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I agree with most of what everyone is saying concerning Mexican illegal immigration. However, I believe that most of you are still under the illusion that every single job taken by them is one less job for an American. Theoretically, that is true. But many of the jobs that Mexican illegal immigrants are willing to do, are jobs that many Americans, with their entitlement-minded psyche, simply don't want to do. We have grown much too comfortable in this country.

Take the example from my turf here in New York City. As a condition for receiving welfare, former Mayor Guiliani had required receipients to be willing to work. The homeless, too. However, many of their respective advocates were deriding this requirement as inhumane and lacking in dignity. Imagine this, making a person sweep trash in Central Park is somehow less humane than sleeping on the street, dirty, smelly, strung out on drugs, digging through dumpsters and garbage cans for half-eaten, maggot-infested food. Sound ridiculous? IT IS! Unfortunately, that is the mindset of a lot of the underachievers in our society.

Therefore, if we can't even get desperate people to do some of these less than challenging jobs, how are we going to get more arrogant and comfortable people to work as janitors, or in a cannery, or picking lettuce. We need to reinstill a sense of duty and responsibility for people, not just privilege. Otherwise, Mexicans will continue to come in here and, quite frankly, we will continue to want them to come and the goverment with turn a blind eye to it, as they mostly have.

Very intelligent and thoughtful post. Yes, we have grown much too comfortable and spoiled. Add to that the status thing of having a good education and top-rate job puts one in the category where they look down on people who do the less desirable jobs.

I made the point in another post is that Americans would be more willing to do a lot of those jobs if they paid better. They used to be willing to do them, especially women who took menial jobs because there was a primary breadwinner at home and the supplemental income was welcomed. Now women are divorced and can't support themselves if they don't have a good job.

There are a lot of men in the workforce who don't have families to support. There are a lot of double dippers who have both husband and wife making megabucks.

Everything has gotten out of kilter to the point that I can't really put my finger on a good fix without stepping on some rather smelly toes.

As for you being in New York City, you can't even rent a room in a flop house and make a living doing a lot of those low-paying jobs. Who wants to live in a flop house anyway?

The irony is that foreigners come in and move into what once were very respectable neighborhoods and find a way to make it and support their families. With the rest of us expecting to live in $375,000 homes (and above), what hope is there for the long term? For people to live that way, an awful lot of jobs pay more than they are actually worth. That's why we are seeing all but the best companies going bust.

I don't see how things can last too much longer, economically speaking, with the current state of affairs. When I think how people used to buy homes (and modest homes, beautifully built, with custom architectural details) almost paying entirely in cash, it makes me want to weep.

But many of the jobs that Mexican illegal immigrants are willing to do, are jobs that many Americans, with their entitlement-minded psyche, simply don't want to do. We have grown much too comfortable in this country

When I was a kid, most of the yard work in my neighborhood was done by white teenagers trying to earn gas money. White kids did lots of other manual labor, too.

By the time I was a teenager, this was starting to change. Though I myself took a summer job working at the maintenance department of my high school, no other whites had applied except the principal's son, who got himself fired for slacking. The workforce was 100% hispanic except for me. The boss praised me for working harder and more consistently than any of his regulars, but that's beside the point (except that 20 years later, I'm still proud of his comments.)

But, alas, noawadays white kids get allowances so high, they have no reason to work. This is a terrible, terrible mistake. I'd be happy to hire a white kid... or any American kid, of any race... but, none of them want to work when they're young any more. "Work" is something they expect to do AFTER college...

These underachievers should also be the underfed. I bet they would work then. The mindset needs changing. If the ecomony goes down, jobs are scarce and people are going to be screaming about the government STEALING their money to give to these people. That also goes for the illegals.

Why should I pay for anyone else to eat. I have to pay for mine. The government gives me nothing. This is insane. And Bush is playing the fiddle.