ex-social security trustee: America, take off your racist goggles and learn to love the immigration!

[mswyrr]

Why More Immigrants Are An Answer to the Coming Boomer Entitlement Mess
Robert Reich
Friday, April 9, 2010

I was born in 1946, just when the boomer wave began. Bill Clinton was born that year, too. So was George W. So was Laura Bush. And Ken Starr (remember him?) And then, the next year, Hillary Clinton. And soon Newt Gingrich (known as “Newty” as a boy). And Cher. Why so many of us begin getting born in 1946? Simple. My father was in World War II. He came home. My mother was waiting. Ditto for the others.

Sixty years later, we boomers have a lot to be worried about because most of us plan to retire in a few years and Social Security and Medicare are on the way to going bust. I should know because I used to be a trustee of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Those of you who are younger than we early boomers have even more to be worried about because if those funds go bust they won’t be there when you’re ready to retire.

It’s already starting to happen. This year Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes. The tipping point came sooner than anyone expected because the recession has kicked so many people off payrolls. But it was coming anyway. And it adds new urgency to reforming Social Security — a task the president’s commission on the nation’s debt is focusing on.

So what’s the answer?

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke this week listed the choices. “To avoid large and unsustainable budget deficits,” he said in a speech on Wednesday, “the nation must choose among higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.”

Bernanke is almost certainly right about “some combination,” but he leaves out one other possible remedy that should be included in that combination: Immigration.

You see, the biggest reason Social Security is in trouble, and Medicare as well, is because America is aging so fast. It’s not just that so many boomers are retiring. It’s also that seniors are living longer. And families are having fewer children.

Add it all up and the number of people who are working relative to the number who are retired keeps shrinking.

Forty years ago there were five workers for every retiree. Now there are three. Within a couple of decades, there will be only two workers per retiree. There’s no way just two workers will be able or willing to pay enough payroll taxes to keep benefits flowing to every retiree.

This is where immigration comes in. Most immigrants are young because the impoverished countries they come from are demographically the opposite of rich countries. Rather than aging populations, their populations are bursting with young people.

Yes, I know: There aren’t enough jobs right now even for Americans who want and need them. But once the American economy recovers, there will be. Take a long-term view and most new immigrants to the U.S. will be working for many decades.

Get it? One logical way to deal with the crisis of funding Social Security and Medicare is to have more workers per retiree, and the simplest way to do that is to allow more immigrants into the United States.

Immigration reform and entitlement reform have a lot to do with one another.

Source.

I like what he's saying. There's something very appealing about the idea that setting aside xenophobic paranoia is the way to help your country economically. Marrying ethical behavior to financial success is a heady combo. But I'm not sure the economic recovery this guy's solution requires will be as strong as he believes. Fair and humane immigration reform is necessary, but I'm not sure I can buy that it's both necessary and the key to solving the Social Security problem. What do you folks think?

Comments

[willow]

You know you're bitter when you read something like this and find yourself thinking "Of course, let's find another way to take advantage of those 'not like us'. Let strong young immigrant backs take the weight of the generation that refused to think ahead or think about anyone but themselves."

[merlinpendragon]

I resent the implication that being against "Immigration Reform" means one must be racist.

I am not against it because of race, I'm opposed to "immigration reform" because of legality. I care not where one comes from, only that if they are coming here they do it legally, the first time and every time.

When a person's very first act on our national soil is to break our law by coming here in some way other than those allowed by law, they are a criminal. Where I come from, we don't reward criminals, we prosecute them.