'Tis Only My Opinion!^™

September 2015 - Volume 35, Number 9

"The Fruits of Compassion"

From the first European immigrants who arrived on the North American continent on the Mayflower and those who came later prior to founding of the United States of America in 1776, the vast majority professed to be of the Christian faith. For the first century and a half within the U.S., the vast majority of the population entered the country legally and soon became citizens.

As a result, it is not surprising to find references to God and religious freedom in the founding documents of the United States of America.

One of the basic foundations of the Christian faith is compassion towards all people.  One of the results of that compassion has been that the United States has become a melting pot of various nationalities and religions.

The Statute of Liberty was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States. Inscribed on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor which was dedicated in October 28, 1888 are the following words:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! "

At the time the Statue of Liberty was dedicated, the United States was a country largely undeveloped with citizens willing to be independent. Those immigrants were assimilated into a country with ideals significantly different than those of the country from which they had arrived.

The Disappearance of Self-Reliance and God

Since the founding of this nation, the early concepts of self-reliance and a God-fearing nation have slowly disappeared as the notion of Christian compassion towards those less fortunate has gained political traction. 

The pace of destruction of those early concepts has significantly increased beginning with Roosevelt's "New Deal" programs in the 1930's.  With the passage of the Social Security Act of 1934, the idea that the government could provide a modicum of security in old age took root.

During the following decades, programs like disability, childcare, unemployment, employment training programs, school lunch programs, childcare, aid-to-dependent children, etc. were implemented.

 New American Way of Life

Over time, laws were enacted which for a large portion of the population destroyed the concept of self-reliance, self responsibility, and the traditional nuclear family.

As a result, there is a new "American Way of Life."  It has significant implications for the nation and the way forward. John Tabb recently wrote in The Lonely Libertarian the following article:

New American Way of Life

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Compassion has a lot of side-effects that are not immediately visible. 

Tapp's article illustrates how a series of compassionate programs morphs into something far different that that which was originally envisioned.

This is particularly true whenever an organization or government gets involved. The concept of a sunset provision is rarely invoked as the size of a organization or the amount of money involved is important to the leaders or patrons of the program.

Aid-to-Dependent Children and the rise of illegitimate births.

The federal government along with state governments began to provide assistance to single mothers with children beginning in the 1920's.  With the  passage of Social Security in 1933, the effort was expanded and the amount of funds expended began to significantly increase.

The Aid-to-Dependent Children laws and regulations have been instrumental in the breakdown of the family not only within the African-American community but many groups living at or near the poverty level.

Economics professor Walter E. Williams writes:

"According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, that year 11 percent of black children and 3 percent of white children were born to unwed mothers."

In  2013, more than four in ten births (40.6%) were to unmarried women whereas in 1960 less than 5.3% were to unmarried women as shown in the following chart. 

While the destruction of the nuclear family is obvious when looking at the above chart, the fact that 71.5% of all births in non-Hispanic blacks is now above 70% is particularly devastating to the African-American community.

In 1965 a policy paper written by George A. Akerlof and Janet L. Yellen entitled "Births in the United States" stated:

 "In 1965, 24 percent of black infants and 3.1 percent of white infants were born to single mothers."

It is hard not to argue that the welfare system along with changing moral attitudes has played a  significant role in these changes. The current War on Drugs is also partially to blame as a substantial portion of the African-American male population has been incarcerated during the past 50 years.

Illegal Immigration

One of the hot buttons in the 2016 Presidential campaign concerns the invasion of the U.S. by illegal immigrants as well refugees being admitted to the country from all over the world. The cost to the U.S. taxpayers is hardly ever discussed, let alone quantified.

It was only in 1875 that immigration into the U.S. became a federal matter. In 1891, the federal government organized the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services department. In 1921, following 24 million immigrants arriving in the U.S. between 1900 and 1920, a quota system was implemented.

Interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court as to "anchor babies" being granted citizenship has led to the rise of many pregnant women from China, Mexico and other areas arriving in the U.S. to give birth. Babies born to illegal alien mothers within U.S. borders are called anchor babies because under the 1965 immigration Act, they act as an anchor that pulls the illegal alien mother and eventually a host of other relatives into permanent U.S. residency.

The cost of "anchor babies" to the U.S. taxpayer is significant. Medicaid alone paid $2.2 billion in 2014 to partially reimburse hospitals for unpaid illegal alien delivery bills. A staggering 84 hospitals in California alone, have been forced to close their doors because of unpaid bills by illegal aliens.  In 2014, in Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, a staggering 70% of all babies born are to illegal aliens.

It is reported that many Chinese are paying between $20,000 to $60,000 to visit the U.S. to obtain "anchor baby" status. 

