JiveJong

Trickle Down Economics or Supply -Side economics has been a common theme in the Republican party since the 70s. However, both parties have been known to implement some form of it. There’s been lots of discussion and criticism of it over the years, and for a while there was some validity to the arguments of how it makes the economy stronger. We are definitely seeing lower prices on many goods, and there was a time when employment was going up from it. On the other hand, critics also point out that the wage gap has widened greatly due to it. But, in either case, the move towards the digital economy is going to make it extinct as a valid policy that’s fair or effective at improving the economy across the board for the future.

Why? Because as we are selling more and more digital items as opposed to tangible items. We have moved from a manufacturing based economy to a service based one with more and more services being digitized. In the long run, digital is cheaper to manufacture and distribute, thus jobs will not necessarily increase with demand or additional capital freed up from lower taxes.

Let’s use toys as an example:
Say it’s 1980. I created a new toy in my garage that I’m selling for $5 a pop. I make a batch of 100 in a month, and they sell out quickly. I make another batch of 100 in the next month, and they sell out quickly again. Now, I’m getting pre-orders from the people who got sold out of the last couple of months. After a couple of months of selling like pancakes, I’m backlogged for 500 units. I only have capacity for 100 a month. Nobody is willing to wait up to 5 months for a $5 dollar toy, so I need to hire people to help me build. Since, I made a such a large increase in sales, it’s no sweat off my back to hire 2 people to bring up my capacity to 300 a month to catch up. I have a great toy, so sales keep on rising, to a demand of 1000 units a month during the second year in business. Now, my garage isn’t big enough, so now I am renting a space and paying rent to a happy landlord. I hired more people to keep up with demand. I bought a bunch of manufacturing equipment to increase capacity, and hired some administrative staff to do accounting, advertising, printing, etc.  In the third year, I’m selling the hottest selling toy on the market selling 10,000 units a month. I move to a bigger factory, I hire more people to manufacture, I buy more equipment, I hire more administrative folks, more operations and logistics folks, janitorial staff, etc. I hire more companies to deliver and distribute my merchandise, to advertise my product on air and in print, and represent us legally. Since I’m a job creator and make capital expenditures, the government gives me a tax break. Since I’m getting a tax break, and I have demand for my product, I am happy to hire more folks and spend more money.

Now it’s 2016. I created a new toy in my home office. It’s an app that sells for $5 a pop. I put it on the various app stores for a minimal fee of $100 a year, and they take a 30% cut of everything I sell, which leaves me $3.50 a pop. I sell 100 units the first month while doing nothing. Next thing you know, the app increases sales to 500 units a month the first year. I get a 500% increase in sales, without incurring any additional costs. Next thing you know, the app goes viral and I sell 5,000 units a month. Now, I have to hire a couple of folks to handle support calls, a marketing and PR person to handle the new craze for my app, and another developer to do some bug fixes and improvements. The following year, my app is the hottest selling, most popular toy on the market. I switch to a subscription model, and now I’m selling 20,000 units worldwide every month, with a projection of 300,000 subscription payments that year. I promote my support people to entry level development positions, contract out support to a call center, and hire another programmer to complete a small development team to do upgrades and create a new apps. I hire an accounting firm to take care of my finances and put a lawyer on retainer for legal issues. I get offers for office space rentals, but I laugh because everyone in the company works from home. I get solicitation for distribution, fulfilment, and manufacturing, but I laugh because I don’t need any of those since my product is purely digital. The government gives me a tax break because I make capital expenditures and I’m a job creator, except I don’t hire more people or spend more money because I don’t have to. Even if the government gave me an incentive to spend and hire, I may still decline because the cost savings are greater than the tax savings.

Now lets compare the 80s to today.
– In 1980, I had gone from $500 a month to $2500 a month, but it required hiring 2 more people to meet that demand. Whereas in 2016, went from $350 a month to $1750 a month without having to hire a single person.
– In 1981, I went from $2500 a month to $5000 a month, but it required me to hire more folks and get a facility to build in. In 2017, I go from $1750 a month to $17,500 a month, but I only had to hire a few more workers to meet that demand.
– In 1982, I’m making $600,000 annually, but I’m also spending more money on employees, manufacturing, distribution, facilities, and administration than I did in 1981. In 2018, I’m making $1,050,000 while only adding a couple employees and hiring out support services such as accounting, help desk, etc. Unlike the 80s, I didn’t need any facilities, manufacturing capacity, in-house services, or distribution other than app stores to get to this level or meet demand. I can stay lean and mean, and still make a considerable profit.

