Flourishing

Mike Harvey is one of the most thoughtful people I’ve met in my travels to over 40 states in the past two years. He helped to coordinate several events in Winfield, KS (population 12,206) where he works as a financial planner. He also publishes a weekly ezine newsletter that he is in the process of converting to a blog. Here is some of what he had to say about our immigration debate in a recent writing.

“An important part of my job as an investment advisor is to support the principles of economic freedom and capitalism. These are inseparable from liberty itself, and they are critical to long-term wealth creation. I do not support any of the current immigration proposals for the simple reason that they are logically opposed to those principles. I make no apologies for my position on free immigration, and I encourage my friends to research the subject further.”

“Among the things you will learn are that most of the accusations being leveled against Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, are slanderous. The truth is:

· 62% of illegal immigrants pay income taxes.

· 67% of illegal immigrants contribute to Social Security.

· The national unemployment rate for Hispanic workers is only 5.5%.

· Hispanics start new businesses at 3 times the national average rate.

· In 2002, 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses generated sales revenue of $22 billion.

· Only 5% of illegal Mexican immigrants receive food stamps or unemployment benefits.

· Only 10% of illegal Mexican immigrants have children in our public schools.

· National surveys of crime statistics show that Mexican immigrants are generally less involved in crime than other similarly situated groups.

· Arab terrorists are among the people least likely to sneak across the Mexican border.”



If you’d like to read his blog, click here.