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Fixing America’s Immigration Black Market
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The Public Policy
Rekindling the Dream
The legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. should not end with his new statue on the National Mall.
Martin Luther King Jr. is now memorialized with an imposing statue on the D.C. National Mall. While the honor is long overdue, his legacy should not end with a statue. A fitting practical tribute would be to tear down legal barriers that continue to hinder the equality and opportunity he fought for. Three such policies come to mind immediately: immigration restrictions, occupational licenses, and minimum wage laws.
The United States is the “land of opportunity” for a reason. Immigrants are disproportionately entrepreneurial. They open food stands, run convenience stores, and build hotels. Many are computer programmers and tech innovators who make everyday technology faster and easier for all of us. The opportunity immigrants seek is nothing more than the opportunity to serve us, and in doing so, make our lives better along with theirs.
Unfortunately, U.S. immigration restrictions stand in the way of that opportunity. They violate the basic rights of employers to hire who they wish, force businessmen to act as policemen against their own workers, and turn peaceful, productive people into outlaws. Laws that label ten million nonviolent people “illegal” are inconsistent with maintaining a free and open society.
Hungarian born Andy Grove co-founded Intel after fleeing Communist dominated Hungary. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to the U.S. as a child. But this is not a new phenomenon. Andrew Carnegie, the great steel industrialist of the 19th and 20th centuries, emigrated from Scotland as a child. Our immigration laws should be changed so future Groves, Brins, and Carnegies aren’t excluded.
Even citizens face government roadblocks to opportunity. Occupational licenses limit entry into numerous markets. Professional licenses raise prices, prevent competition, and hurt consumers. But they also make it more difficult to open a small business, removing entrepreneurial opportunities for numerous Americans.
In Virginia, 19 boards regulate and license more than 30 professions including cosmetic stores, earring and tattoo shops, real estate agents, and barbers. If the state was really interested in making Virginia the “Commonwealth of Opportunity” that it claims to be, it would eliminate these licenses and allow Virginia consumers to decide which businesses succeed or fail. In a time of near double digit unemployment, the government should not stand in the way of entrepreneurship and job creation.
Minimum wage laws have a similar opportunity-quashing effect, as many workers who would willingly work for less than an arbitrarily decided limit are kept on the unemployment line. Workers have many different reasons for taking less money. Some just want to get work experience. Some need a little extra money. But the reason shouldn’t matter. Why should the government question the motives of workers? Opportunity should not be denied because a bureaucrat or lawmaker believes he knows what is in an employee’s best interest.
The minimum wage’s effect has been particularly dire for lower-income minorities and teenagers. During the 1940s and 50s, teen unemployment for blacks was consistently lower than for whites. Today, after the minimum wage, black teen unemployment rates have surged to almost 40 percent. Overall, black unemployment is almost double the national average. A system like this creates perverse incentives. Prohibitions on productive, legal work create incentives for welfare dependency or illicit activities like drug sales.
Many states are considering raising their minimum wages, and there is always talk of further restricting legal immigration. But if policy makers want to memorialize Martin Luther King, Jr. in a meaningful way, they should knock down today’s barriers to opportunity, freedom, and equality, not raise them even higher.
About the Author
David Bier is a research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (44) | Leave a comment
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stephanie| 8.25.11 @ 6:15AM
What should end is any connection with the King family who charged near a million dollars for the National Park service to us "King's likeness" on the memorial. Oh, and it was made in China.
Mike Hawk| 8.25.11 @ 6:58AM
That Made in ChiCom China 'stone' effigy is ugly. Who designed that pile of excrement and why is it on the mall?? No disrepect to MLK, the whole thing is wretched excess.
Trinacria| 8.25.11 @ 2:13PM
Completely agree. Don't you just know the Chinese are just laughing their asses off at the towering image of MLK gazing down upon the masses with his arms folded "gangsta style"?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.25.11 @ 6:23AM
Those three issues you mentioned are important but pale in comparison to the effects of collectivism which is actively pursued by the federal government with all it's force and lack of wisdom
Banking and housing and our economy were almost destroyed, and will take years to recover, from the after effects of phony policies pursued and encouraged by the federal government which were based on giving houses away mainly to minorities.
In the job market corporations are assailed by many branches of the federal government if they do not meet unofficial hiring quotas mandating jobs for women and minorities in the private sector.
The federal government itself is a paragon of inefficiency due to it's collectivist policies in terms of hiring on a basis of diversity. Federal agencies are staffed to the gills with incompetent people whose main claim to fame is their gender and/or race.
