The unintended consequences of dumb policies...

I have often thought of how under reported and under-communicated the law of unintended consequences can be, especially on "get tough" policies. There are the policies from the drug war that have done little to curb drug use (but run up a huge enforcement and incarceration bill). The most relevant at the moment are the anti-immigrant policies being passed in AZ. There is this brilliant article by the Naked Economist about the unintended consequences stemming from policies that attempt to control behavior. consequences

The simple fact is that no matter how tough we get on immigrants and immigration, we will never be able to remove the incentive to come here for work (feeding your family is strong motivation). The unintended consequences of cutting off things like healthcare, education or forcing local police to arrest people here illegally are pretty dire.

Cutting medical care (besides being inhumane) opens our society to a large migrating group of people who could carry disease from place to place without it setting off alarm bells. If there is an outbreak of TB, you want the people going to the hospital, so it can be controlled. Taking away education just leads to frustration which will lead to greater crime and violence. Making local police immigration enforcement means that a lot of crime in immigrant communities will go unreported and will likely grow.

These ideas are counter-intuitive at times. I know they can be tough pills even for reasonably moderate people to stomach, but sometimes it is better to be rational than reactionary.

I think a lot of the anti-immigrant sentiment that exists is the result of middle class people feeling uneasy and squeezed. That anger gets projected onto the immigrants that don't really have a means of speaking up. Conveniently, immigrants become scapegoats for nearly every ill: terrorism, expensive healthcare, taxes, crime etc.