Saturday, July 14, 2007

Anger Management.....

Apparently, I have friends who do not subscribe to Greenwood Gab. Who knew?
So Theresa posted this on Greenwood Gab for those who are not members....

Please pass it on....


Mom was a homemaker and Dad worked all his life and
Paid into SS. Dad has passed away and now Mom can
Barely make ends meet. While the possible 'illegal' alien
In front of her at the grocery store buys the name brands,
Mom goes for the generic brands, and day old breads.
She doesn't have out of state calling on her phone,
Because she can't afford it and shops at the thrift shops
And dollar stores. She considers having a pizza delivered
Once a week 'eating out'.

She grew up during the depression, watched her husband
Go overseas to fight in WW II a year after their marriage,
And then they went on to raise, feed and clothe 5 children,
Struggling to pay tuition for parochial schools.

The Senate voted this week to allow 'illegal' aliens
Access to Social Security benefits.


I'm sorry, but how can the Senate justify this slap!
In the face to born and bred, or naturali zed citizens.
It is already impossible to live on Social Security alone.
If they give benefits to 'illegal' aliens who have never
Contributed, where does that leave us that have
Paid into Social Security all our working lives?

Attached is an opportunity to sign a petition that
Requires citizenship for eligibility to receive Social
Services. If you do not wish to sign the petition yourself,<>Please forward on to anyone you think might be interested.

PETITION FOR: President Bush Mr. President: The
Petition below is a protest against the recent vote of
The senate which was to allow
Illegal aliens access to our social security! We
Demand that you and all congressional representatives
Require legal citizenship for anyone to be
Eligible for social services in the United States.

I was grievously offended by the illogic of the argument and wrote this back to the Gab.....

Theresa, I love you and I sympathize with your mother's situation (or any mother in that situation) because I've been there but for crying out loud, ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

Hold on to your blood pressure and please read the rest of this. You need to know the truth. If anyone wants to take exception to it, please reply off line, this doesn't belong on Gab. I put it here only in direct response to Theresa's post. Equal time, you know. You can converse directly with me on my blog at http://kimalanus.blogspot.com. I will have a post up to allow comments on this topic tomorrow.
Comments are moderated but I will only moderate for offensive language. Make your argument politely, please. The F word is absolutely forbidden.

Most illegal aliens who work in the United States have Social Security and Federal Withholding held from their paychecks just like you and I do, except they never get an income tax refund 'cause they never file for it and ditto SS benefits. Most employers do their paperwork and turn in the withholding, they just don't check to see if the SS number they are given has anything to do with the individual who gave it. The under the table, cash economy is a small fraction of illegal alien employment. (I used to work with INS, I know whereof I speak.)

Working illegals don't take away from the economy. The economy is not a zero sum game. The simple fact is that all labor adds to the output of the economy. Yes, illegals from Mexico send a goodly portion of their income home. But they spend most of it on housing, food, transportation and consumer goods right here and pay taxes right here, just like you and I, generating profits and tax revenue, just like you and I. If you work and get paid, you are going to spend money and pay taxes. Doh!

The real solution is to invite them into the system, give them social security numbers and, oh why not, citizenship and make them part of the great society. That's what made it great in the first place, that's the only thing that will keep it great. Slam the doors and bar the gates and we can no longer recruit the world's best and brightest looking for an opportunity and we drown in our own mediocrity. Eliminate the stupid quotas. They were a bad idea in the first place. Every single justification for them boils down to racism.

"Send us your tired, your poor, your tempest tossed, yearning to be free. I lift my lamp before the open door." Remember that one? It's engraved on the Statue of Liberty for a reason. It wasn't before, it was AFTER. (Well, it was before, too, there have been several great waves of immigration that built this country. But the artist meant it as commemoration and thanks.)

Your mother's social security is based on how much she paid in, with an allowance for survivor's benefits based on how much your father paid in. What somebody else takes out has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!!!! Who gave you this talking point. It's a non sequiter (the conclusion does not follow from the premise) on its face. If you want to start a rational argument about what may or may not be wrong, or about to go wrong with social security, I'd be happy to engage in that discussion, but you need to be willing to delve into math beyond how much money do I have in my hand.

This is one more reason the Republican party is headed down the tubes, they can't add, subtract, multiply or divide unless it's their own money. They don't get the concept that shared is squared. And immigration has nothing to do with your mother's poverty, nor is preventing immigration a solution for it. If you want to solve that problem for every homemaking mother out there (and Jennifer is one and I will likely pre-decease her by a lot) THINK! Don't just accept this foolish twaddle as true because it comes from what you may regard as a reliable source. It only holds up if you don't think about it.

Start from this point. The economy is not a zero sum game. This is obvious. If it were, we would all still live in caves as hunter-gatherers.

Kim

So now, others who do not subscribe to Greenwood Gab can get into the discussion....

Have at me. ;0)

Kim

2 comments:

Ab_Normal said...

I swear I've seen that e-mail before, but I can't find it at snopes.

And isn't the mom's situation more of an argument in favor of increasing benefits to meet inflation and rising costs than against giving benefits to more people? ;D

kimalanus said...

You have to be logic-impaired to present that story and conclude that we shouldn't allow illegal aliens to apply for SS benefits they paid into the pool. You have to be dead from the neck up to buy it....

Yes, it is could be an argument to deal with the declining purchasing power of benefits. But that's a whole different issue with a lot more complex constellation of proposed solutions. Some of which are IMO very, very bad.

Kim