The Department of Agriculture staffed with diverse employees recently forked over 1 billion dollars to imaginary farmers based on race alone, and it's has since been discovered the program is wrought with massive fraud.
Until the federal government gets out of the race business it's an insult to Martin Luther King to have the federal government sponsor such an event or have a holiday in his memory.
There is no equality in America and until that issue is straightened out it really doesn't matter what the federal government does about jobs. There will be no jobs because there is too much risk in the workplace.
Any employee can have myriads of regulations and laws apply that can drive an employer into bankruptcy if they try to fire a diversity candidate.
The same force applies if they don't hire the diversity candidate. Either way, the employer can't win. That means everyone loses.
juandos| 8.25.11 @ 11:25AM
MLK single handedly killed housing values all over S. Chicago... To bad they didn't include that bit with his Mall statue...
Brian Mc| 8.25.11 @ 6:56AM
If an individual comes here illegally what else are they willing to do, illegally? On my way to work, in just a bit, and I believe that I will disregard all the traffic laws along the way; it will be so much easier to get there.
Ken (Old Texican)| 8.25.11 @ 6:58AM
Bill,
Boy! you are on the ball this morning. Well spoken sir.
(PS: thanks for line breaks for easier reading.)
Melvin| 8.25.11 @ 7:20AM
Most of us here on American Spectator have seen Martin Luther King, and that block of rock does not do Mr. King any justice. It is a cross between Chairman Mao, and Kim Jong Il with male pattern baldness.
During the 60's I never even saw Mr. King fold his arms like some tin pot dictator. How dare the King family foist upon the Washington Mall this disgusting block of stone. That Chinese manufactured lump of crap needs to go, and find an American stone mason who will make a accurate representation of Martin Luther King.
The Chinese are laughing their butts off on this one, carving a likeness of Chairman Mao and installing on our National Mall.
The American people must force the King family to demand that this abomination be removed and replaced with a statue that is more befitting.
Conrad Spiracy| 8.25.11 @ 11:11AM
Absolutely agreed!
I'd prefer to see a statue more like I remember seeing him in the news. Free standing, behind a podium, chin held righteously high (NOT petulantly challenging as the current narcissist-in-chief), either both hands on the podium, or more preferably, one hand on the podium and the other rasied with his index finger pointing to our Creator above. How eloquent that would be, and a true visage to boot.
Thanks Melvin.
POST American| 8.25.11 @ 7:22AM
-----------DE-moralization OP concealment
--ALERT!--
One and all take note,
the Martin Luther Kind memorial was made
in RED China.
-------------------REALLY----NO JOKE
Conrad Spiracy| 8.25.11 @ 11:12AM
Old news... zzzzz.
RADIO BOY! Take that tin foil hat off your head and come down from that Mothership now! Dinner is getting cold!
And I will NOT reheat it for you!!!
PRE American| 8.25.11 @ 7:41PM
They're coming to take me away, ha-ha!
Timothy L. Pennell| 8.25.11 @ 8:36AM
Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy, is that the Blacks have TURNED THEIR BACKS on him. They have IGNORED what he Preached. Spit on the great gift, that he gave his life for.
His DREAM was his Gift. His Dream that his children would, someday, play with White Children, and that people would be judged, NOT by the Colour of their skin, but, by the Content of their character.
Anybody see that, today? Any Blacks calling for Charlie Rangel to Resign? Did this Black President's Black Attorney General, give 3 Black Panthers a Get Outta Jail Free Card, because of their Skin Colour? Because they were "MY PEOPLE", or was it because of the Content of their character?
Blacks in America are at the bottom of the pile, in this Country, because they've put their trust in to the hands of people SOLELY, because of their pigmentation. Al Sharpton. Jesse Jackson. Barack Obama.
Tell me. How do these people keep getting RICHER, while the Black folk they're supposed to be helping, keep getting POORER? How could America's 1st Black President take away the Private School Vouchers, from all the Poor Minority Children, in D.C.? How could he condemn them to the same Failing, Filthy, Dangerous Public Schools that he claimed: "Do not meet with my Daughter's Standards"?
Unfortunately for History, Martin Luther King Jr's legacy is a Money Grubbing Family, a Black Community that's in Shambles. 4th Generation Welfare Families, and his people back on the Plantations. Only, this time, they're there of their own choosing.
"I have a Dream".
Yes, you did, Sir.
Now, see what they've done to it.
Al Adab| 8.25.11 @ 11:12AM
Is it not those who, like Sharpton, view every issue through the prism of race that are in fact the racists?
TrueBlue| 8.25.11 @ 1:43PM
When a person's first reaction to a situation is to scream "Racist!" that person is showing themselves as a racist. But nobody ever says anything because every group is protected except white males. Any black person who mentions another black person is being racist gets called an Uncle Tom.