This isn’t just happening in a made up situation from an unknown blogger. It’s happening in real life. Oculus VR, a maker of virtual reality headsets had only 75 employees, while being sold to Facebook for $2 billion. That’s over $26 million in value per employee. But that’s nothing compared to Instagram which sold to Facebook for $1 billion when they only had 13 employees. That’s almost $77 million per employee. Another example is United Technologies. At 218,300 employees, the company’s workforce hasn’t grown in seven years, even while revenue jumped from $42.7 billion in 2005 to $57.7 billion in 2012. That’s $15 billion not being spent on more employees.

As we move towards greater automation, some of the support services that were once hired out in 2018, would be replaced with software. An accountant may be replaced with sophisticated software that reads all financial data through secure web services, and requires little to no input from the user. The lawyer on retainer could be replaced with software that can create bulletproof legal documents. A new method of distributing apps could make current app stores arcane, and put more control and profit into the hands of the developer. As SEO applications are becoming more robust, you may see less need to hire advertising folks. Who knows what the future has to offer?

Well, I know one thing. More and more products are going to be digital, and the benefits of trickle down economics for economic growth will no longer apply. Technology will help retain profits while improving productivity, regardless of tax rates, subsidies, or bailouts. I’m not saying that we tax the wealthy to oblivion. But, I believe it’s time for us to abandon the supply side economics the US has adhered to for the last few decades. Corporate welfare hasn’t improved the overall well being for the average citizen, while siphoning off resources that could and putting the country into greater debt to foreign entities. Corporate welfare doesn’t promote better business practices any more than social welfare promotes better personal decisions. I know that some conservatives would bash me for saying this, but supply side economics is more similar to communism in that the state is financing and supporting businesses instead of the free market. If we continue down the supply side spiral, we’ll lose the effectiveness of the free market because we ignore the other important part of the economic graph – demand. The long term result will be unnecessary products and services with prices out of line with demand, because government intervention selects winners and losers.

I believe it’s time to shift some of our policies to the demand side to counterbalance the years of supply side policies. I’m not talking about increasing the number of handouts, but giving similar benefits to individuals that we’ve been giving to large corporations for years. A raise in minimum wage, tax credits and rate reduction for working class families, affordable education and healthcare, etc. aka things that will increase necessary and disposable income so that people will invest and consume more. With people spending more, you will see that small and large business can improve because of increased sales or investment. People that could or would never be able to spend or invest will now become new or better customers to various markets. As a result, you’ll see a re-calibration of our various markets now that the people will be picking out the winners and losers instead of the government. Businesses will have a better idea of the demand that is out there and price folks are willing to pay. With that information, they will better compete for our dollars while providing products and services that people actually want.

I don’t think that we should drop the supply side completely in favor of the demand side. I also don’t think a focus on the demand side should be permanent or a long-term strategy. But, I certainly believe that the government should address a crucial side of our economic system that has been neglected for too long.

There’s a lot negative said about Donald Trump, with most of it being about his character. However, I could understand how some people could identify with it. I can also understand how some might see how those traits would make him a good leader. I can also see how those traits contributed to his business success. However, my biggest concern about Trump being the President of the United States is his lack of experience as a servant.

The United States is not a dictatorship, it’s a democracy. A government by the people for the people. The president of the United States is a servant of the people who serves through leadership. But, the president is still accountable to the people and under the law of the people. That’s one of the things that differentiates our leaders from that of other countries. It’s one of the things that makes our country great. The other thing that makes this country great is that the president is in a covenant relationship to the people, not a transaction based one. The president serves a person regardless of whether or not they voted for him/her. The president has to serve a person, even if they oppose or malign him. In essence, the people do not have to do a single thing to receive presidential service.

