AAA, what are you thinking we should do here? I am open to ideas on this but unfortunately this issue really doesn't have a clear cut answer outside of travelling back in time and sealing the borders 30 years ago. You can't deport 10 million people. I hear everyone saying you can't do this and you can't do that but what can you do. I guess another possibility is to try to spend billions of dollars and prop up the mexican economy so they will want to stay in Mexico. We could always just take over Mexico and make it a state. Hell all our american jobs are down there anyway. It just isn't practical to man 2,000 miles of border. Maybe we could install some kind of electric fence that will shock the crap out of you if you try to go through it. At least that would be a one time cost, then you would just have to maintain it. I got it, we can hire the mexicans to dig a huge canal along the border, then fill it with alligators. Seriously though, I haven't heard one reasonable solution. As far as Dean goes, he can't win on this issue. He needs the latino vote more then Bush. If he sells out the latinos then the blacks will think they are next.
Laugh if you want. I personally stay as far away from those scam kooks as I can. Simply put, I read the dang thing. Its there in black and white.... but buried. But its there. They sure as hell don't want people to know it as SS is in deep *hit. What would happen if the truth got out? Politicians find the SS fund to be a big piggy bank they can't keep there cotton picken hands off of. The closest we've come to solving the burden for future generations was talk of privatizing SS.
I think that's the simplest answer. I could think of a hundred ways to ensure that there's not one illegal in America (okay, not literally, but you get the idea). And that's only me. There are way smarter people out there that could probably think of far superior methods (no doubt they have already). For whatever reason, the effective consensus is that it wouldn't be a good idea to do it.
I'm not sure what the law currently provides regarding foreign workers who work here then return home. You do have to pay into the SS system for a minimum number of years before you're eligible. At first blush it seems unfair that foreign workers, legal or not, would have to pay SS taxes then not be able to collect benefits. The problem with that view however is that SS is not a pension plan. As much as people like to think they have their own little SS account with their money sitting in it drawing interest, that is a fantasy. The money goes into the government coffers and is immediately spent. You are entitiled to what congress says you can receive, end of discussion. Basically, and I know this is unpopular to say, but the fact is that SS is a welfare scheme. It is designed to reduce poverty and ease retirement for people in this country. If you are here as a guest worker and go home, why is it the responsibility of the US taxpayer to look after you in Mexico? I pay a lot of taxes that go to things I never receive any benefit from, like public schools. This is no different.
A welfare scheme? Not a bad idea. A system of government that is concerned about the welfare and well being of the citizens. I like that idea a lot. When can we start?
yes. but they insist on the illusion of a "retirement plan" system, and it hasn't reached the crisis point where politicians have cover to impose a means test and call it what it is - welfare.