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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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To: mtbopfuyn

>>And what ever happened to marbling and flavor?<<

BTW, I found the following from a website regarding beef grading changes. It explains a lot:

DECLINE IN BEEF QUALITY

Chefs should know a little about the history of the grading system in order to understand how a change in the grading system led to a decline in the quality of beef. Experts agree that the quality of beef today is much worse that it was twenty years ago. This will explain the reason.

Prior to 1987, the top three grades of beef in the U.S. were Prime, Choice and Good. The major difference was the degree of marbling: Prime is 15% more marbled than Choice, which is 15% more marbled than Good. About three-fourths of grain-fed beef was graded Prime or Choice.

The National Cattlemen's Association (NCA) started a nationwide consumer movement for lean beef. At the request of the NCA, Texas A&M University produced the "National Consumer Retail Beef Study", which began the "War on Fat". The study recommended that consumers be educated to purchase lean beef.

The problem was that beef graded Prime and Choice were fatter, and consumers had learned that beef graded Good was lean but tough.

The "solution" - so typically the resort of those with poor ideas but a "we know better than them" conviction - was to change the definition. That is, change the name of the grade from Good to Select, so that consumers could be "fooled" into thinking that a lean cut was better than one with fat. In other words, consumers would be "re-educated" (some would call the government's efforts nothing less than propaganda) to prefer lean, lower-quality beef.

As opposed to the fraudulent "solution", the fact is that the taste of beef results from marbling (intermuscular fat). Prime Grade beef tastes better than lowers graded beef because it has more marbling - more fat. Conversely, leaner beef has less marbling and less taste.

In the 1980s, some people argued that consumers deserved to be educated, not brain-washed. They urged the industry to educate consumers on the following facts: (1) marbled beef tastes better than leaner beef; (2) marbled beef is more expensive than leaner beef; but (3) eating too much marbled beef is not healthy. Those who urged this lost the argument to others who wanted to "fool the consumers" with a combination of a name-change coupled with the false and incomplete message that "lean beef tastes better and is healthier". Both statements are false: lean beef does not taste better, and lean beef if not healthier.

Skeptics may argue that the beef industry succeeded beyond their wildest expectations and hopes. After all, now 80% of Prime Grade U.S. beef is exported (mostly to Japan) at premium prices; U.S. consumers are now buying low-quality beef without objection; and the low-quality beef costs the industry much less to produce (yet it now produces the same revenue as previously received for high-quality beef).

For more information, see Robb Walsh's story, "A Matter of Fat".

In 1987, as a result of the study, the USDA Good Grade was renamed the Select Grade. Since then, consumers have been "educated" into believing that lean beef like Select Grade is a high quality grade, and beef of the highest quality has declined in availability (quantity) and, according to some, even in quality. According to Marilyn Spiera, President of the famous Brooklyn steakhouse, Peter Luger, "A lot of the meat they now sell as 'Prime' wouldn't even be graded 'Choice' 35 years ago." Quoted by John Mariani, Ready for Prime Time.
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http://www.steakperfection.com/grade/



41 posted on 12/23/2006 9:28:11 AM PST by PhilipFreneau (God deliver our nation from the disease of liberalism!)
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To: meyer

"...there's a very sizeable percentage of welfare collectors that are simply scamming the system..."

I grew up in an Indiana suburb of Chicago. I hit a "bad patch" and collected unemployment a couple of times. At that time, 1980, IN paid the equivalent of about $2.00 an hour for unemployment. That was below minimum wage.

While standing in line to get my check (yes, my resumes were out and I was working my networks to get a job) I overheard talk about the cash economy. These a-holes were working for cash, making several hundred dollars a week, and collecting unemployment. I could lie and say I turned them in, but in my young brain I couldn't formulate a way to do so without getting beat up before making it to my car.

And don't get me started about the people at the meat market driving Lincolns and Cadillacs with Gary plates and wearing furs. They were buying hundreds of dollars of great cuts of meat I couldn't afford using hundred dollar bills and food stamps. I was there with a gift certificate from work for Christmas.

Apologize for the "War and Peace" but I had to share...


42 posted on 12/23/2006 9:30:20 AM PST by Felis_irritable
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To: Felis_irritable
They were buying hundreds of dollars of great cuts of meat I couldn't afford using hundred dollar bills and food stamps. I was there with a gift certificate from work for Christmas.

Been there, done that. I can always tell the "food-stampers" at the grocery store - they are the ones with the carts overladen with great looking meat. My cart is usually filled with "what's on special".

43 posted on 12/23/2006 9:37:22 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: alicewonders
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".

I believe these freeloaders use the illegals as a convenient excuse to fake illnesses. After all if I think I'm worth $20.00 per hour for unskilled labor and illegals are willing to work for $10.00 per hour, then I feel justified in sticking it to the system because I am a victim. Just going on welfare is the equivalent of minimum wage and you don't have to do any work.