Since the president is a servant, one would expect that they would have some experience in serving prior to taking the highest service position in this country. Many presidents have served in the armed forces, as civil servants, ministers, etc. Donald Trump would be the first to have no experience in any type of service – no military service, no civil service, no volunteer service, no ministry experience, not even private sector service. The only person Donald Trump has ever worked for was his father, and soon afterwards he worked for himself. He has never held a position of service, not even as a waiter or lifeguard for the summer as a teen. His company is privately owned, so he doesn’t even have shareholders outside his family. He has never held a position of service or had to work for anyone outside his family. That to me is the biggest reason why I could never vote for Trump. That would be like signing a quarterback that has never stepped foot in the gym, but talked a good game and making him the starting QB for the Super Bowl. If you were a fan of the team, you’d be livid. If you were a fan of the opponent, you’d be licking your chops. Even the worst 3rd string NFL QB would have a better chance than a guy off the street who never ever picked up a football. But, I guess it doesn’t work that way in politics.

Due to the inexperience Trump has in the service realm, even with his best intentions, he’ll fall flat. Any waiter or cashier tires of the challenges of being in a position of service or dealing with people with authority over you, even when they generally like them. A soldier, policeman, fireman, social worker, or rescue worker can grow weary of the dangers involved with serving the public, even though they deeply care for the community they serve. A minister, counselor, teacher, or coach can get burned out, even though they love the people they serve. Politicians from every level from municipal to federal, all deal with daily criticism and some form of accountability from another. If Trump doesn’t have experience, let alone success in service, how can he be expected to succeed in the highest and most challenging position of service? I just don’t see it happening.

I wouldn’t trust my favorite football team to the most inexperienced rookie, let alone the country I love and adore.

¹² The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!”
– John 12:12-13

I have spent the last few months perplexed by the support of Donald Trump by Evangelical Christians. Here is a person that exhibits virtually no Christian values in his speech or behavior, yet he’s the guy that Evangelicals are rallying for. Some are even praying for him to be next president of the United States. One particular Christian leader even compared Trump to Jesus. This is the same group that denounced Bill Clinton, Gary Hart, and countless other politicians for extra-marital affairs. Now, they are backing a guy who has bragged about extra-marital relations in a published book and has marriages resulting from affairs. Conservative Christian denominations that denounce and prohibit the use of alcohol and gambling are backing up a guy who made a fortune from casinos. The same contingency that for decades rejected every political candidate that is not pro-life is now backing a pro-choice candidate. How can folks who follow Jesus, who elevated women above their status at the time now follow a person who is unapologetic in his misogyny? How can they believe word-for-word the teachings of Jesus and his disciples who proclaimed concepts such as ‘every nation, tribe, and tongue’ or ‘neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free’ proclaim a leader who tries to addresses our worst racist tendencies and encourages them in his rallies? The real kicker is someone claiming to be a Christian and saying how important it is in his life, while claiming that he has done nothing wrong that needs forgiveness. It goes against the John 3:16 signs the contingency proudly displays at sporting events.  He openly rejects one of THE most basic Christian tenets that is valid across every denomination, and still Christians of all flavors consider the Donald one of their own. I just don’t get it. I really don’t.

That was until Palm Sunday. Then it became real clear to me. In the opening passage of this post, Jesus was making his grand entrance into Jerusalem as the king. People were shouting their praises and greeting Him as a victorious king. These included people who witnessed the miracles of Him healing the sick, raising the dead, walking on water, calming the storm, feeding thousands with a few loaves and fishes, and more. These were the people who heard the proclamation of the good news, rebuke of the Pharisees, forgiveness of sins, and inspirational teaching from God Himself. These people were waiting for the day when the Messiah would come and defeat Israel’s oppressors and bring God’s kingdom to the land. You better believe that they were excited about it after decades  of Roman rule. But, in less than a week, it all changed.

⁶ Now it was the custom at the festival to release a prisoner whom the people requested. ⁷ A man called Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. ⁸ The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did.
⁹ “Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?” asked Pilate,¹⁰ knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. ¹¹ But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
¹² “What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
¹³ “Crucify him!” they shouted.
¹⁴ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
¹⁵ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
– Mark 15: 6-15

The crowd that exalted Jesus as king became the crowd that shouted for His crucifixion. When the chance was given for His release, the crowd preferred a insurrectionist murderer to be released even though they knew the fate Jesus would have in store. They may have preferred Barabbas because he was willing to take a stand against the Romans. He was a man of action willing to fight, and more like what they expected. All Jesus did was heal the sick, feed the poor, get tax collectors to repent, forgive sinners, and make the Temple accessible for all. Who wants that? For all you know, people might have thought Barabbas had God’s favor since he was saved from crucifixion. Not only did people in this crowd call for the crucifixion of an innocent man, some mocked Him, struck Him, and spit on Him. Quite a big change from “Hosanna in the highest” to “Crucify Him!”.

