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 ...
I'm right up there with you. They over-trim meat now (don't want any of that nasty fat left on it) to where all the flavor & juice is gone. It's getting very hard to find a nice cut of meat anymore.
There's a vast number of Americans sitting on their collective butts receiving monthly checks from the government. This is why there is a "cheap" labor shortage - they can make more doing nothing.
Welfare benefits should always be kept below minimum wage.
Haven't you heard? Greed is the new conservative ideal. [/sarc]
I don't know that welfare recipients are increasing in number. Do you have a source?
But it's never going to be zero. An adult with Down's Syndrome is probably not going to be able to hold a job. There are exceptions, but it's pretty tough, and there are many other examples like that.
btt
I view with glee the shrinkage of one of the slimiest proponents of offwhoring, "Information Week". Information Weak always has a blathermouth column on their last page telling educated, ambitious Americans to suck it up and cheering the transmission of systems jobs overseas. None of these shrill shills could write a line of code to save their worthless a**es. Whinemeal, I take great pleasure in seeing Information Weak shrink continuously in page size.
Me too, just exactly what is ALPO?
LOL!
When I was in grade school, some kid kept stealing my lunch. One day my mother made a sandwich from ALPO & stuck a little note in between the bread that said, "You just ate an ALPO sandwich!"
They never took my lunch again.
Some of my early roasting attempts resulted in a substance with the consistency of iron.
WAY below!
And you're right - there's a very sizeable percentage of welfare collectors that are simply scamming the system for free money, and are often working part-time "under-the-table" jobs for additional income. Not all of these scammers are illegals, but nearly all are democRATS.
>>And what ever happened to marbling and flavor?<<
I worked in meat markets for several years as a teenager during the 1960's, and I truly do miss the beautifully-marbled "Choice" beef of those days. I believe the USDA has lowered the grade standards over the years (the USDA does admit that "USDA Grades have Changed with the Needs of the Industry").
For example, the "Choice" grade of today appears to be no better than the quality of the "Good" grade of the 1960's. The new-fangled "Select" grade (which replaced the "Good" grade for reasons unknown) appears to be lower quality than the older "Good" grade -- more in the range of the "Standard" grade of old. If you want the magnificent marbling and flavor of the "Choice" grade of the 1960's, you will have to buy the best "Prime" beef on the market.
See the photos of beef cuts at:
http://www.bbqreport.com/archives/barbecue/2006/03/02/understanding-the-usda-beef-grading-system/
The photo of the Prime cut looks similar to the Choice cuts of the 1960's.
I have found the most consistently tender and flavorful beef these days is Certified Angus Beef. The local Giant Supermarket (Pennsylvania) sells that brand in the "Choice" grade. It is no more expensive than the other Choice-graded brands sold locally. See:
http://www.heartlandsteaks.com/beef-qualifications.html
When budgets were cut and as a result, her staff, the pain and daily struggle it took to work were no longer worth the effort. She retired.
Perhaps some people make an extraordinary effort to work as long as they can until a layoff or corporate restructuring increases workloads to the point where they just can't do it anymore.
But we should be grateful for disability retirements, they give us low unemployment numbers and make the economy look better than it is.
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".
Why wast time being envious of someone who lives in constant pain or with a mental disorder?
"What I don't understand is how the unions support these illegal aliens that have driven wages down across a whole industry."
The unions do not care what their employees make. They just want their dues.
I'll bet that unions that have lots of illegal members exploit that fact and can coerce higher dues from them.
Unions used to have a purpose. Most of them now are simply organized crime.
How do you explain this?
It is probably a lie, like many other government statistics. That is why the government controls the issuing of statistics, so that they can lie about it. Look at the bogus make believe inflation rate numbers. 2% my ass. That's why crappy little bungalows are now worth 1/2 a million dollars? I don't think so.
Among other things the government employment figures don't inlcude people who have stopped loooking for work or have been unemployed for a certain amount of time. That's a pretty big hole. How is section 8 (means tested) housing expense going up and up and up if everyone who wants work is working.
Chopped Pork shoulder and Ham.
:-)
>I love the attitude so many FReepers have, "What's good for me is good for America." <
That's what they say, but many who say that don't really believe it. What they mean is:
"What's good for me, is good for me, screw anyone else."
It is the minority that has the guts to say what they really mean.
Our one and only grocery sells "select" with less fat than your picture and then they want $8/lb. My cattle rancher grandparents would be shocked.
Why is it my job to pay them? We all have problems. Many of the people (most) I see getting disability are slackers, plain and simple. Most of the section 8 people I know are scammers. Why is it the responsibility of "we the people" to take care of women who have a few kids with shack ups and no job?
It is a basic truism of economics that you get more of what you subsidize. Illegitimacay rates in the Black 'community' are now at 70%. We know all these kids have a MUCH higher chance of ending up in prison, undereducated and basically building the even larger NEXT generation of 'underclass' in 20 years.
I applaud your mother, she sounds like a wonderful person that instilled a lot of good qualities in you. People like her seem to be few & far between these days.
As to your remark about me being envious of someone who lives in constant pain - or with a mental disorder - I know for a fact that the people of which I was speaking about - are committing FRAUD. They have no such disorders - they brag about it to me about how easy it was to get their disability check.
These checks should be for people who truly are disabled, whether by pain or crippling mental anguish - not by people who are taking advantage of the system.
I admire your mother, you see - I too - live with constant pain & sometimes so severe I can hardly stand - but I keep working, because I can & I will as long as I possibly can. In fact, I am undertaking training to educate myself for a new career that I can work & not have to aggravate my physical condition - there are still jobs that most "disabled" people can do - if they just had the gumption.
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