And since they're illegals they pay no income tax, no SS tax, no Medicare tax. So their money goes a lot farther than a tax paying citizen's money.
Posted on 03/13/2008 5:48:50 PM PDT by World_Events
It's not yet 3 a.m. Juana Rivas grabs her shopping cart and steps off the curb into the dark.She shields herself from the cold with a sweat shirt and jacket, along with a pink hat and gloves she bought at the 99-cent store. Only a barking dog interrupts the silence.
Rivas arrives at the first house, lifts the trash can lid and shines her flashlight inside. Nothing. "No hay. No hay," she says in Spanish.
She peers into another trash can. Nothing. She zigzags back and forth across the street, stopping at each house to search for aluminum cans, glass bottles, plastic containers, anything she can exchange for money at the local recycling center. She reaches inside and shakes the contents, listening for the telltale clink of a beer bottle or the hollow tap of a milk carton. Nothing.
She starts to feel anxious. Her husband and four children are depending on her. The $2,300 rent check on their Pasadena home is due in one week. She already asked for an extension on the gas. The cable and the phone have been disconnected.
Rivas knows what people think, that she digs through her neighbors' trash to make money for drugs or alcohol. She knows what people call her -- scavenger, digger, thief.
"There are people who look at me like, 'You aren't worth anything. You aren't anybody,' " she said.
For 13 years, she says, she has collected cans and bottles "to pay my rent, my bills. I do it out of necessity."
She has looked for more stable jobs, including cleaning offices at night. But nowadays, more companies are asking for immigration papers, papers she doesn't have.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
GTFOOMC!
Today's feel good news story. Plus it's warmer in Mexico and she won't have to suffer those horrible Pasadena winters.
A rented house in Pasadena that costs $2300 a month?
Isn’t there a house for rent in Pacoima that costs less than that?????
Who cleared her and her husband for renting that kind of house???
Not a sob story as far as I am concerned.
She and her family-—IF they are legally here-— have alot of other choices in other parts of Los Angeles.
We are working honorably. We aren’t robbing. The police should let us work.”
The definition of work in Mexico must be alot different from that in the USA.....
Bottom line: They are here illegally, and the reporterette sure doesn’t get that minor fact.
Dumpster Diving is typical here in L.A. with maybe 10 people going thru my trash on trash day. They are not just after bottles, they are after your I.D. I’ve resorted to burning my mail but now burning my fireplace is illegal.
“But it also depends on just what part of Tejas one is purchasing real estate.”
Dunno about that. I suspect that you’re going to be hard pressed to find anyplace in California that’s cheaper on real estate, per square foot, than anywhere in Texas.
Certainly, Texas is going to beat Cali prices if you compare like areas in both states.
I sold my old shoe box of a house in a lower than middle class area of LA for $400K three years ago.
The following link is a funny and blunt critique on the LA Times article:
http://bumhate.blogspot.com/2008/07/la-times-author-believes-you-should.html
Many of the points made by people here are talked about.
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