Illegal Drugs and Immigrants-Two Peas in One Pod

Americans have a nasty predilection of placing the blame for America's problems in the wrong place, a predilection that prevents this country from solving its problems.

For decades now we have been waging an unsuccessful war on illegal drugs. This war has primarily been waged against the people in other countries where the raw products from which the drugs are made are grown and from which they are shipped. Billions have been squandered on this war while the results achieved have been negligible. Yet we won't give it up or change its strategy, even though every economic theory known recognizes that banning products that people want always leads to black markets and that the bans never work.

But America's illegal drug problem is not the fault of foreigners. Illegal drug traffic will cease only when the market for illegal drugs disappears, and that may be never. Drugs saturate our society. Not even candy is marketed as pervasively. We are told that there is a feel-good drug for every affliction, and banning one person's feel-good drug while promoting multifold feel-good drugs for others is a policy that is not only paradoxical, it is paradoxically confusing. In such a milieu, it is impossible to concoct messages that would convince illegal drug users to give up their habits. So can we win this war? Not unless we place the blame where it belongson Americans and the policies we promote.

There is also much ado in this country over illegal immigration. Yes, we do have a problem with it. But this problem is not the fault of Latinos who bear the burden of blame. Like the war on drugs, illegal immigration will cease only when the jobs that attract it cease to exist.

But there is money to be made by businessmen who are willing to exploit such people, and much of this money can be used to keep the Congress from passing and enforcing the laws that would be required. Yet a solution to the problem is very simple. Significantly raise the minimum wage, strictly enforce its payment, and severely penalize the people who employ illegals.

Yes, such actions would raise the prices of some products and services, but those actions would also increase the incomes of American workers. How that trade-off balances is undetermined, but prices on most products and services have an inbuilt upper limit. There is an economic concept known as elasticity, which means that when a desired product or service becomes too expensive, people buy less expensive substitutes that may not work as well but will do. Every product and service we need does not have to be gold plated. So can we solve this problem? Not unless we place the blame where it belongson Americans and the policies we promote.

Will Americans every face up to this reality? Doubtful! Certainly not in the short term, for we need to remember what Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence: "all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

I doubt that most Americans are afflicted with enough suffering because of these problems to demand appropriate action. For most Americans, illegal drug use and illegal immigration are someone else's problems, and until these problems begin to affect all, little can be done to solve them. (4/22/2006)

2006, John Kozy

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