From the Other Side of the Edge….
Border Security vs. Welfare Checks…
By Joe Facinoli 

If we are going to make our Borders secure, ….then we will first need to end all Welfare Checks, and other government handouts, or else the whole thing just won’t work.

What???

That’s right, ….and the reasons why are probably not what you’re thinking.  

Sometimes, two completely disparate things, or concepts, can come together in a way which initially defies all logic, but once examined, absolutely belong in the same place and time where they have found each other.  

A shot and a beer, for example.   Who woulda thought?   But once partaken, most practitioners usually don’t stop with just one pair of these tempters. 

Sweet and sour sauce.    How did that happen?   Who thought that was a smart idea?   But go to a good Chinese restaurant, and try to pass on that combo.  Go ahead, ….try.   Won’t happen.    

A peanut butter and banana sandwich is another for instance (personal favorite), and Florida, with all its sunshine, being the home of so many older folks who just want to stay indoors, might be another.  

And of course, there’s Obama and Biden.   But one really wouldn’t know where to begin with that odd ball pairing, and who could even know which one doesn’t belong with the other??   Makes one’s head hurt, for many reasons.  

So it is with Border Security and Welfare Checks.    Let me explain. 

The genesis of our problems with both of these very important issues, those being Immigration and Welfare, goes back decades, and perhaps further, deep into our nation’s history.  

Welfare started in the 1930s, with FDR and his attempt to bring the country out of the Great Depression.     Immigration issues began with, ….well, …..probably, ….ol’ Chris Columbus, and his shenanigans.   Maybe even the Vikings.  

In any event, they’ve both been around for far too long, and have been allowed to grow unchecked, for more years, and through more Presidential administrations, than we would want to admit, at least out loud.  

So why are they now tied so closely together, along our Southern Border?  

They are, in fact, and in a way which will clearly manifest itself through the labor market, and thus the whole economy, in all regions of the U.S.  

If we build a Berlin wall, from Southern California to Texas, and then put heavily armed border guards along it, say every hundred feet or so, that should do the trick, in stopping most illegal immigrant traffic.  

Probably 95% or more would be halted in their tracks, turned away, or taken into custody, to be returned to their country of origin.   Maybe even 100%, if we build the right wall, and hire the right guards.  

But then what?  

Ok, so no more illegal aliens around, to gobble up all the low end, low paying, back breaking service jobs, construction jobs, and in our warehouses, and restaurants, as well as in our front yards, planting trees and cutting grass.  

Uh,….be careful what you wish for,…there,….Mr. and Mrs. America.  

For now,….there will be plenty of jobs to be had.   No more unemployment for this country,….right?    Great news for the economy, and for finally being able to put food on the table,….right??   

Wait a minute, I don’t see too many folks nodding their heads in agreement, out there, from among those who might just benefit from this fortuitous situation.  

And I don’t see much celebration, nor very much glad handing, among the downtrodden and disheveled out there.  

Why might that be?    This is what we’ve all been waiting for, yes?   No more competition from those who shouldn’t even be here, and who took all the jobs from deserving Americans, isn’t that right? 

Not so fast, there, welfare check lips (as Johnny Carson might have said it).  

Why would these same folks want to get off the fat city, government gravy train???

Ya see, that would mean that the many unskilled, and unemployed Americans, who have not actually looked for a job since Al Gore’s last mini-ice age, and who have honed the culture of keeping their hands out and open, and in as many government pockets and agencies as humanly possible, would now have to give up all that free ride stuff, and actually have to get a job, and keep a job!   

Suddenly, and oh so inconveniently, if they want to get by in the same manner as the government has provided to them, lo these many years, nay decades, through all the many generations of “the welfare culture”, who have fine-tuned this way of life to its last inch, they will now have to get a no kidding, real and actual,…..J-O-B !!  And probably, have to work pretty hard, too.  

Excuse me??    I just don’t see this happening, not with this pampered group.   Not in what America today has become.   Not by a long shot.   There’ll just be more and different excuses, as to why they can’t be real and full contributors to our economy, and to the true culture of America.  

Think I’m wrong?    Or being too harsh?   Or that I’m being unfeeling, or unbelieving, and untrusting in the human spirit, and in human pride, and in Americans, and their will to get ahead, to better their way of life, and in their work ethic to get them there??       Naahh,….sorry, but you would be wrong.  

The “welfare check culture”, and the nanny-state government handout programs that foster such a life style, are so firmly ingrained in American society now, that if we get rid of all the folks who currently do all this hard work for us, the economy would flop right over and die, like a beached whale, or any other fish out of water.  

The only way to inject initiative, and a will to work, and to get ahead, and to succeed, back into the American culture, is to end all government handout programs, and to make everyone earn their own way, in whatever legal and proper manner they can, and/or know how to do.  

If we zip up the borders, and then deport all the illegals who are here now, but don’t provide incentive for Americans to take over the jobs left behind by these hated “intruders”, then an economic calamity, the size of which would make the last five or six years look like a Cinco de Mayo party, will surely await us.   

Another way to say it, is that if we don’t stop the dis-incentives, and give able-bodied Americans, who claim to want to work, and should be working, a reason to get off the couch and out of their house (not counting trips to the mailbox, or the local welfare office), then we’ll be far worse off than before all our Hispanic friends left, in addition to having a huge construction bill on our hands, for that wall we built down there.   

The ridiculously abused and overused food stamp program, the mind boggling 99 weeks of unemployment, the myriad and forever and ever, lifetime welfare and social security payments, for whatever whim, the monies handed out like candy, for babies of mothers who fall below some arbitrary poverty line, the bogus disability payments and worker’s comp claims, and so many more that it’s hard to keep up with (unless you’ve been trained in that “life”, by grandmas and aunts and uncles for decades), simply all have to come to an inglorious end.   Now.  

Obviously, there are well deserving exceptions.   And no one wants these honest situations to cause undo suffering or harm.   But in most cases, they do not have to be permanent, nor last for more than one generation.   And they should never have been intended, nor set up, to be that way.

But if we are going to simply exclude (i.e. toss out) a huge portion of our population, albeit illegal, and then not be able to substitute this work force with legal Americans, then economic disaster will befall this country, just as surely as the rainy season comes every summer to Central America.  

All of this demonstrates that immigration is one incredibly complicated issue.   One that simply cannot be solved by a couple of sweeping, grandstanding, politically motivated gestures.  

All facets must be considered, and that starts with the “De-welfaring” of America.  

And with the demanding that Americans, all Americans, put our hands back in our pockets, and get back to real work.  

Even if for some among us, that so noble and rewarding pursuit,….has been absent for much too long.   

Joe Facinoli

(Joe can be reached at:  joefacinoli@gmail.com )

Intelligent Response Encouraged !!

© Copyright 2013, Joe Facinoli