ingredients, combining them to create something altogether new.
He has created value, where before there was none or little. This is what built America.
Grains are grown and harvested to create cereals and breads, and sold for profit. Raw materials are combined with skill and science and ingenuity to create automobiles, and are sold for profit. Raw skill, knowledge and effort are combined and provided as a service; landscaping, consulting, building, sales, etc. - and this service is sold for profit. These profits are used to buy more services or products.
Now we understand value, and how value is traded amongst people.
From the time congress changed immigration policies around the 1970's, the population growth of this country has more than doubled over the growth, including the baby-boom generation, caused by births. That means that if immigration policy was not changed around the 1970's, our population would have grown half as much as it has.
Immigration by the Numbers - Part 1
Population growth, in and of itself, is not necessarily an issue of concern, especially because, in our case, the immigrants causing the growth are generally skilled laborers or, in some cases, professionals. (In the case of Shelby County, Louisville, many other parts of Kentucky, California, and other places, a great many are members of brutal and dangerous Latino gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and the Latin Kings. This may be an exception.. :)
As skilled laborers, workers, and professionals, they can create value, as illustrated previously, and, perpetuating the simple aforementioned formula, sustain the growth that has made America the richest and most successful nation in the world to date.
The PROBLEM is this: In 1980, immigrants sent approximately $2 billion dollars, via remittances offered by banks or western union etc., to their home nations. In 2006, immigrants sent approximately $45 BILLION DOLLARS to their home nations.
This money, this value, was not used to purchase an item of equal or greater value from the immigrants home nation, which was not brought into this nation to replace the value lost by the transfer of money.
This money, this value, was not allowed to continue to circulate within this nations borders, as every person who lays his or her hands on those bills of legal tender might use them to purchase a product or service created by the skill and labor of another person in this country.
For all intents and purposes, this money, this value, was destroyed. 45 BILLION DOLLARS. We may never see it again. If money is intended to have value, which it is, then we can replace the notes of legal tender with the rocking chair, created by the skilled man. This rocking chair, instead of being sold for profit, is sent across the border into a foreign nation. It is not sold to someone in that nation, in exchange for compensation; it is given, in exchange for nothing.
The value that the man created, through the combination of the raw materials, his effort and skill, is GONE.
So, we have an, at least, $45 BILLION DOLLAR leak in our plumbing. For all the value that we create or trade, that constantly circulates through the pipes, $45 billion dollars leaks out somewhere along the way.
These remittances, the sending of money and value across borders for no return in value, is not being discouraged. In fact, it is encouraged, both by our government and the government of the immigrants' home nations. Mexican authorities, in 2004, distributed more than 1 million copies of an illustrated handbook that gives migrants illegally crossing the U.S. border tips to do so safely, and to avoid border patrols (in the guise of simply providing "safety tips.") The Mexican government encourages both legal and illegal immigration, because they know and understand that they now depend on these remittances to sustain the GDP of their own country.
Our own government allows this to happen, because some of us feel strongly that, as such a powerful and wealthy nation, we have an obligation to show our concern for the 3rd world.
The second part of the video linked above illustrates, in a rather clever way, the futility of that notion.
All things considered, we need a plumber. We need someone to fix the leaks. Eventually, our ability as Americans - the ability that has allowed this country to grow and flourish as it has - to create value where before there was none, will fail to keep pace with the loss of value due to the leak.
As our population continues to grow, our gross domestic product will cease to grow. Then it will begin to shrink...there will be no money left for infrastructure; schools, bridges, emergency services, hospitals, etc. When our population continues to grow as our GDP continues to shrink, that's the beginning of the end.
This is the difference between "getting" money and "making" money. America was built on the notion of making money, and creating value.
A fundamental example of this is a simple rocking chair, the kind you might find sitting for sale in front of the Cracker Barrel, or at a roadside general store on U.S. 60, surrounded by other antiques and trinkets.
A small oak tree has little monetary value in and of itself. A man chops it down, saws up the lumber, and brings it into his workshop. Through his labor, he has increased the value of the wood by a small percent, as the lumber is now raw material that can be made into any number of things. The man can sell the lumber as it is, or keep it to create something himself....in this case he keeps it.
