Wash Post's Solution to Immigration: More Taxes and Spending

April 6th, 2006 4:25 PM

While good conservatives and libertarians can agree to disagree amongst ourselves on just how to reform immigration, there's at least a consensus that more taxes and redistributionary spending are NOT part of the solution.

Which is why, I suppose, we need the infinite wisdom of The Washington Post editorial board to tell us otherwise:

Even a small impact on low-wage workers is alarming, given the rise of inequality over the past 25 years. But the question is whether to address that inequality by trying to stop immigration or to go at it via progressive taxation, larger public investments designed to prevent poor kids from dropping out of high school, or some other policy tool. Given the expense and doubtful effectiveness of border walls and employer crackdowns, progressive tax and social policies seem preferable. After all, to the extent that immigrants drive down wages at the bottom, they are driving up the inflation-adjusted wages of other Americans who get cheaper goods and services. Taxing the "immigration windfall" that flows to better-off Americans and passing it on to the less fortunate may be the best way to go.