All Net Jobs Growth Has Gone To Illegal and Legal Immigrants

[_Kevin Graham]

John McCain: "I don't think I need to tell you that there are jobs that Americans will not do. I don't think I have to tell you that there are ... the backbone of our economy...

Audience members: "Pay them the right wages."

John McCain: "You know I've heard that statement before. Now, my friends, I'll offer anybody here fifty dollars an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season. So, ok, sign up! Ok, when you sign up, you sign up, and you'll be there for the whole season, the whole season, ok, not just one day. Because you can't do it, my friend."

McCain is absolutely correct. I remember 3-4 years ago I was discussing this issue about lettuce in Yuma, and one of the farmers there said he had advertised the job several times but no Americans wanted it at only $15/hr. So naturally he hired a bunch of Mexicans because they were the only people willing to put in that kind of hard work on a regular basis.

[_Analytics]

Get rid of the illegal immigrant tomato pickers and white Americans who are now on disability will go off of disability in order to score those awesome jobs?

Are you saying being on welfare/disability is a better deal than those "awesome" jobs?

No, I'm asking you why you think deporting working illegal immigrants will lower your taxes, eliminate the federal debt, eliminate unemployment, cause 45 million people not to need food stamps, eliminate disability fraud, and cause the truly disabled to return to work as fully productive members of society.

The America I know is a place of opportunity where people who are talented and hard working can make a great life for themselves. You imply that most brown people are neither talented nor hard working, and come here in order to mooch off of the tax payers, and then you argue it isn't fair for true-blooded Americans to have compete with the (allegedly) few brown people who are talented and hard working.

[_ajax18]

I'm personally curious if Ajax would buy non-black market influenced strawberries if they cost $10 per pound.

You still didn't answer my issue of the hidden cost of produce. If an illegal immigrant or even citizen are paid less than minimum wage, sure that's good for the landowners bottom line but the true cost is hidden in the taxes everyone else pays, is it not? Someone has to pay for their healthcare and every of necessity of life that a worker cannot afford on such wages.

Just looking at the way the landowning farmer lived when I used to teach Mexicans English, it was hard for me to believe that his business didn't earn enough money to pay them more. Same for the construction contractor framing and hanging drywall on a building. The man was grossing over $300k/year but said he couldn't afford to pay for legal labor. Are you saying I'd be wrong in that assumption EAllusion?

[_Zadok]

Just looking at the way the landowning farmer lived when I used to teach Mexicans English, it was hard for me to believe that his business didn't earn enough money to pay them more. Same for the construction contractor framing and hanging drywall on a building. The man was grossing over $300k/year but said he couldn't afford to pay for legal labor. Are you saying I'd be wrong in that assumption EAllusion?

Going to jump in here and I may regret it. BUT... it is said that the two forces that drive the American Stock Market, (and by extension, the American Economy), are FEAR and GREED. Fear is supposed to keep you from making really dumb mistakes, which you inevitably do, and Greed keeps you coming back after your dumb mistakes.

So in your example the contractor grossing over $300K/year is being driven by greed. He wants it all, and by damn he is well on his way to having it. He is feeding his rampant greed on the backs of the underpaid cheap labor, regardless of where he finds it.

It just makes sense then that a 'fair' society would force the contractor to live on less, and pay his workers more. It's just the right thing to do. But once you legislate that one of two things will happen. Either, 1), His income will be lessened and he will see the gold-ring of limitless riches being jerked away and will decide to stop reaching for it. (You will have killed his greed, by playing to his fears). Which if he does, will mean NO work for the group you're trying to help. OR, 2), He, and all others like him will raise their prices to compensate for the loss of profits, which will engender a rapid inflation throughout the economy. This kind of run-away inflation hurts all workers, and really hurts those at the bottom of the income ladder, who are the very group you're trying to help.

[_ajax18]

He, and all others like him will raise their prices to compensate for the loss of profits, which will engender a rapid inflation throughout the economy.

Well this was in WV (where the carpenter's union is a very powerful part of the Democratic party). The head contractor was a Mexican and legal citizen who was able to underbid the carpenter's union on the project by hiring mostly illegal immigrants to frame and drywall the building. It was a $3.5 million project. The union was out picketing every day in protest of state tax dollars going to foreign labor. The contractor fired any local WV workers he happened to hire who were members of the carpenter's union. He said it was because they couldn't work as fast or as well as the Latinos but a big part of it was retaliation against the union. After a two year court battle, the fired union employees successfully sued the Mexican contractor for lost wages. Who knows if they ever actually collected on the judgment.

It's interesting to me that the Democratic party can hold together this coalition that includes those who are against any border enforcement and the union workers who suffer because of it.

[_Zadok]

It's interesting to me that the Democratic party can hold together this coalition that includes those who are against any border enforcement and the union workers who suffer because of it.

Yes, a fascinating dichotomy.

[_Brackite]

I do agree with this recent the Supreme Court ruling.

Supreme Court says Arizona must issue driver's licenses to immigrant 'Dreamers'

In a 6-3 order, the justices turned down an emergency appeal from outgoing Gov. Jan Brewer, who argued that the state had the right to decide who gets a driver’s license.

[_Brackite]

I have at least one ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary war.