Received Wisdom

Received wisdom is defined by some as "knowledge or information that people generally believe is true, although in fact it is often false".

There seems to be a lot of that going around on the left these days although to be fair it is my opinion that received wisdom has been their most frequent source of information for quite some time. 

We all know that republicans are in favor of dirty air and water. No word on where we would get our clean air and water.

Republicans want to take "health care" away from poor people.

Perhaps a more elaborate example is in order.

Illegal immigrants are just hard working souls looking to improve their lot in life (most are, I think) and they contribute a lot more in taxes to the country than the value of the benefits they consume. Not according to this extensive study by the Heritage Foundation. 

Some disagree with the Heritage Foundation. It is obvious, however, that they are just being deceptive in support of their received wisdom. Reading the following paragraph carefully exposes the game.


"Citizen children of illegal immigrants -- often derogatorily referred to as "anchor babies" -- do qualify for social benefits. Also, undocumented immigrants are eligible for schooling and emergency medical care. Currently, the average unlawful immigrant household costs taxpayers $14,387 per household, according to a recent report by The Heritage Foundation. But in its 2013 "Immigration Myths and Facts" report, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says most economists see providing these benefits as an investment for the future, when these children become workers and taxpayers." (Emphasis added.)

Did you notice that the statement in support of illegal immigrants was missing an important qualifier? That $14,387 is an annual number. According to the Heritage report linked above there were about 3.7 million illegal immigrant households in the US when the report was compiled. That would be a cost of $53,231,900,000 per year. Every year.

Those anchor babies are going to have to be awfully productive if the "investment" is going to pay off. It would take 2,129,276 anchor babies earning enough to result in them paying $25,000 per year in taxes to repay one year's worth of "investment". Let's assume that a family earning $100,000 per year would pay $25,000 in taxes. According to this analysis, fewer than 7% of American families earn between $100,000 and $120,000 per year. Good luck with that investment. About 4 million anchor babies were born between 2000 and 2013.

So, the Chamber of Commerce, a very big booster of open borders and amnesty, agrees with the Heritage numbers but tries to wiggle out of that corner by calling the costs investment rather than what they are, expenses, and conflating illegal immigrant households with an anchor baby with those without. But the left, most of whom will never have seen or heard of the Heritage study, will just repeat the mantra and call you a racist and/or xenophobe if you attempt to dissuade them.

The transmission of received wisdom has, in my opinion, reached previously unknown levels.