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 ...
Alot less paperwork too!
Only if they go on welfare.
Welfare reciepients are included in the employed.
Hey, if we all hired illegals we could afford the expesnive steaks that Rush and all the other conservative talk show hosts advertise on their shows. Porterhouse goes for about $30/lb and Sirloin about $25/lb.
Definition Of The Unemployment Rate The unemployment rate is the percentage of the U.S. labor force that is unemployed. It is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by the sum of the number of people unemployed and the number of people employed. The number of people unemployed and the number of people employed is defined as the number of individuals in the labor force. See the current calculation in Table 1.It seems that if you're not actively looking for a job, you're not unemployed.An individual is counted as unemployed if the individual is over the age of 16 and is actively looking for a job, but cannot find one. Students, those individuals who choose to not work, and retirees are not in the labor force, and therefore not counted in the unemployment rate.
So if you're on welfare, you're not counted as unemployed. Typical government statistics. What is it that they say? Figures don't lie, but liars can figure?
If you know a crime is being committed, you have a responsibility to report it.
Because the Unions get their cut in dues off the top. Were you under the mistaken impression that they actually cared about their members?
Maybe you can walk me through how I would go about doing that?
You must shop at Safeway/Von's too! Recent price increases have been unbelievable!
ping
What a joke that is.... wonder what the percent is on welfare?
and, if you are not collecting unemployment, how do they know you are actively looking for a job?
Really, dennis--I expected a bit more from you.
You DO recall the long lines of people who were seeking employment at Swift & Co plants immediately after the raids?
By the way--as construction folds up like a cardboard box, there will be plenty of people available to replace the illegals.
The unions organized these folks.
Levy serious fines against those who employ illegal aliens and they'll deport themselves.
If everything is so wonderful, why am I constantly being asked to give, give, give to the poor (mostly illegals) in our county, one of the richest in the nation? If everything is so wonderful, why are my property taxes sky-high to provide housing to the poor (mostly illegals)?
Why do you justify our laws being mocked and broken? What do you gain from the illegals?
Dog Gone, "jobs that are better than what the illegal aliens are doing" are not necessarily better than jobs that they would be doing if the illegals were not here.
Downward pressure on wages at the bottom will cause downward pressure on wages a rung or two up.
You read too much into my post.
I was addressing one specific aspect of the story which I think to be faulty.
I support efforts to stop illegal immigration.
Good points. After what....40 years of welfare, housing assistance, food stamps, blah,blah,blah.....
Why the heck do we still even have poor people?
(That was a rhetorical question.)
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