I realized that if the people who witnessed Jesus perform miracles and fulfill prophecy with their own eyes turned on Him, I shouldn’t be surprised if Christians in the United States with secondhand knowledge would too. If people who heard Jesus proclaim the good news with their own ears wound up rejecting His teachings, why should I be surprised when Christians thousands of miles and years turn away as well? And the turning away can be just as quick as it was between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. There’s plenty of Christians who shout ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” on Sunday, while supporting politicians, businesses, and policies that go against His teachings Monday through Saturday. I really shouldn’t be surprised at all that many Christians are supporting our own Barabbas in Donald Trump.

We’re not that much different than the Jews of that time. We feel that we’re living in an unjust and unholy world. We want God to come and save us from it. We want a Messiah that will crush our enemies and usher in a new era where the Lord’s justice reigns supreme. But, when we get that Messiah we become disappointed because it’s not what we want Him to be or He requires us to live a life different than what we thought was righteous and pleasing to God.

After Jesus’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, Jesus did many things that were perplexing. First, He cursed a fig tree that bore no fruit. On the cover it makes no sense, but considering the traditions of the day it does. The norm was that a land owner wouldn’t harvest all the way up to the outside edge of their land. They would leave the outside edges unharvested so that travelers and the needy could eat the fruit on the outside edge. The owner of this fig tree did not follow the norm, and instead followed his own greed and left nothing for others. Thus, the fig tree is cursed. But, Jesus’ war on greed didn’t end there. He went to the temple, overturned tables, made a whip out of cords and chased out the merchants and money changers. He proclaims “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.” (Mark 11:17). He’s not only angry because of commerce at the temple, but because they were using the Court of Gentiles and creating an obstacle for Gentiles to worship God. Of course, this angers the religious leaders in power. When the religious leaders of the time try to reign Him in, He rebukes them and shuts them up using teachings and verses they were familiar with. They ask Him about the Greatest Commandment, and He replies with a succinct answer that can’t be rebuked. He warns against the teachers of the law and praises the generosity of the disenfranchised. He praises the devotion of a prostitute while rebuking the influential man that was hosting Him.

Jesus even perplexed His closest followers, the disciples. He predicts the destruction of the temple, speaks of the end days, and tells them to be vigilant. On the on the high holy day of Passover, He tells the disciples how He is going to be betrayed, predicting His own earthly defeat. How can this be? The king who victoriously arrived in Jerusalem will be defeated by not just the Romans, but His own people? This is the Son of God that’s supposed to defeat the Roman empire and usher in a new Godly kingdom? If He is defeated, then He surely can’t be God….. And then it happens…. Jesus is arrested. Peter takes a swipe at a temple guard, cuts off his ear, and Jesus restores the ear and tells Peter to put the sword away. What kind of strong leader does that instead of destroying his enemies there and then? Maybe Jesus isn’t really God, and the last three years of the disciple’s lives were wasted. I don’t think being arrested and put on trial are what His followers wanted or expected. They expected victory, and to be considered the greatest so they could sit at His right hand in power. Instead, they ran away and denied Him out of fear and doubt. Doubt that Jesus was what He proclaimed to be, and fear of the consequences that awaited them for being His follower.

Jesus is led to his trial where He loses and is sentenced to death in a painful and humiliating way. As God, surely Jesus could have swayed the trial in His favor or could have just called a heavenly army to destroy the Romans to save Him from the cross. But He didn’t. He was scourged and mocked. He could have stopped them somehow, couldn’t He? How about a lightning bolt from the sky to destroy the mocking crowd, so He could show them who was boss? Didn’t happen. They nailed Him to a cross. Surely He could have stopped the nails from entering His body, but He didn’t. He hung on a cross to slowly die of suffocation. He could have been whisked away like Elijah, and some onlookers were even expecting that to happen. It didn’t. Jesus died penniless, next to two robbers. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story.

