Go South, Old Man

a modest proposal

Some 1.5 million citizens of the United States have migrated south to Mexico. Many of them are retirees who get more for less down there. The plan makes sense. Why not make something more of it?

Here’s an idea. Every US migrant to Mexico should sponsor, in return for a tax or some other benefit, one young legal migrant worker to the USA. More benefits would go to those who sponsor young families. The workers would replenish not only the US labour market but also the pension schemes (Social Security, Medicare, etc) being drawn upon by the expat pensioners.

Canada could get in on it if a portion of the funds also went to an investment programme for the construction of settlements for climate refugees who are bound to flock in the other direction, ie north, in the coming years.

In other words, there should be a North American Work and Pension Agreement (nawpa) creating a North American Work and Pension Scheme (nawps), eventually becoming a North American Community (nac) that might attract other members from the Caribbean and possibly Central America.

A clever actuary would need to sort the numbers but the scheme could do much to solve three big problems: an excess, concentrated population of expensive baby boomers; an imbalanced labour market with a high demand for illegal migration; and more rapid, disruptive climate change.