Most illegal workers in the US are Mexicans who mow lawns, clean motel sheets, butcher hogs, pick strawberries, and otherwise toil away at tasks that, as George W. Bush once said, “Americans won’t do.” And they often are paid less than the minimum wage.
A widely held assumption in Washington’s debate about immigration is that native-born Americans avoid menial and dirty work. Laid-off autoworkers wouldn’t really wash dishes at a Denny’s or milk cows on a dairy farm, would they? Such a notion has long helped justify a flow of foreign workers into the US – or possibly an amnesty for those hiding from the law.
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With people desperate for income, downward mobility may be on the way up.
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Maybe it’s a myth that Americans won’t take certain jobs. In fact, a study by the Center for Immigration Studies used 2005-07 data to look at 465 occupations. Only four had a majority of immigrants in them.
34, pedro,
“Yeap, fastracking their citizenship in excahnge for votes you didn’t have before. Thanks for confirming this as correct.”
And they become legitimate members of society and economically unexploitable. What a tragedy! And like I said, your God Bush tried it too…
Sorry you don’t know history. It’s an important subject. You’ll learn a lot by reading it. I don’t you have the capability though. You’re an idiot, afterall…
#28 for the win
The minimum wages damages the economy on the very low end, making many industries effectively illegal.
Hence, illegal workers to do work that doesn’t pay high enough.
The catastrophic damage is, however, industries that could be legitimate and require intensive labor go to Mexico due to NAFTA instead of being done in the USA.
Think of the many different manufacturers that have moved to Mexico (GM has plants down there, so does everyone).
The minimum wage is artificial, if you are college educated you wouldn’t be doing a low end job anyway, so the effect of the minimum wage is mostly to drive sub-minimum wage jobs into some other country or make them an illegal immigrant magnet.
“Illegal” jobs don’t pay taxes, by the way.
Nor obviously do the jobs moved to some other country pay taxes to the USA.
Try to find a wastewater or water operator for a small town legal or illegal.
The American republic was built on slavery. I guess hiring illegals is the next best thing. Some things never change.
So how to find a solution to this?
Well, there are two sides. The employer who cannot afford to pay even minimum wage so they look to illegal immigrants that will work for below MW.
Then you have the workers that need to make at least MW to even get by. Plus, even at minimum wage, they can barely get by. So their options are: Work and barely get by or be on welfare and barely get by. Not much incentive to work.
So instead of welfare, why not supplement the employer to be able to hire legally? There has to be some way of doing this that can minimize corruption.
The show Dirty Jobs pretty much proves this false. It’s all about the money.
#37:
Exactly.
The jobs are going to move offshore no matter what, because the labor is cheaper. You can’t stop that.
Which situation is worse:
Completely losing the industry because we don’t like that it’s worth less than $7/hr?
or, keeping it here and letting someone work it for peanuts?
I’d rather keep it here. You know, try to fix our trade deficit and all that.
All we need to do to find the culprit is look in the mirror. Americans are always going for the lower price, no matter what. So an honest businessman will be driven out of business by a dishonest one who hires illegals and pays them pennies.
It’s kind of like the war on (some) drugs. As long as there’s a demand for cheap stuff, businesses will hire illegals.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves. If we locked down the border, prices for everything from housing to dining would go up. And we the people would piss and moan and they’d open the borders again.
The system is working exactly like we want it to.
Or prove me wrong: Say, “I want to pay higher prices for the stuff I buy so that we can get rid of illegal aliens.” I have never heard anyone say that.
Depends on the situation. A lot of good people have their backs against the wall and will take just about any job they can get.
36, pedro,
Good to see that your complete lack of comprehension proved me correct yet again. The illegals are in the USA RIGHT NOW. Legitimize them. I guess you and your imagination will just wrinkle your nose and they’ll all magically disappear?
Right. I doubt you’re even IN America, and are probably a smuggler yourself… You don’t want to lose out on a gig…
I recall reading an article in the paper about the Local McDonalds in West Palm Beach, FL.. Seems they needed to Bus kids and others in to work… No one in the comminity wanted to work for the Normal wages beig offered at the time, this job was not deemed a good enough Job for even the local High School Kids… this may be a isolatd case, but it does prove a point…
So Guess who worked ther?…
I also had the experience back in the 80’s of Entering a McDonalds in Miami, and the manager had to come out to take my order…no one on the front counter speak english..and I sure did not speak Spanish… being a farm Kid from Maine.
#37, You beat me to it.
47 pedro,
Like any other idiot Republican, you just imagine you can shake the can and everything goes back to the way it was… you deal with reality, not your fantasies…
But, that is asking too much from you.
51, pedro,
Whatever the idiots did now has to be rectified. Legitimizing them will protect them AND eliminate the corruption. But, you live in fantasy land where you can just say “Well, if so and so didn’t do so and so, so and so wouldn’t have happened…” You’re the problem, not even CLOSE to part of the solution. Moron.
To paraphrase an imfamous quote. “The Americans are the men who will not do jobs for nothin” AKA below minimum wage, or no wage at all. A lot of these illegal workers get screwed out of a day’s wage. But the work gets done. Horay for America.
As always we blame the wrong people. We should crack down on businesses who hire illegals, not illegals themselves, who invariably are victims when they get paid $2.00 an hour with no health insurance and 12 hour days, but can’t complain to anybody because the business will just fire them and turn them in to immigration.