Monopolies and Billionaires

Monopolies are bad for the economy and billionaires are bad for capitalism. 

We have a bunch of amendments to our constitution. The first ten are called the Bill of Rights. There is no Right of Wealth.  In fact, it's pretty clear that too much wealth is a serious problem. A person with enormous wealth tends to think they are more important than their neighbors with less wealth. I've heard a CEO of a company claim he works much harder than the people cleaning his lawn...the people who have three part time jobs to make ends meet. The irony is that the CEO in all likelihood has much more fun, figuring out how to keep a company running, than his worker who rakes leaves all day. Clearly one job is more difficult, more demanding, even more important than the other. But it doesn't mean the raker of leaves should be impoverished while the CEO owns the town.

We all live in a great big community and we have created a bunch of laws so that we can live comfortably and amicably together. Among other things those laws protect people who manage to make a lot of money. The laws protect their businesses and their finances. 

We also have laws that attempt to protect people starting up new businesses. Strangely the people with established businesses, who at one time profited from the laws helping a business get started, don't like it when the new businesses try to compete for the same products and customers. Wealth and success seem to morph into greed. Sometimes I wonder if progressive taxes aren't really a way to help the rich stay human and humble.  But enough philosophy. Barring the dangers of inflation (caused by too much money in the economy) and illegitimate power (caused by the ability to buy ALL the media in a given location), let the wealthy keep their wealth. 

Clearly we need to prevent inflation, so some money has to be taken out of the economy each year. It's just common sense that one would take more from the billionaire than from the guy making $15 per hour. Obviously a flat tax will take more from the billionaire than the poor guy. And if that's enough tax to prevent inflation, great. But if it's not enough, common sense (and decency) says get the extra money from the rich guy. Hence "progressive" taxes.

Clearly we need to prevent monopolies, and we actually have laws that do that. Back in 1890 we passed the Sherman Act and twenty-four years later in 1914 we strengthened restrictions on anti-competitive behavior with the Clayton Act and the FTC Act. We just have to enforce them. Capitalism works largely because people think it's fair. Monopolies will break capitalism because people will stop thinking it's fair.

We do our nation a service when we regulate wealth, our whole nation, the rich and the poor. The strongest, most vibrant nation, will be that with the fewest poor. And the most successful economy, in a capitalist system, will also be that with the fewest poor. We've clearly done a great job protecting and promoting billionaires. It's time to turn our focus to those of us less well off.

Change the law

We are deporting our neighbors, many who have been here for decades, because they entered the country illegally or overstayed a visa. They have no other offense. This is madness. Is it the law? Yes. Is it sensible? No!

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 237(a)(1)(B) [8 U.S.C. § 1227] classifies any nonimmigrant who remains in the U.S. beyond their authorized period (Form I-94 expiration) as a "deportable alien". This is a bad law. We should change it. 

The penalty for overstaying a visa or for entering the country illegally is disproportionate to the crime. It's like saying people who get a speeding ticket should go to jail for a year. Frankly, the speeder is likely to do more damage (cause an accident) than the person who snuck in or overstayed a visa. 

We have plenty of penalties for our illegal aliens: they can't vote and they can't get government assistance even though they pay taxes. We don't need and should not have "deportation" as a penalty. It's bad for the community as well as being unreasonable and overly harsh. We are robbing our communities of hard workers, kind neighbors, energetic friends. When's the last time you picked up and left your homeland to try making it in a foreign country. It's incredibly hard. It takes drive, hard work, resilience. These are qualities we have always admired. These are qualities that made America strong. Squandering them is not only cruel, it's foolish. 

By all means keep "deportation" for people who commit serious crimes. But deportation should not be a penalty for someone whose only crime is overstaying or entering illegally....or speeding. Our system is broken. We built it. We can fix it. 

Change the law.