Comments Elsewhere

birch: “How do you propose to solve the problem of poor immigrants not being able to support the infrastructure they use?”

Me: “Try not to indulge in anti-immigrant fabulism. Poor immigrants pay federal and state gasoline taxes just like everyone else.”

birch: “mass unskilled immigration is OK because they pay…gas taxes? Please.”

Try to stay on topic. You made a specific claim about infrastructure, and how immigrants do not support the infrastructure they use. This claim is false. In the case of roads, for example, immigrants pay for their use of the road the same way that everyone else does: by gasoline taxes.

“Let’s say someone works 250 days a year and uses 2 gallons of gas each workday. That’s 500 gallons of gas. Even if gas taxes were 50 cents a gallon, that’s only a mere $250.”

What the hell do you think is the marginal cost of one additional commuter on the road? On what basis do you figure it’s more than $250 / year?

“And btw, highways are generally paid for out of the state general funds and federal income taxes, not just gas taxes.”

In FY 2000, 13.3% of highway funding by all units of government came out of General Fund spending. The remaining 86.7% came from so-called “user fee” taxes such as gas tax, tire tax, additional charges for heavy vehicles and trucks, etc. If you’re that damn worried about the remaining 13.3%, however, it seems like you ought to focus on inefficiencies in road building and maintenance, or on slightly raising “user fee” revenue, or (better yet) on beginning to privatize roads so that they can calculate on their own how to support themselves. None of which has anything in particular to do with immigration.

However, here’s another secret for you–don’t tell anyone! Immigrants also contribute to the General Fund at the state, local, and federal level! Documented immigrants pay all the taxes that you do, including income tax and FICA, and are barred from receiving many of the services that you can receive. Undocumented immigrants still pay sales tax, property tax (either on their own or through the rent they pay to whoever owns the property they live on), and the myriad other taxes that the government inflicts on our daily life.