Sadly, we as Christians follow much of the pattern of Holy Week in our day to day lives. We shout the praises of Jesus and proclaim Him as Lord and Savior on Sunday. Then on Monday, we try to live with Him and it’s harder than we thought. By the time it’s Thursday, we don’t know what do with Him, especially when He calls us to humble ourselves like He did when He washed the feet of His followers. From there, we put Him on trial to see if He’s really the Messiah. Can a guy who calls us to love our enemies, the least, and the lost really save us? Can we really get victory through love, grace, and mercy instead of wealth, power, and knowledge? We evaluate Him based on our earthy desires and concepts on what a savior should be. Then, we dismiss Jesus’ teachings because they don’t fit or we don’t think it will work. I mean you don’t have to be Darwin to figure out how loving your enemies puts you at an evolutionary disadvantage. By the time it’s Friday, we’re calling for His crucifixion rejecting His beliefs or interjecting our own beliefs and elevating them to the level of Jesus.

We’re not that different from the Jews of that time. We still want Jesus to be a triumphant warlord that crushes our enemies and elevates His followers to positions of power, prestige, and privilege instead of the Prince of Peace that tells us to love our enemies and serve the least of our brothers. We want someone who will enforce the laws and mete out punishment more than one who offers abundant grace to redeem the fallen. We want to identify with the rich and powerful, not the poor, weak, sick, and sinful like Jesus did. We want to protect our own and exclude others rather than welcome the immigrant, our Samaritan neighbor, or those we consider less than us. It’s our basest human nature, but Jesus calls us to more than that. When Jesus doesn’t fit in with what we want or expect from a messiah, we choose Barabbas because he better fits the image in our minds of a strong leader that’s a mover and shaker. Except now, we put a Jesus costume on Barabbas and refer to that as Jesus.

The merciful thing for us is that at the end of Holy Week, we have Easter. A time for resurrection and victory. We can choose to be resurrected with Christ, and shed our earthly identities that keep us from identifying with Him and as a citizen of His kingdom. We should let identities that prevent us from healing the sick, helping the poor, welcoming the stranger, and doing unto the least of our brothers and sisters take a back seat or fall to the wayside so that we can take part in His redemption of this world. We can choose to display love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, and self-control instead of fear, apathy, greed, discord, and hatred. However, we can also choose to have another Palm Sunday where we sing His praises, and then go put Him on trial, choose Barabbas, and crucify Jesus by the end of the week one more time.

It’s 2016 and the top candidates for the Republican party are both for mass deportation of the 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. Although I agree that something needs to be done about the immigration issue in America, mass deportation is not only impractical, but it will inevitably lead to tyranny.

Let’s envision what will happen if the United States took on a policy of mass deportation of the 11 million immigrants here. Let’s really give it some thought……

Here’s an idea of how many people 11 million is: it’s the population of Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and Columbus combined. Say you were to magically get that many people to voluntarily purchase their own ticket to return to their nation of origin. What type of time frame are you looking at? It would be one thing to get 5 of the most populated cities to vacate, but imagine that number of people spread out throughout the entire United States. If you want to be draconian and give people less than a week to leave, I’m not sure how our digital infrastructure would hold up, let alone our physical infrastructure. Can you imagine the technological load of 11 million people trying to make travel arrangements and then the physical load of actually moving them? 11 million people in transit? There’s not enough roads, vehicles, gas, etc. to do that without stressing our infrastructure.

But say you have a magical way that those 11 million illegal immigrants just magically teleported back to their home country……What do you think the effects will be? Lets start with financial effects, since that is often the justification for such policies. Many of the 11 million have debts, with alot of them having either a mortgage, car payment, credit card, or all three. Although, I find the notion of undocumented immigrants getting mortgages or any type of loan to be stupefying both legally and practically, it happens. What is going to happen when millions of mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and other loans default? We could have another financial crisis that would require another bailout and/or loans from a foreign creditor. Forget about trying to collect after deportation from individuals in countries where we have no jurisdiction and possibly no diplomatic relations because it will be practically and politically impossible. Using the military as a bill collector for irresponsible banks that loan to people who are in the United States illegally is just plain absurd.

