Karl Marx once wrote of repeating events in history that they occur "first as tragedy, then as farce."  

That was my reaction to an article appearing in the Thursday, September 21 New York Post.

The article focused on complaints of existing illegal aliens in the metropolitan New York City area.  The huge influx of illegal aliens has them occupying 50% of the hotel rooms in the city.  They are sleeping all over the sidewalks in Midtown Manhattan.  Mayor Eric Adams has declared that the costs of dealing with them "will destroy the city."  NYC has prided itself on being a sanctuary city willing to house and feed any and all illegal aliens.  Daily television showed city authorities meeting the arriving buses from the border, shaking hands and greeting the new illegals.  But the large flow from the border has swamped the system.  As was posited in Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come."  They did, and they did.

The complaint of the longer-term illegal aliens is that the newly arriving illegal aliens will work for lower wages than the previously resident illegal aliens.  This has forced a reduction in income for the old-timers.  The point that neither group should be working at all under U.S. law seems to be irrelevant to both.

For many years, leftists have scoffed at the idea that illegal aliens are lowering the wages paid to American citizens and legal immigrants.  We were told how much we benefited from this type of immigration.  Anyone who has ever had a course in microeconomics is presented with supply/demand curves in the first week of class.  The point is made that if the supply of any good or service increases at a rate greater than demand for the same, then price will decline.  The experience of our long-term illegals has validated this reality.  The fact that Americans and legal immigrants have suffered from reduced incomes is ignored by most media and progressive politicians.

New York City is paying more than $11,000 per month to house a family of four illegals.  They are housed, fed, and clothed.  They get free cell phone service.  Newspapers are reporting that new arrivals are making $3,000 per month by working illegally.

Groucho Marx made films that made comedy out of absurdity, but a similarly surnamed political and economic theorist nailed this situation.  We have reached the point of farce.  However, this is turning into tragedy for the country.

Image via Picryl.