Absent comprehensive entitlement reform, older Americans have a moral responsibility to support some measure of legal immigration to the United States.
Because without legal immigration, younger Americans face a future of punitively high taxes alongside lower entitlement benefits, just to support them in their old age. It is thus morally unacceptable for older Americans to oppose all immigration but demand their current entitlement benefits. That means retaining benefits (three times the return on an average taxpayer’s lifetime outlay), fueling the national debt crisis (hint: interest on the debt), but denying younger Americans the support to address that crisis.
We need to be clear about the moral responsibility here. He’s my boss so I’m not impartial, but the Washington Examiner‘s commentary editor, Tim Carney, had a great response to President Trump’s latest immigration tweet.
Without immigration, the U.S. population would be declining. A dying country is not a good thing. https://t.co/nk2VDWsd75
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) April 8, 2019
The key here is basic economic theory. When it comes to future prosperity, we must recognize that prosperity requires inputs: most obviously, workers. And while future technology will mitigate the need for low-value jobs, some jobs will still need to be filled at cost-effective levels. Immigrants traditionally fill these roles to our benefit. At the same time, government will continue to require significant revenue streams if it is not to go bankrupt. And that means, you guessed it, immigrants coming to and working in America and paying taxes.
If older Americans want an end to immigration, they should either get behind entitlement reform or renounce, in part or in full, their Medicare and Social Security benefits.
