by Joe Siano
You may be familiar with the starfish
parable. It
goes like this:
One day a man was walking along the beach when
he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?” The youth replied,
“Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going
out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” “Son,” the man said, “don’t you
realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t
make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…” I made a difference for that one.”
Libertarians support
the free movement of people in search of a better life, with one proviso. New
arrivals must place no burden on the existing population for compulsory
support. That is a clear violation of
the non-initiation of force principle.
Milton Friedman put it
succinctly. “you can't have free immigration and a welfare state”. “Welfare” in this instance means much more
than cash payments. It includes that plus all the amenities
that average Americans have come to expect from the State including schools,
school meals, healthcare, policing, firefighting, well maintained streets and
roads, parks, ballfields and more.
For the sake of
argument, I accept that most immigrants are honest hardworking people. In time, they will become contributors to
their communities.
But what about the
transition period? The time spent being
vetted and checked at the border? The
time necessary to acculturate? The time
to find gainful employment while all the while enjoying the myriad “benefits”
of the welfare state? Who pays the
freight? Is it just and moral to ask to
cash-strapped regular Americans to shoulder this burden when the Main Street
economy is flagging and our government is buried in debt?
Well-heeled
Progressives recoil at the conditions that immigrants suffer along our
southern border – “kids in cages” and all that.
However, our new President has only made matters worse with his open arms invitation to immigration.
Now is the moment for affluent
Liberals to parade their compassion, save our Treasury money and solve the
border crisis, one immigrant at a time.
Time to live the The
Starfish Principle.
The Democrat Party commands the upper income demographics. Woke Corporate America, Big Tech and Hollywood love the Democrats. These are people with houses. Big houses. Multiple houses. Multiple big houses.
Like the little boy
saving starfish one at a time, big-hearted Liberals can overcome the
immigration crises by opening their big homes, their multiple homes to needy migrants until they can get on
their feet.
“From everyone who has
been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted
with much, much more will be asked.” (Lk 12: 498 NIV)
The Starfish Principle
is consistent with the Hoppean idea that immigrants must not place an involuntary
and thus, immoral, burden on rank-and-file taxpayers. Immigrants should be “invited” by private
households or firms that are willing and able to care for them until they become self supporting.
Wealthy Lefties, step up and share your loot. That
goes beyond paying taxes and then washing your hands like Pilate.
You may not be able to
save all immigrants, but you can save one.
Or a couple. Or a family. Or, yes Hilary, a village. You are limited only by the size of
your hearts, your devotion to the virtues that you signal and the square footage
of your dwellings.
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| Casa Madonna |
Related Articles:
Ayn Rand - The
Only Immigrant The Left Ever Hated
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"Half
the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong
direction."
- Paul Simon
