Friday, May 12, 2006

A modest proposal for parental responsibility

(With apologies to Jonathan Swift)

1. Free birth control, abortion (at least in the first trimester), and sterilization to anyone who wants it.

2. Reversible sterilization to all convicted felons (reversible after they have actually paid for their crimes in full, including monetary restitution).

3. Full legalization of drugs, each with a little "secret sauce" to prevent conception for a few months after being taken.

4. Mandatory insurance for all potential parents, to pay for all costs associated with raising a child, with rates depending on actuarial determination. In other words, a person without children would (almost always) pay less than a person with four children, and those at risk of having "special needs" children would pay more than those with normal risk. If a person can't afford an extra child -- if the rates take the existing family below the poverty line, for example -- you can either perform a reversible sterilization (which would lower the rates), or take it out of whatever estate they leave when they die. If you are *really* mean, upon adulthood you could stick each person covered by insurance with their portion of the bill for the first 18 years of their life, if their parents were unable to do so. There's still a chance that you'd have people forcing society to pay for their decisions, but at least there would be some accountability.

That should be enough to start an interesting discussion. Have at it! :)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Mexico is a failed nation

Let's look at some numbers:

Country A lost 2.5 million citizens in 12 years.
Country B lost 8 million citizens in 20 years

Country A is East Germany, between 1949 and 1961. Country B is Mexico, between 1986 and 2006 (Mexicans make up roughly 70% of the12 million illegal aliens in the United States). This is despite the fact that both East and West Germany shared the same language and culture, while the U.S. and Mexico share neither -- people were willing to flee Mexico with only what they could carry into a strange land with an unfamiliar language simply because conditions back home were so terrible.

Further, a poll taken in Mexico found that 46 percent of the population, about 50 million Mexicans, would come to the United States if they had the means and opportunity. About half of that number said they'd be willing to move to and work in the United States illegally. When nearly half of your citizens express a desire to move, that would indicate the nation has failed.

The only solution I see is what West Germany did with East Germany: Annexation (we can't really use the politically-correct term "reunification" with Mexico). Without biting the bullet on this one, Mexico will remain in the hands of a corrupt elite, and continue to send their poor, disenfranchised, and uneducated population northward.