(This opinion by Paul Krugman in The New York Times is being reprinted without permission because it mirrors the editor’s opinion but says it better.)
Trump’s decision to kill DACA — never mind the attempt to obscure things with that meaningless delay — is, first and foremost, a moral obscenity: throwing out 800,000 young people who are Americans in every way that matters, who have done nothing wrong, basically for racial reasons. But it’s also worth noting that Jeff Sessions just tried to sell it with junk economics, claiming that the Dreamers are taking American jobs. No, they aren’t, even if we leave aside the question of who’s an American. DACA is very much a boon to the rest of the U.S. population, and killing it will make everyone worse off.
To see why, first note that whatever you think about the economics of less-educated immigrants — most of the evidence suggests that they don’t depress wages, but that’s another discussion — none of it applies to DREAMers. Their educational and behavioral profile, as Cato notes, doesn’t resemble the average immigrant, let alone the average undocumented immigrant; they look like H-1B visa holders, that is, skilled immigrants we have specifically allowed in because they help the economy.
Beyond that, DREAMers are young — which means that they help the economy in not one but two big ways, because they mitigate the economic problems caused by an aging population.
One of those problems is fiscal: as the population ages, there are fewer working-age members contributing taxes to pay for Social Security and Medicare. A cohort of relatively high-wage, highly motivated people mostly in their 20s, likely to pay lots of taxes for decades, is exactly what the doctor ordered to make that issue less severe.
Meanwhile, I’m one of those who worries about secular stagnation — persistently weak spending, making episodes in which monetary policy can’t achieve full employment even with zero interest rates much more likely. Several factors contribute to this risk, but probably the most important is demography: a sharp slowdown in the growth of the working-age population, which means less incentive to invest in structures, factories, and more. (The demographic issue is why Japan, with low fertility and great hostility to immigration, entered a zero-rate regime a decade before the rest of us.)
And what would make secular stagnation more of a problem? Hey, let’s expel hundreds of thousands of young people from the current and future work force.
So this is a double blow to the U.S. economy; it will make everyone worse off. There is no upside whatever to this cruelty, unless you just want to have fewer people with brown skin and Hispanic surnames around. Which is, of course, what this is really all about.
22 Responses
I am disgusted that you have turned this local newsletter into yet another political battleground. . There is plenty of different viewpoints in this country and you are as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. But there is no need to add more fuel to this fire and further divide our country Please keep to local news and leave the biased news to CNN, The New York Times and the Washington Post. Otherwise, you have lost another reader.
Thank you, Carol. I so agree with every word. We are all immigrants, and should try to take care of each other. That’s what this country was founded on. That’s what people used to love about Americans. Reading these comments so full of hate are why we will stay so divided. God help us become more caring, loving human beings.
Writing immigration laws, and making changes to existing laws, is the responsibility of Congress. President Obama knew this and should have pushed Congress when he had the chance. Instead, in 2012, he decided to make his own law. President Trump believes we are a nation of laws not of whims of one person and is shining a light on Congress to get them to do their job.
And The New York Times is not failing, unless if you get your news from Donald Trump’s twitter page.
What depressing and hateful comments– no one will take you seriously when you call people names like snowflake, obummer… come on and grow up.
Oh, and the same ol’ rhetoric, “they hate gays, blacks, the poor, etc” is progressive gobbledegook.
As a progressive you must hate babies since you support the murder of over 45 million since Roe, right?
Sue Anthony, just another “it’s for the children” snowflake progressive.
Sue, how many illegals have you given a meal or lodgings to, any living in you home?
Walking the walk? No, you expect the taxpayers to pay the tab while you probably live in a lillly white neighborhood.
Where do Sanders, Clinton, Pelosi, Gore, etc live?
Build that wall and build it now, we cannot just let in anyone for any reason. A country with no borders is not a country.
yeah, The American Indians probably said the same thing. Look in the mirrow, wise-up.
Thank you, Ms. Pelosi, for having the journalistic and moral courage to reprint this editorial. I’m sure that you knew that many would object, and object with bile and hatred, like Mr. Reck and Mr. Dick. As for me, I wish that I could be the one (instead of our president) to decide which 800,000 are to go. If I were given that awesome opportunity, I would certainly have a list (probably to include Mr. Reck and Mr. Dick). No one should have that power. Because, no one should be able to “trump” our constitution.
Sue Anthony
Sue, what do you know about our Constitution? Do you think it was Obummers job to make immigration policy?
Where in the Constitution does it say we’re obligated to let anyone in and the President makes the law?
When you find this clause please advise us.
Your folk got in, when and how??
DACA does not benefit lawbreakers, as one of the above posters writes. It benefits law-abiding young people who are just like me with one difference: they were not born here and had no choice in that decision. Why should they live in fear of being deported to a place they don’t remember when they identify as Americans?
Thanks for sharing.
If a family breaks into your house while you’re away on vacation and you discover they’re now living there when you get home, do the children of the perpetrators automatically become your responsibility as the police haul the parents away? Or maybe the entire family should be granted squatter rights to your home. After all, why would you want to ruin their lives?
Paul is an extreme leftist socialist who works for a dying newspaper.
The first letter in DACA is D for ”delayed”. What I heard is the executive branch telling the legislative branch that the delay will be over in six months. Congress get it together and come up with a permanent, legislative Law that addresses immigration reform. Never mind that fact that the former head of the executive branch said many times that he did not have the constitutional legal authority to make up his own laws and said many times that Congress needed to act. Maybe now they will finally act on something.
Supporting DACA is supporting law breakers and an insult to those who are trying to follow the rules with regards to immigration.
Yes, only 2A supporters should go to jail for standing up for the Constitution, we need to disregard the Constitution for the invaders.
Correct
Talk about junk economics…….this editorial.
Thanks for reprinting this.
We should just let whomever wants to come here until the US has 5 billion people.