The housing market will certainly be affected when millions of homeowners and renters are removed from the market. Landlords from the single unit owner to corporations running apartment complexes will certainly feel the sting of losing tenants in mass for possibly months, as well as the drop in their rental values from having so many vacant units available. Homeowners will feel the sting of having foreclosures or abandoned properties on their block reducing the value of their own property. Another housing value crash could take place, and the degree to which values drop will depend on the amount of home ownership among the illegal immigrant population.  Potentially millions of homes will become available for sale by the owner or the bank that owns the note. This could lead to a serious loss in the value of real estate with effects much worse than the crash of 2008.

Let’s not forget about effects on businesses either….Aside from businesses owned by illegal immigrants folding, many businesses that have come to rely on cheap immigrant labor will probably fold because they now have to find suitable replacements, and probably have to pay more in the form of wages or tax to do so. From a moral and legal perspective, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, it’s not going to be limited to just businesses losing people busing tables, cleaning offices, and yard work. Illegal immigrants work in many different business sectors and all will be affected by millions of people leaving the workforce. It may wind up being more an issue of finding suitable replacements than paying more in taxes and wages to hire citizens. The agricultural industry is heavily dependent on immigrant labor, and mass deportation could be an agricultural disaster. Fruits and vegetables of all types will be rotting on the vine because there will not be enough labor to harvest it. The result will be higher prices for all consumers on an essential item.

On the other side of the cash register, many businesses will fold or downsize because the number of consumers have been reduced by 11 million. Remember, it’s about 5 major cities worth of business lost to just about every sector. Every sector ranging from small retail to heavy industry will be affected. When that gets affected, the stock market gets affected as well. The affects won’t be limited to the private sector either. State, local, municipal, and federal governments will be affected as well. Aside from the loss of sales and use tax of 11 million people, we will lose a fraction of undocumented immigrants that pay federal or state income tax. The loss in every sector will be substantial.

The last thing I’ll mention is the cost to millions of families that will be separated due to deportation. The number of single parent households will skyrocket by the millions, as well the number of children without parents. Keep in mind that all those left behind in a mass deportation will be American citizens. Millions of American families will become broken resulting in higher rates of social maladies ranging from poor school performance to violent crime. Citizens will have to pay more in taxes to deal with these social maladies whether it’s increased police presence to halt it or social programs to remedy it. Otherwise, they will just have to get used to these maladies as a by-product of a new America.

But, I mentioned tyranny in my title, and I didn’t really describe a tyranny yet. Commercial, financial, social, and logistical chaos, yes, but not tyranny. Here’s where the tyranny comes in……There is no magical, cost effective teleportation device that will automatically detect all illegal immigrants and move them to a safe place in their home country. The tyranny will come in enforcing a mass deportation policy. The Nazis didn’t get 6 million into concentration camps overnight. It took them years, and we’d have to move double that. The Nazis had the cost advantage of not having to use humane methods, and I’d hope that even if the US foolishly took this route, they would do it humanely without committing atrocities or requiring imprisonment. Any efforts to expedite the process will only make things uglier.

If there was a mass deportation policy implemented, not everyone is going to comply. If anything, most will not. They have businesses, families, jobs, churches, communities, and other things that give them reason to draw it out as long as possible. Some of them may not be able to afford it. Some of them may face death for political/criminal/military/religious/etc reasons and will not go back at any cost. But, say you get a significant number of folks to say, “screw it, it’s not worth it to stay in America, I’m going back home”. That’s about a close to best case scenario for a mass deportation policy. However, that may only amount to 20-25% of folks. That’s still millions, but leaves millions that will require enforcement to deport. How are you going to do it?

You have a quarter of illegal immigrants leave voluntarily, and you’re left with only 8.25 million folks to deport. How are you going to find them? Who are you going to get to deport them? Our military that is already stretched fighting on multiple fronts overseas? Over worked, over stressed, and undermanned police departments? More than likely, a federal agency will be expanded or created to deal with the removal of 8 million illegal immigrants. A deportation force with some fancy name under some department created to conduct mass deportation in conjunction with the military and local law enforcement will further add chaos to the to political and power structures of inter-agency law enforcement. So much for smaller government, even if the government subcontracted it out. The money and resources are still getting used. But, I guess the government is at least creating jobs.

