Beats my pair of jacks. I'm guessing that most of the people who complain they can't get a job 'cuz the wetbacks are stealing them are people who are looking for an excuse not to work, and if the wetbacks were gone, there'd be some other excuse like the jobs are too far away or they don't pay enough to live on or I don't have the skills or my back hurts or the sun got in my eyes or global warming...
I agree. I also see that the anti-illegal movement seems to have a lot of just this sort of people in their ranks, some of which are members of my family. They claim to want to work, but they want weekends off, paid vacation, health benefits and stuff like that. One of my relatives turned down a job because "the building smells bad".
So my point is that illegals are
not stealing jobs from us. There are jobs for anyone who seriously wants one. Are they stealing from our economy? They do get a lot of benefits from it, but they also put back a lot, doing jobs that, by your experience and mine, US citizens won't take, yet which need to be done. Some folks call them "thieves" (no, not you BP). I feel that such appellations prevent rational discussion about how to solve the problem.
Unemployment in this country is pretty low right now; I can't believe jobs are
that hard to find. Yeah, maybe the perfect job
you want isn't out there - I'd love to get paid a couple hundred thou a year to be a condom quality tester - but there
are jobs (we desperately need dog walkers in Alexandria...
). A year or so ago, Vincente Fox got in all kinds of hot water for saying that Mexicans in the U.S. do jobs that "even the blacks won't do," but then last year, Ray Nagin said almost exactly the same thing when he said one of his big problems was keeping the Mexicans from swarming into New Orleans and taking all the jobs. How come these day labor sites are always populated by Hispanics who speak little or no English? You'd think an unemployed American would get out there figuring, "Hey, I speak English - I'll be one of the first ones hired; I might even be able to dicker for extra pay just
because I can speak English..." but they don't - then complain the wetbacks are taking "their" jobs.
And once again I ask, why are they able to take all the jobs? Because there is little or no risk to a company who hires illegals. It's a nudge-nudge-wink-wink sort of thing when it comes to punishing those who could be compared to slave traders. (Not an exact comparison of course, but similar in some ways.)
As you can see, I'm not - quite the opposite.
Yes I see you are not a "fire breather".
My problem isn't with immigration - hell, my parents were immigrants, and I married someone from a foreign country (well, go ahead, tell me Texas isn't a foreign country...). My problem is with illegal immigrants. The more people who want to become Americans, with all that entails, the better, as far as I'm concerned. But I have little patience for the mentality that says, "I'm going to pick and choose how American I'm going to be. I want the benefits of being an American, but don't want to pay the fare."
I agree, the problem
is that it is illegal. But isn't it just as illegal for the hirer as the hiree? And doesn't the hirer ultimately control whether or not illegals get hired? They are providing the jobs and the money that fuels this problem. It seems to me that our focus is 180 degrees in the wrong direction. But because the hirers have money and power, we leave them alone. In my mind that is just plain wrong.
However, consider the consequences of "fixing" the problem by making hirers provide benefits to all their employees. Costs would skyrocket, especially for housing and food. Every economist knows this, and the government knows this, which is why they don't do anything about it. You want to get rid of illegals? You'd better be ready to open your wallet, because they are
not hurting the economy or the unemployment situation.
Yes they do. Just being able to get away with it doesn't mean they don't have to.
I disagree. Being able to get away with it
does mean they don't have to. If the laws are unenforced, then people won't obey them.
