Aug 30, 2007

Totalization Agreement With Denmark Not Drawing Controversy

The United States and Denmark have signed a Social Security totalization agreement, according to an announcement from the U.S. Social Security Administration. The press announcement on this touts the fact that the agreement will eliminate double taxation, but it also allows workers to combine wage credits from both countries to obtain Social Security benefits.

Note that this totalization agreement is totally non-controversial, while the totalization agreement with Mexico has been totally controversial. Critics of the agreement with Mexico would point to the large number of Mexican citizens in the United States illegally as the reason for the different reception of the two agreements. Critics of those critics would point to the differences in skin hue between citizens of Denmark and Mexico as being the real reason. However, the two agreements are quite similar. If one objects vehemently to the agreement with Mexico, one should also object vehemently to the agreement with Denmark.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only way your argument (if you object to one you should object to the other) works is if there are no other differences, which you must admit there are (concerning immigration).

Just because the agreements are technically similar doesn't mean they should both be supported. For example, If I have no assets and you do, I'm not going to say it is wrong for the bank to approve your mortgage and not mine, even if the terms are the same.

While we're at it, why don't we just have the same trade agreements with every country. They would certainly all be "quite similar." Oh wait, there might be other reasons to object to certain arrangements with certain countries! But that must mean I'm racist. My bad!

Anonymous said...

One of the big reasons to be against approval of an agreement with Mexico and not Denmark is that the 5 year residency requirement for dependents and foreign adoption restriction for benefit eligible don't apply to citizens of countries we have agreements with. People from which country are more likely to try to abuse that to get extra benefits for family members?