So how are you going to find them? Well, you go to the usual suspects, a neighborhood that is high in immigrant population. Probably a good guess, but there’s a strong likelihood that there’s many American citizens there. So what will you do? Go door to door with armed agents and make all people show their citizenship papers or birth certificate? Papers that are some of the most important documents they have and possibly kept in a safe deposit box. A legal immigrant sure doesn’t want those getting in the wrong hands, especially in a climate like this. So what will you do if they refuse or are unable to show papers? Say you were kind enough to put a clause in the mass deportation policy to give a grace period to show papers, how are you going to address it? A day in court? Showing up at the deportation booth to show that you’re here legally? How often will you have to do it? There’s lots of questions to be answered if you’re going to implement the ‘show your papers’ plan.

And everyone isn’t going to go quietly, and I’m not talking about violence. There’s going to be legal issues to deal with. Some folks aren’t going to fight being deported, but some will want a day in court. And you will have to in order to have a just policy because there will be people who will get caught up in the deportation process due to clerical errors, loss of documents, forgeries, misinformation, etc. People who legitimately should not be deported. If we were to uphold the constitutional right to due process, we would be introducing millions of new cases to an already burdened immigration legal system. Although the legal profession would appreciate the increase in business, the financial losses from lost business, wages, and legal fees would outweigh those gains. Never mind the reparations due to an individual that had their possessions confiscated and wrongly deported. And if due process was not expedient or cost effective enough for the mass deportation plan, and shortcuts to bypass to constitution are implemented, we will not only possibly deport American citizens, but tarnish one of the things that make America truly great – due process.

If ‘the people’ don’t want the cost and time of due process and prefer the fast-track deportation route, so be it. But what if after going for the usual suspects, the government still winds up millions short of their mass deportation goal? The deportation force has gone door to door in Hispanic neighborhoods, accidentally deported Puerto Ricans because they spoke Spanish. But that’s collateral damage in the battle to make America great again. They rooted out the people from the Middle Eastern neighborhoods including refugees persecuted for their faith, but it’s worth it to eliminate ‘potential terrorists’. By this point, years and billions have been spent on deportation, and we’re still millions short of our goal. Even though we’re in financial and social chaos, as long as we stick with our goal of removing every illegal immigrant in the US, we will return to greatness. So, the country continues it’s policy.

After going to the ethnic neighborhoods multiple times to root out all the illegal immigrants, the deportation force now realizes that they are spread out much more than they thought. So, they go to every work site that may have illegal immigrants from farms using migrant workers to IT firms using programmers with accents. The deportation force makes intermittent checks to determine that work sites are ‘clear’ while hours of productivity are lost as the check is conducted. Some places will have folks arrested and detained, regardless of where the employees are in the project. Other places will have folks just stop showing up for work because they are afraid of the deportation force. In any case, business is interrupted and productivity is lost, with someone paying the cost.

Now after going into the neighborhoods and work sites, the government is still millions short of it’s goal. Focusing on specific and likely targets are not enough because illegal immigrants are literally anywhere and everywhere. In order for the mass deportation policy to succeed and bring ‘stability’ to the financial and social chaos caused, it needs to be expanded to tackle the amorphous opponent. Now, the deportation force starts targeting anyone of ethnic appearance in any neighborhood to determine if they are a candidate for deportation. From suburb to college campus, anyone of ethnic appearance needs to carry their citizenship papers to avoid being detained because of the possibility that they may be misidentified as an illegal immigrant.

So after years of mass deportation, the US succeeds in deporting millions of illegal immigrants. But, they are still a couple million short. There are talks about dismantling or reducing the deportation force, but there’s too many jobs on the line and families depending on those jobs to just fold up. Even though the deportation force has less immigrants to deal with, they continue to expand because they need to continue to monitor for new and unfound offenders. They discover that there are millions of illegal immigrants from Europe, Australia, and Canada that need to be deported because they are here illegally. Because of that, every neighborhood and work site is under scrutiny from the deportation force.  You don’t have to look Hispanic, Asian, or Middle Eastern to be an illegal immigrant. Thus, the deportation force continues to grow so that they may keep dibs on every neighborhood, work site, educational institute, recreational center, and place of worship to keep America great and keep out the illegals. Everyone will need to carry their papers with them so that we can make America great.

And that’s how we get from mass deportation to tyranny……