For the life of me, I just cannot understand why so many people choose crisis, chaos, death, suffering, impoverishment, and the destruction of liberty over liberty, prosperity, stability, and harmony. It just makes no sense to me.
Look at the U.S.-Mexico border. Is it not the very exemplar of crisis, chaos, death, suffering, impoverishment, and the destruction of liberty? Why would anyone favor that type of system?
Look at the Maryland-Virginia border or any other border between the states. Is it not the very exemplar of liberty, prosperity, stability, and harmony? Why wouldn’t everyone favor that type of system?
Consider the two most popular justifications for America’s statist system of border controls: (1) the drug war and (2) the need to control the entry of people into the United States.
Now, ask yourself: What is the point of the drug war? It’s aim is to keep illicit drugs from entering the United States and, in a larger context, to keep Americans from ingesting harmful substances.
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How successful has the drug war been in achieving those two goals? Everyone would agree — not successful at all. The drug war has been waged for decades. Where has it gotten us? It has produced a black market that has brought into existence drug cartels and drug gangs and the violence that comes with a black market. It has produced a massive amount of governmental corruption in the form of bribes and payoffs. It has destroyed Mexico and other countries. It has been a major factor in the destruction of civil liberties and privacy, as with asset-forfeiture laws, bank secrecy laws, and money-laundering laws. The black market has produced corrupted drugs that have resulted in the deaths of countless people. Finally, the drug war is the most racially bigoted government program since segregation.
Where has all that gotten us? Nowhere! So, why keep going with drug laws? Why not bring an immediate end to this horrible experiment, just as earlier Americans finally brought an end to the horrible experiment of Prohibition?
The answer is: Because there is a huge drug-war bureaucracy that has come to depend on the largess that the drug war provides. I’m not referring only to bribes and payoffs. I’m referring to generous tax-supported jobs. There are DEA agents, U.S. attorneys and assistant U.S. attorneys, federal judges, law clerks, administrative clerks, sheriffs and deputy sheriffs, police, the military, the CIA, and many more. These people have come to believe it is their right to have and keep these well-paying, taxpayer-funded jobs, along with the pensions that follow them when they retire. They are not about to let go of their dole.
It’s no different with America’s system of immigration controls. Despite decades of efforts and reforms and ever-expanding destruction of the rights, liberties, and privacy of the American people, especially for people living in the borderlands, the immigration-control system has never worked. Everyone knows that. But like the drug war, hope springs eternal. Maybe with just one more crackdown, like with the military, these statist systems will finally — finally! — be made to work.
Moreover, there is a vast border-control bureaucracy and a vast army of border-control companies in the private sector that are now dependent on the taxpayer largess that funds this entire racket. Border Patrol agents, ICE agents, Homeland Security, FBI, federal prosecutors, court clerks, federal judges, law clerks, cops, companies that sell surveillance equipment, and others firmly believe that it is their right to continue living off the federal dole. They are not about to let go of their dole.
It’s understandable that the border bureaucrats and border companies would favor continuing the drug war and the war on immigrants. But why do so many private Americans go along with these two programs? Why choose perpetual crisis, chaos, violence, death, suffering, and destruction of liberty and privacy when there is an alternative that would produce liberty, stability, security, prosperity, and harmony?
Again, consider the borders between the states. Everyone is free to cross them. Everyone is free to ship goods and services to other states. Everyone is free to buy whatever he wants from other states. No one paces the floor over the trade deficits between states. No one even cares what such trade deficits are. No one worries about the murderers, rapists, terrorists, Reds, or other scary creatures crossing state borders every day and entering other states. And notice: No chaos, crisis, death, suffering, tariffs, impoverishment, or border police states along state borders, as there are on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Among the greatest things that Americans could ever do is (1) legalize all drugs immediately and (2) open the U.S. international borders to the free movements of people, goods, and services. Immediately, the decades-old, ongoing, perpetual border crisis would disappear. No one would even be thinking about it the next day. No more crisis, chaos, deaths, suffering, impoverishment, and border police state. Just liberty, peace, stability, prosperity, and harmony, just like the borders between the states. It sure seems to me like a very easy choice to make.
