Friday, October 26, 2007

Book idea

A recent debate on Intelligence Squared, "Should We Welcome Illegal Immigrants?" got me thinking. That combined with a story I heard about the war on drugs and legalization of drugs on Worldview: Geopolitics of Legalization. Perhaps these, and potentially other, social problems should be viewed more as simple supply and demand debates. In the War on Drugs story there was a suggestion to curb demand by arresting users, not dealers. There is too much money and too many people willing to fill in for arrested dealers, while users are more easily intimidated with fines and short jail times. Illegal immigration might also be viewed in such light. Workers are under attack, but the supply of workers is high - they often risk life and more crossing the border and desert to work. The demand for said workers could be addressed by penalizing employers who pay little price now and may be dissuaded from using this labor be small fines. There is no fine or consequence for the laborers that would significantly change the flow. They already spend large amounts of money and risk life to cross the border - this will not change until the demand is curbed. A national ID program is a necessary piece of this enforcement.