She makes some good points here. We have imported a servant class. They are doing jobs Americans aren’t doing. Since everyone wants their children to be good yuppies and go to college and avoid manual labor and service jobs, those jobs are going to the illegals.
But, if we had real control of the border to stop the illegals, maybe wages and benefits for these lowly jobs would improve, and attract some of the welfare recipients or itinerant members of society who could do these jobs.
There is no easy solutions to the problems of illegals. If there were, this problem would have been solved years ago. But it’s clear that we will not recognize this country in another 20 to 30 years if we continue to have unfettered illegal immigration and a lack of assimilation by these illegals. L.A. and other cities will be transplanted banana republic cities. Demography is destiny, as someone once said. There will be such a critical mass of these unassimilated people that the character and culture of our country will change.
I disagree. The fact that they cannot legally work and therefore must work for less gives millions of LEGAL citizens less money to legally spend. The entire basis of your “jobs Americans wont do” argument is that Americans are lazy. Your fundamental assumption is false. Your extrapolations based on that assumption must therefore also be false.
First, a tribute to a master writer:
“I wish our new immigrants had come to America back when the foundations of civic society and patriotism were still inculcated in all immigrants (and when half of them went home). But traitors who are citizens have destroyed all acculturating institutions. Traitors who are citizens have also destroyed all incentive for the poor to work or even keep their knees together before marriage.”
Now to respond to your point:
“There is no easy solutions to the problems of illegals. If there were, this problem would have been solved years ago. “
Actually there is: enforce our existing laws! What a concept! Deport those who are here illegally. If we deport a million, 5 million or more will flee. If we enforce our workplace regulations another 5 million will leave. What’s the point of infiltrating if you can’t get a job?
We could also try negotiating with Mexico to get their cooperation. We haven’t event tried that.
I beg to differ. There is a very easy solution and if it is applied, which it won't be, we would be rid of many of the illegals by their own migration back accross the border.
Jail the employers who hire them, end the benefits they can recieve from welfare, ER services etc, without a valid ID card. Keep a database of their fingerprints(That is already done)when they are actually deported and enforce the law against returning for a specific length of time. In other words, enforce the existing laws and they will self deport.
People who say there is no easy solution just have their heads right up their a**es and are buying into the lies of the politicians, both dems and republicans.
The hard part is for our politicians to find the guts to implement the laws we already have on the books.
I think the "doing the jobs Americans won't do" line is needlessly petulant. The fact is that there is a job surplus in the United States, and lucky for us most of that surplus is at the bottom of the wage scale. It would be worse if it were otherwise.
It's not so much that we need cheap labor. It is that we need to get the work done and there aren't enough people to do it. A larger and better regulated guest worker program will tend to *raise* those wages, since legal workers have more bargaining power than illegals. Illegals are the 'servant class' that has no power to bargain.
Understand-- I'm not saying this current bill does anything of the kind. I frankly have no idea. But that's what we need to do.
The TRUTH is that illegals will do job Americans won't FOR THE MEASLY WAGES PAID ILLEGALS
Agree with you on all counts except for “assimilation.” I believe “acculturation” is more realistic.
I just moved from San Diego to NE Florida last year, so I have a new perspective. Guess what? The landscapers, roofers, concrete workers etc etc are all AMERICANS here! WOW! No illegal Mexicans hanging out in front of HD either! AMERICANS are doing all those jobs the President says AMERICANS won't do!
Oh, don't be such a gullible little sheep!
It may blow your circuts to learn that, in the bent-back world of American agriculture -- you know, McCain's poster industry for "jobs Americans won't do™" -- illegal immigrants account for -- brace yourself -- a whopping 25% of the workforce. Fully 75% of that same workforce are legal American citizens and Resident Aliens with valid Green Cards.
The manifest truth is that Americans ARE doing "jobs Americans won't do™"; that there are, in fact, NO "jobs that Americans won't do™", unless, of course, the government continues to allow business to exploit an imported slave class to take those jobs from those Americans willing to do them.
What kind of Americans do those jobs? Glad you asked, because, when I went off to collge, I met incoming Freshmen who had spent the summers of their High School lives doing some of those jobs to -- gasp -- earn money for college. Can you even FATHOM it? WHITE American kids doing bent-back strawberry picking, and harvesting sugar beets to earn money for college. A fairly common moneymaker among my college friends was to work a summer job in the Alaskan canneries to make tuition for the following year, and that included the women!
A trio of guys I knew took all of spring term off so they could fish the herring run off the Alaskan coast. They worked their fingers to the bone and got nearly zero sleep for a month, almost fell into the icy Pacific and drowned more than once, hauled so many sardines they almost foundered the boats, and, in that one season, made enough money to pay for all four years of tuition, room, and board.
"Jobs Americans won't do™" my fine, white...
But, hey, whatever you do, don't tell McCain; he might have an aneurysm!
Perhaps. But Americans might do these jobs at a higher wage rate. As Thomas Sowell observed, journalists (who say “they are doing jobs American won’t do”), wouldn’t do journalism either at half the pay. It is all about supply and demand and the equilibrium market price. Naturally that price depends on whether or not you increase the labor supply with cheap immigrant labor.
With or without immigration (illegal in this case), our chickens will be plucked. The price of chicken will vary. Personally, I’d like a United States without illegal immigrant labor. This would free up the chicken plucking jobs for people who have worthless degrees like English and journalism. I know that I'd have to pay a little more for chicken, but it would be worth it.
signed,
a fellow resident of "America's Finest City" ...and I'd like it to remain that way.
That assumes they all come here to work, they do not. That's also one of the biggest rat talking points out there.
Sure there is. Deport them and have them enter through the country legally.