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Illegal Immigration: A Rich American's Game
realclearpolitics.com ^ | December 21, 2006 | Froma Harrop

Posted on 12/23/2006 7:53:24 AM PST by dennisw

There's a popular game in America that goes, I'll cut your wages, but you don't cut mine. And the outsourcing of your factory job to China is a good thing, because it makes my paycheck go further at Wal-Mart. We hear this theme a lot in the debate over illegal immigration.

Consider the recent raids on Swift meat-processing plants. Federal agents arrested 1,187 illegal immigrants at facilities in six states. Mere hours later, economists warned that depriving the industry of illegal labor could raise hamburger prices.

Illegal immigration is usually presented as a win-win situation: Undocumented foreigners earn far more than they could back home. Consumers get a bargain.

Nowhere to be seen are America's working poor who get stomped on 13 different ways. They have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs and housing. Low-skilled natives and legal immigrants also end up subsidizing the undocumented because they tend to live in the same communities, which must provide hospitals, police, schools and garbage pickup.

Who doesn't suffer from illegal immigration? For starters, the people who write about it. I speak of the journalism profession, which has the habit of covering the issue by anecdotes. Reporters thrive on sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.

But, were a busload of illegals from Australia to turn up at their newspaper and offer reportage at 10 percent below the going rate, the writers would call the authorities so fast that your head would spin. And the publisher's argument that thanks to the cheap Australians, he's able to trim a few cents off the newsstand price would make no impression.

The meat-processing companies that employ illegal immigrants have been enjoying a nearly 50-percent discount on what was the going rate. In 1980 average meat-processing job paid $19 an hour.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; cheaplabor; china; immigrantlist; immigration; india; labor; mexico
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1 posted on 12/23/2006 7:53:26 AM PST by dennisw
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: dennisw

In spite of this, we have record low unemployment. Apparently Americans are finding jobs that are better than what the illegal aliens are doing.

How do you explain this?


3 posted on 12/23/2006 8:00:27 AM PST by Dog Gone
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To: dennisw
There's a popular game in America that goes, I'll cut your wages, but you don't cut mine.

The idiot forgot the other rules of the game.

In America opportunities abound, so if you DON'T LIKE the wages I'm paying you and you really are a special employee, then you can LEAVE and go anywhere you want and ask for more. Or you can start your own enterprise and work to become whatever you want. All it takes is hard work.

4 posted on 12/23/2006 8:01:02 AM PST by ElkGroveDan (When toilet paper is a luxury, you have achieved communism.)
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To: dennisw
As it turns out, the meat-processing companies that employ so many illegal immigrants have been enjoying a nearly 50-percent discount on what was the going rate. In 1980, the average meat-processing job paid $19 an hour. The companies then moved their plants to rural areas, far from the Midwest cities and their unions. The industry's wages now average about $9 an hour.

Yet, my grocery bill has tripled rather than dropped 50%.

5 posted on 12/23/2006 8:04:34 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: dennisw
The day I see one of these pro "free trade" economists, policy wonks, or executives give up their own jobs to someone who will do it for less will be the day I might consider offshore outsourcing to be a good thing.

In the meantime, we should tariff the profits made by companies which offshore American jobs, and use those tariffs to lower the ridiculously high income taxes that we pay here.

6 posted on 12/23/2006 8:07:29 AM PST by pnh102
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To: Dog Gone

There's a whole bunch of people that I see on a regular basis at work that don't have to work anymore - but they still get paid! They have all found out about the "Disability Train". Apparently, there's legions of doctors and lawyers that enable these people to collect their "free" paychecks. If you ask them what their disability is, invariably it's a bad back, bi-polar disorder, nerve damage in their feet, etc - stuff you can't see & pretty much have to take the patient's word for the "pain" they are feeling.

These are able-bodied people that go out & about, doing whatever they want - but for some reason - are able to get a monthly check for some "disability" that doesn't keep them from shopping & having a great old time. These people are no longer looking for jobs & are therefore, not in the statistics of the unemployed.