The man, using his skills and the sweat of his brow, cuts and shapes and sands the lumber. He glues and nails pieces together, polishes, stains, and over a period of time and effort transforms the raw material into something useful: A rocking chair.
Like a chemical reaction, the man has placed two ingredients into a glass beaker on a bunsen burner; 1: The raw material. 2: His skill. His effort serves as fuel for the flame. The flame heats the two ingredients, combining them to create something altogether new.
He has created value, where before there was none or little. This is what built America.
Grains are grown and harvested to create cereals and breads, and sold for profit. Raw materials are combined with skill and science and ingenuity to create automobiles, and are sold for profit. Raw skill, knowledge and effort are combined and provided as a service; landscaping, consulting, building, sales, etc. - and this service is sold for profit. These profits are used to buy more services or products.
Now we understand value, and how value is traded amongst people.
From the time congress changed immigration policies around the 1970's, the population growth of this country has more than doubled over the growth, including the baby-boom generation, caused by births. That means that if immigration policy was not changed around the 1970's, our population would have grown half as much as it has.
Immigration by the Numbers - Part 1
Population growth, in and of itself, is not necessarily an issue of concern, especially because, in our case, the immigrants causing the growth are generally skilled laborers or, in some cases, professionals. (In the case of Shelby County, Louisville, many other parts of Kentucky, California, and other places, a great many are members of brutal and dangerous Latino gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and the Latin Kings. This may be an exception.. :)
As skilled laborers, workers, and professionals, they can create value, as illustrated previously, and, perpetuating the simple aforementioned formula, sustain the growth that has made America the richest and most successful nation in the world to date.
The PROBLEM is this: In 1980, immigrants sent approximately $2 billion dollars, via remittances offered by banks or western union etc., to their home nations. In 2006, immigrants sent approximately $45 BILLION DOLLARS to their home nations.
This money, this value, was not used to purchase an item of equal or greater value from the immigrants home nation, which was not brought into this nation to replace the value lost by the transfer of money.
This money, this value, was not allowed to continue to circulate within this nations borders, as every person who lays his or her hands on those bills of legal tender might use them to purchase a product or service created by the skill and labor of another person in this country.
For all intents and purposes, this money, this value, was destroyed. 45 BILLION DOLLARS. We may never see it again. If money is intended to have value, which it is, then we can replace the notes of legal tender with the rocking chair, created by the skilled man. This rocking chair, instead of being sold for profit, is sent across the border into a foreign nation. It is not sold to someone in that nation, in exchange for compensation; it is given, in exchange for nothing.
The value that the man created, through the combination of the raw materials, his effort and skill, is GONE.
So, we have an, at least, $45 BILLION DOLLAR leak in our plumbing. For all the value that we create or trade, that constantly circulates through the pipes, $45 billion dollars leaks out somewhere along the way.
These remittances, the sending of money and value across borders for no return in value, is not being discouraged. In fact, it is encouraged, both by our government and the government of the immigrants' home nations. Mexican authorities, in 2004, distributed more than 1 million copies of an illustrated handbook that gives migrants illegally crossing the U.S. border tips to do so safely, and to avoid border patrols (in the guise of simply providing "safety tips.") The Mexican government encourages both legal and illegal immigration, because they know and understand that they now depend on these remittances to sustain the GDP of their own country.
Our own government allows this to happen, because some of us feel strongly that, as such a powerful and wealthy nation, we have an obligation to show our concern for the 3rd world.
The second part of the video linked above illustrates, in a rather clever way, the futility of that notion.
All things considered, we need a plumber. We need someone to fix the leaks. Eventually, our ability as Americans - the ability that has allowed this country to grow and flourish as it has - to create value where before there was none, will fail to keep pace with the loss of value due to the leak.
As our population continues to grow, our gross domestic product will cease to grow. Then it will begin to shrink...there will be no money left for infrastructure; schools, bridges, emergency services, hospitals, etc. When our population continues to grow as our GDP continues to shrink, that's the beginning of the end.