There are some unskilled, semi-literate, Americans in this country that are getting overrun. I can understand their anger and frustration, and I guess this is how the system accommodates them. There are also many addicts, bums, and others that take advantage of the free ride.

44 posted on 12/23/2006 9:40:01 AM PST by oldbrowser (This war isn't over until it's OVER.)
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To: PhilipFreneau
"A lot of the meat they now sell as 'Prime' wouldn't even be graded 'Choice' 35 years ago."

Exactly.

45 posted on 12/23/2006 9:44:52 AM PST by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: Jack Black

"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."

You left out the biggie, 30-40 years ago the government changed their "employment" criteria to make statistics look better and included welfare recipients as employed.


46 posted on 12/23/2006 9:58:20 AM PST by dalereed
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To: pnh102

It does act as a deterrent.


47 posted on 12/23/2006 10:02:48 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: alicewonders

Those are probably the cuts this cheap labor is familiar with using.


48 posted on 12/23/2006 10:04:31 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: USNBandit
Because Unions are losing American workers, to stay viable they had to look elsewhere and found a gold mine in illegals.... one example is the construction trade which is specifically backing illegal workers today.

BTW, Arizona just released their most common baby names for 2006 today. Angel for boy's and Mia for girl's. Neither list had an American Name in the top five.

49 posted on 12/23/2006 10:06:31 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: alicewonders

Welfare should be workfare unless you ARE physically or mentally disabled.


50 posted on 12/23/2006 10:08:19 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: Arizona Carolyn

True.


51 posted on 12/23/2006 10:09:11 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: Dog Gone
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?

The thousands, maybe millions, of self employed American landscapers, home cleaners, nannies, builders, etc. AS YOU know do not appear on the unemployment rolls when they are taken out by cheap illegal labor doing those jobs now.

All areas of the country are not at LOW unemployment. My area is 19%.

What we have is an oversupply of labor, making the unemployment rate low. Supply and demand.

52 posted on 12/23/2006 10:14:43 AM PST by WatchingInAmazement (President DUNCAN HUNTER 2008! http://www.house.gov/hunter/border1.html)
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To: oldbrowser
We are also guilty of raising a whole generation of kids who believe they have to start out at the top making a six-figure income... they can't comprehend working their way up the ladder.

I have a friend with a gift store who has a very difficult time hiring people who will stay or will work, most ask (as soon as they are hired) when do I get my paycheck and can I take some vacation. When they are sick they don't call in, just don't show up and when they figure out the job is more than standing at a cash register some just don't show up period.

She has one more year on her lease and then is closing... after 29+ years the last five have been the worst with the most irresponsible hires and she's worn out.

53 posted on 12/23/2006 10:15:30 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: dalereed

Once unemployment runs out, I don't believe you are counted as on the unemployment bandwaggon. Didn't they keep from extending unemployment a few years ago? Probably one reason was to keep the numbers from looking bad.


54 posted on 12/23/2006 10:16:51 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: Jazzman1

"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."




Whole communities, and their American culture are being swallowed up.


55 posted on 12/23/2006 10:19:51 AM PST by ansel12 (America, love it ,or at least give up your home citizenship before accepting ours too.)
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To: Arizona Carolyn
She has one more year on her lease and then is closing... after 29+ years the last five have been the worst with the most irresponsible hires and she's worn out.

My husband & I own our own business & we finally got rid of our last deadbeat employee about 3 years ago & have never looked back! We got tired of being stolen from, having to cover for them on their numerous sick days, having to wake them up to get back to work & having them give our customers horrible service. We decided if we can't do it ourselves, it just won't get done.

After almost 20 years in business, we will also be closing it in the next 3 years. It gets worse every year for the small business owner.

56 posted on 12/23/2006 10:25:17 AM PST by alicewonders
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To: Ukiapah Heep
offwhoring

I love it! It describes the concept PERFECTLY.

57 posted on 12/23/2006 10:25:34 AM PST by pnh102
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To: Arizona Carolyn

They have extended it numerous times, that is what the federal unemployment tax is for.

The employee never sees the unemployment taxes that are paid, they are both paid by the employers.


58 posted on 12/23/2006 10:26:01 AM PST by dalereed
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To: dalereed

I know the employer pays the tax, but I don't believe once a person is no longer collecting unemployment the government counts them as being unemployed... even though they may be unemployed, but out of benefits.


59 posted on 12/23/2006 10:33:44 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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To: alicewonders

I used to have employees, then decided I'd rather be smaller and not have the hassel of dealing with employees, never regretted that decision.


60 posted on 12/23/2006 10:34:48 AM PST by Arizona Carolyn
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