Contractors weigh in on new immigration bill

Glenwood Springs Post Independent, CO ^ | September 4, 2006 | Donna Gray

[Dane]

Your respect for the U.S. and it's laws is obviously not very high. I'm supposing that must be the culture wherever you hail from. These people are breaking the law but you obviously feel there should be a separate law for Hispanic invaders.

Please tell me of a culture where not building shelter has survived?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Per your post #10, I'm assuming that you're going to give back your TV, stereo, and MP3 player so that you can get your butt out in the yard post-haste and start doing something productive.

[cripplecreek]

I would take it even further. If I'm ever injured by an illegal I'm sure I could find an attorney willing to sue the company that hired the illegal. After all, the illegal wouldn't be here without means of support.

[dalereed]

The Feds should put you in prison for aiding and abbeting criminals!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Oh man, that is pure gold!

[rottndog]

That wasn't mine--I linked it to a post from MikefromOhio on that thread I linked to in my last post. It's a long thread, hosted by Dane, but Dane really gets bi#$h slapped around for a couple of days. Quite hilarious, and quite informative about Dane and his/her/it's open borders cohorts.

[Dane]

Per your post #10, I'm assuming that you're going to give back your TV, stereo, and MP3 player so that you can get your butt out in the yard post-haste and start doing something productive.

As will you, I surmise.

[primeval patriot]

"The government owes me employees."

"I'm a bidness man, I'm entitled" added Gould.

[capitalist229]

This will have ZERO effect on the underground cash economy other than to make it bigger.

BUMP

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I like my amnesty plan!
Please call them INVADERS and don't compare them to people who are legal aliens!
IF you aid and abet CRIMINALS, you are a criminal!

President Bush has been great on most things except for our border.
He has been great on the war on terrorists.
But on the border he is a gross failure.
He acted fast and correct on the 3,000+ people murdered at the world trade center.
He ignores the many rapes, murders and robberies which might be larger than the murders and money loss at the world trade center.
More Americans are abducted on the border of Mexico than in Iraq!

Start building the fence.
It should be made a felony for Criminals who overstay their visas and Invaders.

I believe we should give amnesty to these poor CRIMINALS or INVADERS.
This should be a 2 week amnesty to get the heck out of our Country.
The ones who ignore this amnesty should be buried in a tent city jail and fined $10,000 or buried elsewhere.
All aiders and abettors of these CRIMINALS or INVADERS should get 1 year in a tent city jail and a $10,000 fine for each CRIMINAL aided.
Those in government should be the first ones charged.

[tumblindice]

"Hi Dane. How's tricks?"

" http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/commons.htm "

Well now, that's just great. Glad to hear it!
Are you heading south soon?
" http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/commons.htm "
Have a safe trip!
" http://www.holoweb.com/cannon/commons.htm "

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Please tell me what relevence your reply has to anything relating to this thread. Sorry attempt at shifting the argument, chief.

[conservativecorner]

Let me bring some facts to your cry baby fluff piece on the "poor contractors". Any contractor not filthy rich after this housing bubble should be checked into a mental institution for being as dumb as a damn brick:

Jobs Americans Won't Do?
Think again.

By Rich Lowry

A core element of the American creed has always been a belief in the dignity of labor—at least until now. Supporters of a guest-worker program for Mexican laborers say that "there are jobs that no Americans will do." This is an argument that is a step away from suggesting that there are jobs that Americans shouldn't do.
President George Bush, a strong supporter of the guest-worker program, has long said that "family values don't stop at the Rio Grande." We are supposed to believe, however, that the work ethic does stop there—it is only south of it that people can be found who are willing to work in construction, landscaping and agricultural jobs. So, without importing those people into our labor market, these jobs would go unfilled, disrupting the economy (and creating an epidemic of unkempt lawns in Southern California).

This is sheer nonsense. According to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, illegals make up 24 percent of workers in agriculture, 17 percent in cleaning, 14 percent in construction, and 12 percent in food production. So 86 percent of construction workers, for instance, are either legal immigrants or Americans, despite the fact that this is one of the alleged categories of untouchable jobs.

Oddly, the people who warn that without millions of cheap, unskilled Mexican laborers, this country would face economic disaster are pro-business libertarians. They believe in the power of the market to handle anything—except a slightly tighter labor market for unskilled workers. But the free market would inevitably adjust, with higher wages or technological innovation.

Take agriculture. Phillip Martin, an economist at the University of California, Davis, has demolished the argument that a crackdown on illegals would ruin it, or be a hardship to consumers. Most farming—livestock, grains, etc.—doesn't heavily rely on hired workers. Only about 20 percent of the farm sector does, chiefly those areas involving fresh fruit and vegetables.

The average "consumer unit" in the U.S. spends $7 a week on fresh fruit and vegetables, less than is spent on alcohol, according to Martin. On a $1 head of lettuce, the farm worker gets about 6 or 7 cents, roughly 1/15th of the retail price. Even a big run-up in the cost of labor can't hit the consumer very hard.

Martin recalls that the end of the bracero guest-worker program in the mid-1960s caused a one-year 40 percent wage increase for the United Farm Workers Union. A similar wage increase for legal farm workers today would work out to about a 10-dollar-a-year increase in the average family's bill for fruit and vegetables. Another thing happened with the end of the bracero program: The processed-tomato industry, which was heavily dependent on guest workers and was supposed to be devastated by their absence, learned how to mechanize and became more productive.

So the market will manage with fewer illegal aliens. In agriculture, Martin speculates that will mean technological innovation in some sectors (peaches), and perhaps a shifting to production abroad in others (strawberries). There is indeed a niche for low-skill labor in America. The question is simply whether it should be filled by illegal or temporary Mexicans workers, or instead by legal immigrants and Americans, who can command slightly higher wages. The guest-worker lobby prefers the former option.

If this debate is presented clearly, there is little doubt what most conservatives—and the public—would prefer. In his second term, President Bush has become a master of the reverse-wedge issue—hot-button issues that divide his political base and get it to feast on itself with charges of sexism, xenophobia and racism. The first was Harriet Miers; then there was the Dubai ports deal; and now comes his guest-worker proposal, making for a trifecta of political self-immolation.

There is still time for Bush to make an escape from this latest budding political disaster, but it has to begin with the affirmation that there are no jobs Americans won't do.

[Dane]

Please tell me what relevence your reply has to anything relating to this thread. Sorry attempt at shifting the argument, chief.

Uh Chief there, you were the one who stated I give up modern conforts, just asking you to do the same.

[antceecee]

LOL!

[BubbaGOP]

This is exactly right and legal citizens who work for these contractors can not get paid what their back breaking work is worth because of illegals taking a small wage for their labor.

[conservativecorner]

Here's another article to help you with the facts:

Seeing Today’s Immigrants Straight

[cripplecreek]

"I'm a bidness man, I'm entitled" added Gould.

Funny how that works isn't it? The same companies that lobby to keep us from going across the border for cheaper medicines also lobby the govt to allow them to cross the border for cheaper labor.

[Dane]

You do know little Richy Lowry has never picked up a shovel in his whole life, but because of his pedigree at National Review, he becomes an expert on the subject of contractor employment, according to you.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The X-Box comment wasn't mine. It's your implication that those damn kids don't need money for X-Boxes but it's OK for you to sit around playing on your computer. So when are you going to give back everything in your house that isn't needed for bare subsistence?