To: jpl
First you said
""""And yes, I would rather pay more for my strawberries in the supermarket and save the tax money it costs to educate, feed, and many cases incarcerate the border jumpers. So would about 70% percent of Americans."""""
Then, when asked to provide a citation for that statistic, you changed your point, and said
""""Over the last several years, in poll after poll after poll, about 70% of Americans consistently demonstrate a desire to stop the flood. I don't have the time or the inclination right now to start looking for specific links; you can do your own research.""""
Please make up your mind. 70% wanting to "stop the flood" and 70% being willing to "pay more for my strawberries in the supermarket" are two totally and completely different ideas.
Your inability to cite a source for that statistic is due to the fact that there is no source. That's because it's a totally bogus statistic. Please don't toss out statistics that are untrue, especially when you're unwilling to back them up. It's possible, if not probable, that 70% of people want to control immigration - heck, I'd bet that's 95-100%. But being willing to pay way more for groceries and services, etc is totally different - and there's no way 70% would be in support of that.
Let's look at your second point.
You said
""""And furthermore, most people are smart enough to know that to the regular people it's not a net economic benefit, it's a net economic drain. """"
In reality, you couldn't be more wrong. The net economic effect of illegal immigration labor is to lower the prices of groceries and retail consumer services. It lowers the prices of daily consumables, day-to-day goods. Logically, this has a much more positive effect for "the regular people" since it is the "regular people" who pay a much larger percentage of their income for those things. Thus, a poor person, or working class person, or lower-middle class person receives a much more significant benefit from illegal immigrant labor than do the wealthy people, in terms of % of income.
The complete withdrawal of illegal immigrant labor would have a drastically regressive effect on "the regular people" - the very wealthy would not be significantly affected.
Likewise, in terms of tax burden, I have zero doubt that the overall tax burden of education and health care and law enforcement attributable to illegal immigration is either close to or significantly less than the overall economic benefit of the illegal immigration labor. Either way, it is not "the regular people" who pay most of the tax burden in this country. It is the wealthy. So therefore, your statement that "the regular people" would derive a net economic gain is likewise not supported by facts or logic. The lowering of the tax burden would not help "the regular people" as much as it would help the wealthy.
I welcome debate and discussion, but invite you to back up your statements with citations, or at least with decent logic and facts.
To: Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh
In reality, you couldn't be more wrong. The net economic effect of illegal immigration labor is to lower the prices of groceries and retail consumer services. It lowers the prices of daily consumables, day-to-day goods. Logically, this has a much more positive effect for "the regular people" since it is the "regular people" who pay a much larger percentage of their income for those things. Thus, a poor person, or working class person, or lower-middle class person receives a much more significant benefit from illegal immigrant labor than do the wealthy people, in terms of % of income. I don't know who you think you're kidding, but it isn't me, and the emotional plays for sympathy don't fool most people either. No one disputes that the cheap labor heavily benefits the business owners, but the benefits to the regular folks don't even come close to offsetting the negatives. If illegal immigration were such an economic benefit, California would be swimming in money. Instead, the state is virtually bankrupt, and everyone knows why. The illegal immigrants pay little or no taxes and are a tremendous burden in terms of services, and the deterioriation in the quality of life drives out the high taxpaying base to other locations. This is one of the biggest reason why Gray Davis just got his worthless ass kicked out of office. Everyone in California knows it's true, so go sell your Business Roundtable crap to someone else.
359 posted on
10/17/2003 12:16:50 PM PDT by
jpl
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