The cost to society is substantial if as several studies show the cost to raise a child is in excess of $300,000.

 If the family lives on welfare, guess who picks up the tab?

"Birthright citizenship" for illegal aliens abuses taxpayers by granting a lifetime of welfare and social services to the "anchor baby" and its entire family structure.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies,  71 percent of illegal-alien headed households with children received some sort of welfare in 2009, compared with 39 percent of native-headed houses with children. Illegal immigrants generally access welfare programs through their U.S.-born children, to whom government assistance is guaranteed. Additionally, U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are entitled to American public schools, health care, and more, even though illegal-alien households rarely pay taxes.

The media and members of various political organizations continue to inform the public that the number of illegals in the U.S. is about 12 million despite the two previous amnesty programs primarily using the data from a Pew Research Center study.

 It should be noted that the Pew Research Center might not be considered to be totally objective.

In August 2015, Mexico’s former ambassador to the U.S., Arturo Sarukhan,  said that 30 million “undocumented immigrants” are living in the United States in the beginning of an interview before later stating a different number at the conclusion.

Was Sarukhan correct?  Does anyone really know?

The U.S. has immigration laws which both Democratic and Republic administrations have not enforced effectively.  Legal immigrants are faced with years of delay and in many cases, thousands of dollars in legal fees. The system is broken by almost any definition.

It has a visitor-visa program which does not keep track of those overstaying their visas and only puts minimal effort into finding visitors who do not exit the country.  It fails to monitor students who are attending colleges and/or universities in the U.S.  It is simply too easy to disappear from school as there is no effective way to determine if they are in attendance.

Refugee Resettlement

Citing humanitarian concerns, the federal government has for years helped refugees from disaster areas and people displaced by wars to be resettled in the U.S.  Following the admission of over 250,000 displaced Europeans in the wake of World War II, the first refugee legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress was the "Displaced Persons Act of 1948." This legislation provided for the admission of an additional 400,000 displaced Europeans. Later laws allowed for the admission of persons fleeing Communist regimes. In 1975, the U.S. resettled hundreds of thousands of Indochinese refugees.

The Refugee Act of 1980 is the current legal basis for the program and since 1975, the U.S. has resettled over 3 million refugees here.

In many cases, the refugees are placed in areas in which they have no support mechanisms other than that provided by the federal government; Recently, many rural areas of the country have begun to object strenuously to the resettlement of refugees.

In many places such as Minneapolis, Minnesota and Flint, Michigan, the refugees have created areas, or whole cities, that no longer abide by U.S. laws but are governed by Sharia laws.

President Obama promised to "change America."  However, the voting public, probably, did not envision the extent of the changes which has occurred.

Amnesty

In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) signed by Ronald Reagan, Republican, marked the biggest change in U.S. immigration policy in decades. IRCA granted amnesty to undocumented immigrants who met specific provisions, required employers to verify workers' eligibility to work legally, and increased funding for the Border Patrol.  About 2.7 million individuals, including over 2 million Mexicans, were granted amnesty under IRCA.

In 2001, President George W. Bush attempted to address the immigration issue, particularly, the movement of Mexican workers into the United States, both legally and illegally.  After seven years, Bush's attempt to change immigration policies failed.

President Obama has taken another approach by issuing executive orders and directives to Homeland Security and the Border Patrol to not enforce certain U.S. laws ... thus, creating the "Dreamers Act" and failing to remove illegals from the country.

The Right to Vote

As the 2016 elections approach, a substantial portion of the population is concerned that electronic voting machines are not tamper-proof. Moreover, whether a person is really eligible to vote is also in question. 

It seems ridiculous to argue that we need a state-approved identification to obtain entrance to many venues but not to vote but that is the position of many politicians.

We don't really verify the voting rolls via the social-security death index nor run a check against any public-utility database to check addresses, etc. 

I wonder why?

Conclusion

When politicians do not require that laws be enforced, revised or removed when out-dated, anarchy is just around the corner.

What makes Donald Trump effective is that he understands that the "silent majority" no longer believes that either political party can effectively rule without significant change within those organizations.

Both parties have become corrupt and there is little difference. 

The Supreme Court is allowed to change the interpretation of words at will.

The bureaucracy is out-of-control and Congress is unable, or unwilling, to use the power of the purse to regain control of it.

As a result, what started out as a compassionate response to a need has created forces which will ultimately destroy the basic building blocks of this country.

But then - 'Tis Only My Opinion!

Fred Richards
September 6, 2015

www.adrich.com
www.strategicinvesting.com

Corruptisima republica plurimae leges. [The more corrupt a republic, the more laws.] -- Tacitus, Annals III 27

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