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There is a popular bumper sticker that reads:

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns

There is a parallel to this, that I haven't seen anyone else notice:

When low wages are outlawed, only outlaws will have low wages

The essence of the Minimum Wage is that it outlaws lower wages. The outlaws who work for less are better known as illegal Mexican immigrants. As we raise the Minimum Wage, our need for illegal immigrants grows. It's not that there are jobs we Americans are too lazy to do. It's that there are jobs which don't justify the Minimum Wage, so legal citizens are not elligible for them. Only illegals are elligible.

Thus does the Minimum Wage contribute to flooding our society with immigrants in greater number than we can assimilate, who are discouraged from assimilation by their illegal status. That such a flood of illegal immigrants is forthcoming is a testament to the free, capitalist health of our nation.

To reduce illegal immigration, don't try to fight the natural, profit seeking response of a free capitalist economy with central immigration planning and enforcement. Instead just lower the Minimum Wage !!

It will have to be reduced substantially. The true cost of an illegal immigrant's labor is doubly reduced, first by not having to pay Minimum Wage, second by not have to pay benefits and withholding.

P.S. - Obviously, we must reduce Payroll Taxes as well, to further reduce the advantage that illegals have now for lower paying jobs. If we replaced the Income Tax and its withholding with a National Sales Tax, then this would more fairly apply to all, legal and illegal. If we replaced Social Security with a combination of encouragements for private accounts (accepting that the lower paid jobs would not afford this) and paying the remainder of the existing commitments for benefits from the General Fund, then this would remove another unfair burden only on legals.

I see your point but you're ignoring the fact that policy has provided the tolerance of illegal immigration for the express purpose of appeasing the corporate demand for cheap labor. No matter where you set the minimum wage, if you supply employers with illegal immigrants who work off the books, it doesn't matter. The policy of ignoring illegal immigration, demonstrated by our refusal to deport illegals when they are caught in traffic violations, for example, is proof that we have corporate welfare in this country in the form of a cheap and illegal labor supply. As long as these people will work for next to nothing, we are encouraging their abuse.

If you really mean what you're saying, then you'll go after government meddling in the issue from all sides: public policy, corporate responsibility, and relaxing wage controls (if you insist).

Deprive employers of a free influx of millions of cheap laborers and the minimum wage will mysteriously rise on its own. You're going to pay more for your nanny and your lettuce, but our national security and our culture will be protected. It might be someone from your own family who gets a decent job, though.

Think about what you're saying. If businesses don't have to pay their employee's benefits, who does that leave to pay those benefits?

The U.S. Taxpayers, that's who!

Your post is just another call for business profits to remain privatized, while the costs of their cheap labor force are socialized.

Sorry, no sale.

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