It's sad, but I see more white guys treating people based on their character, rather than the color of their skin, than anyone else.
Occam's Tool| 8.25.11 @ 5:38PM
Barack Obama's first education action was to deny poor black kids a chance at a good education.
His wife's major accomplishement as Hospital Administrator at U of C Hospitals was to deny poor black kids access to U of C hospitals.
There's a term for people like these.
Drunken Sailor| 8.25.11 @ 9:33AM
LOL, You lost me when you started in about Immigration and tried to justify making illegal immigrants legal citing examples of great people who immigrated here legally.
Fail, try again.
Drunken Sailor| 8.25.11 @ 9:36AM
As of 2006, the United States accepts more legal immigrants as permanent residents than all other countries in the world combined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I.....ted_States
Bob Grant| 8.25.11 @ 9:41AM
This statue is so reminiscent of Shelly's poem Ozymandias. At the risk of offending MLK admirers (of which I'm considered one), this statue is reminiscent of one you would see in China, North Korea, or some Third-World dictatorship, and does not match the other memorials and monuments at the Mall.
Al Adab| 8.25.11 @ 11:10AM
Statist realism style.
Of course nowadays when one quotes MLK on the "content of their character" one gets accused of racism. Keeoing up with "newspeak" can be difficult.
JimH| 8.25.11 @ 3:34PM
I thought the head sort of looked like an Olmec statue.
Al Adab| 8.25.11 @ 7:48PM
Didn't those guys on the History Channel just explain that the Olmecs were extraterrestrials and brought technology to Earth? Would that make them the first illegal aliens?
KyMouse| 8.25.11 @ 10:27AM
Plenty of people just need the government to get out of the way so they can work hard and reach their goals. My late grandfather hoed corn for 50 cents a day to buy law books, and went on to found one of the top law firms in the region (and no, he wasn't an ambulance chaser). Our current situation would make him puke.
Sheila| 8.25.11 @ 11:04AM
Michael King was a plagiarist, an avowed communist, and a serial philanderer. Okay, altogether now, all you "conservatives" and "independent thinkers" scream "RACIST!"
GW| 8.25.11 @ 12:14PM
Thank you. He is mythologized, even by the Becks and Hannitys as if he were conservative. He wasn't. He just got assassinated. If alive today, he would be going on about "institutional racism" and pushing for affirmative action like the Sharptons and Jacksons.
Drunken Sailor| 8.25.11 @ 12:41PM
Who is Michael King?
Westie| 8.25.11 @ 3:26PM
The great Black Conservative, Elizabeth Wright (deceased) wrote a great piece on the Glenn Beck's silly adoration of MLK; http://www.alternativeright.co.....th-wright/
CommonSense| 8.25.11 @ 11:40AM
Are you two drunk or high? This has to be the stupidest article I've ever read on this site, an I've been on here for 12 years.
I can only assume since your both from some BS "institute" you've never held real jobs, or roll in the real world. Interesting, you have a lot in common with our current president, and just as delusional.
Trinacria| 8.25.11 @ 1:59PM
Amen, brother! I couldn't agree more.
By the way, I especially liked the logically flawed argument that "immigration laws should be changed so future Groves, Brins, and Carnegies aren't excluded." If the laws didn't prevent CURRENT Groves, Brins, and Carnegies to be excluded, how does one proceed to make the argument that they need to be changed to prevent FUTURE Groves, Brins, and Carnegies from being excluded?
And the "abolish the minimum wage" argument? I'm no fan of minimum wage laws, either, but it can hardly be argued that MLK would hold a similar view. To suggest that abolishing the minimum wage would somehow honor MLK's legacy is like suggesting that eliminating racial quotas would be a tribute to Jesse Jackson.
This article has further strengthened my long-held belief that "policy analyst" is the polite description for "one who talks out of one's ass".
Drunken Sailor| 8.25.11 @ 2:22PM
"eliminating racial quotas would be a tribute to Jesse Jackson"
Great, I sprayed Mt. Dew all over my monitor, reading that line. Nicely done.
Occam's Tool| 8.25.11 @ 5:40PM
They need to be changed to deal with the illiterate drug cartelists coming in from the South; in doing that, one must NOT exclude the Brins.
Al Adab| 8.25.11 @ 6:01PM
Don't forget the Iraqis, Libyans, Iranis, Yemenis, Syrians and others who have been caught crossing our Southern border. Many of those had been taught Spanish, but I doubt they were looking for landscaping jobs.