To me - if you can drive a car, walk up & down the street, shop until you drop, read the newspaper & talk on the phone to your friends all day - you certainly should be capable of "working".


7 posted on 12/23/2006 8:07:46 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: dennisw

All these arguments are moot. There is no reason or excuse that justifies illegal immigration.


8 posted on 12/23/2006 8:10:04 AM PST by umgud (I love NASCAR as much as the Democrats hate Bush)
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To: dennisw

Who needs a butcher? My Daddy taught me how to hunt and fish!


9 posted on 12/23/2006 8:10:30 AM PST by spanalot
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: Willie Green; Wolfie; ex-snook; Jhoffa_; FITZ; arete; FreedomPoster; Red Jones; Pyro7480; ...
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes to wail about the "labor shortage." It says there aren't enough chambermaids, dishwashers, etc. to work for its members at lousy wages. Odd, but when there's a shortage of labor -- or anything else -- doesn't the price of it go up? The price of unskilled labor in the United States hasn't gone up. It's gone down.

Cheap labor shortage.

11 posted on 12/23/2006 8:16:33 AM PST by A. Pole (GWB believes that "guest worker" program will satisfy economy needs for cheap and plentiful labour.)
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To: mtbopfuyn

Yeah! And what is it with all of these "mystery" cuts of meat? I'm seeing meat all cut up in thin, little pieces that are labeled with names I don't recognize as the cuts of meat I grew up with.


12 posted on 12/23/2006 8:17:29 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: A. Pole
Cheap labor shortage.

You hit the nail on the head!

13 posted on 12/23/2006 8:19:14 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: mtbopfuyn
The companies then moved their plants to rural areas, far from the Midwest cities and their unions.

That's not true. You can't move away from unions. Who is it that is going to court for these illegal workers? Unions, that's who. What I don't understand is how the unions support these illegal aliens that have driven wages down across a whole industry.

14 posted on 12/23/2006 8:20:28 AM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: alicewonders
And what is it with all of these "mystery" cuts of meat?

I'm waiting for them to come out with a flat iron roast. :)

15 posted on 12/23/2006 8:21:41 AM PST by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: USNBandit

LOL!


16 posted on 12/23/2006 8:24:15 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: A. Pole

None of the 'unintended consequences' of hiring illegals is discussed here. I live in the midwest and the wholesale damage wrought upon once pristine, wholesome & Christian communities wrecked by the illegals is incalculable. Greedy meatpackers knew their actions would devastate these communities but could care less. Now social services, medical, education and police protection are all strained and the taxpayer AND the legal citizen bears the cost. These robber barons are scum and should be shunned & prosecuted!


17 posted on 12/23/2006 8:25:02 AM PST by Jazzman1 (l)
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To: dennisw
I love the attitude so many FReepers have, "What's good for me is good for America."
18 posted on 12/23/2006 8:25:03 AM PST by BW2221
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To: dennisw
Reporters thrive on sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.

Ain't that the truth.

19 posted on 12/23/2006 8:27:40 AM PST by Lijahsbubbe
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To: alicewonders
And what is it with all of these "mystery" cuts of meat? I'm seeing meat all cut up in thin, little pieces that are labeled with names I don't recognize as the cuts of meat I grew up with.

We raised cattle and I totally agree. Better than half the cuts are a total mystery. The kids were in 4-H and on the meat judging team but when I took them on a tour of the grocery meat section hardly any of the cuts from their USDA booklets were on the shelves. And yes, you can nearly read a news paper through such thin cuts. And what ever happened to marbling and flavor? I can't find a decent steak anywhere that's above shoe leather. I ordered a half a calf from a slaughter house last year, but it was so tough the dog had a hard time with it. Ok, I'll step down off my soap box now.

20 posted on 12/23/2006 8:28:07 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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