Occam's Tool| 8.25.11 @ 6:41PM
Yup, Al.
conservative Bob| 8.25.11 @ 9:41PM
is the polite description for "one who talks out of one's ass".
I can't stop laughing thanks!
Joe D.| 8.25.11 @ 12:23PM
Stop giving us the sob one side of the stories. There are crooks and those that are depletes our government and hospital resourses to the tune of 10s of billions. We do not need more, we need less for now, unless they are college educated and understand our language.
GW| 8.25.11 @ 12:26PM
Was this copied and pasted from the WSJ?
Is America nothing more than a materialstic economy where interest rates, GDP, and the Dow are the only measures of societal well-being?
Whereas talented, eager, LEGAL immigrants have added many contributions to American society, it is inane to believe that by loosening immigration laws the United States will be better off.
The reason why (legal) immigrants tend to have a disproportionately high entreprenuial and successful record is precicely because we have restricted immigration. The US only lets in a certain amount of immigrants per year (legally), so it has the privilege of selecting the best candidates. The undesirables--those knowing little to no English, those with criminal records, those with no education--are never allowed in.
Illegal immigration, however, IS unrestricted, and it shows us what happens when undesirable peoples are let in. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that illegal aliens also contribute to the economy in a disproportionate way--higher crime rates, taking more in government services/benefits, visiting the emergency room more often without paying, identity fraud, paying no income tax, etc. Restrictions in immigration is a beneficial effect for our economy. I only wish we would enforce more already on the books.
Joe D.| 8.25.11 @ 12:30PM
We, as conservatives, will agree that we are over regulated and that costly protestion sceams abound in America. However, more uneducated people from Mexican and central America is not the answer. We already have plenty of that.
And before you pro-immigration people start calling names. My wife is an educated legal immigrant who agrees with me. Legal is the only way to go. Having every poor uneducated person come here is not the answer for our country or theirs.
Occam's Tool| 8.25.11 @ 5:41PM
My two babies are legal immigrants from Guatemala. I paid out of state tuition for my MD degree from UTMB. No, I don't favor legalization of anything. Wall, Moat, Meatchoppers, airsupport---that's what the Mexican border needs.
Al Adab| 8.25.11 @ 5:58PM
Legal immigrants
Illegal migrants
There is a world of difference. Yes, there are deeper issues such as how to deal with adults who were brought by parents at often very young ages and have grown up here. Those can be resolved once we get over the first hurdle of securing the border.
When Pancho Villa invaded Wilson no less sent the army under Pershing to hunt him down inside Mexico. That is the analogy to the current conditions on the border. The Rio Grande is no barrier. Personally I walked across it in Big Bend park and didn't get my ankles wet. The existing fences make that look tough.
Cheryl| 8.25.11 @ 2:49PM
Excellent article. The internet has made it possible for me to have a small business that is relatively unbothered (so far) by the government, but if I wanted to open a brick and mortar store, I would be wading through regulations that are often the death of small businesses.
Michael| 8.25.11 @ 5:16PM
At least in Libya (Thursday, Aug. 25) they are getting rid of their false idol.
David| 8.25.11 @ 5:34PM
Black, African America has shattered just about everyhting MLK stood for. When he said he had a dream, he wasn't dreaming about people making excuses for their bad choices in life. He wasn't dreaming about absent fathers and teenage mothers. He wasn't dreaming about a majority of his own people looking for any excuse to get a handout. He knew what would one day come, and its coming sooner rather than later. That being the end of a free ride.
No one alive today was ever a slave. No one alive today had a parent that was a slave. Every race has been enslaved by another at one time or another. Many times slavery had nothing to do with ones color. It's time for Balck Americans to realize we aren't going to pay for the ride anymore. We don't have any money left, and we just don't have the energy to do it anymore. Changes are coming, not jusr for blacks, but for all of us. The lazy are going to get left behind. Those that refuse to take advantage of a good and free public education will be left behind. Those that depend on others simply because they can, will be left behind.
Its time for everyone to realize that from now on in this country you will depend on yourself like never before.
POST American| 8.25.11 @ 11:26PM
Interesting to keep before the mind the FACT
that our current civil rights leader Jesse Jackson
has REFUSED to make any issue of Masonic Pope
and KKK founder Albert Pike's statue standing before the US Dept of Justice in DC.
-------Then we learn Jackson himself is ---a 33rd degree FREEMASON.
And you wonder why things ONLY go one way.
------------------LOL!-----------------------
super| 8.26.11 @ 12:32AM
MLK single handedly killed housing values all over S. Chicago... To bad they didn't include that bit with his Mall statue...
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