Posted on 06/03/2005 6:12:35 AM PDT by shortstop
Can we just put this lie to rest once and for all?
I'm talking about that nonsense you hear whenever anybody discusses illegal immigration.
The one about how we need illegal aliens because they do the jobs that Americans won't. The variation on it is the racist tripe from the Mexican president that illegal aliens do jobs that not even black Americans will do.
It's all nonsense.
Americans would gladly do those jobs -- if the bosses weren't crooks.
And anybody who employs an illegal alien is a crook. And a traitor and a backstabber.
The illegals are one type of problem, the people who employ them are another. One group should be sent back to Mexico, the other should be sent to jail.
I'm not kidding. The damage done to American strength and American prosperity by the combination of illegal workers and illegal bosses is incalculable. The love of money and the putting of profit over patriotism is a glaring moral indictment of the people who hire illegal aliens.
But back to the jobs Americans won't do.
That theory ignores the realities of the free market. It denies the fundamental nature of supply and demand.
Here's an example. Let's say I've got a pile of dog crap I want cleaned up. Let's say I'm willing to pay somebody to clean that pile of dog crap up for me.
Now, cleaning up dog crap is not a particularly pleasant thing. It tends to stink, and you have to bend over, and it's gross and revolting.
People don't like doing it.
But you want to hire it done. So let's say you stand there with a dollar in your hand and say that you'll pay somebody a dollar to clean up the dog crap.
Well, in all likelihood, people are going to walk right on by. You can wave your buck until the cows come home and nobody's going to bite.
That's because the free market is at work. The market is determing the worth of a product or service -- picking up dog crap -- and weighing it against the available wage. Simply put, it's not worth it to people to mess with stinky crap for a dollar.
So how do you respond to it?
Well, in the free-market world, you up the ante. You offer two dollars for the job. And if that doesn't get any takers you raise it to $3, or $5 or $10. At some point, somebody will agree to your terms and you will give them the money and they will clean up your dog crap.
That's the free market. That's the capitalism beneath all economic freedom. People will do anything, you just have to pay them enough. That's how the price of labor is set, just as the price of any other commodity or product is set. It all comes down to what the market will bear.
And the reason that illegal aliens flock to jobs Americans seem to ignore is because the employers are violating not just the laws of our land, but the laws and morality of the free market. Through a willingness to work below legal and prevailing wages, and because many employers pay them under the table, avoiding taxes and insurance, the cost of illegal labor is substantially below what the free market would price it at.
It becomes an odd shell game in which the real costs of employing illegal aliens is borne not by the employer, but by society.The jobs pay below the market level, and are below what is necessary to support a family. Welfare and free services and unpaid-for health care make up the difference -- with every dollar coming out of the taxpayer or the consumer's pocket.
The reason Americans don't take those jobs is because the employers won't let them. The employers do better hiring illegals, ending up with less expensive labor and less obligation to employees.
Unfortunately, it also guts our country, our security and our economy.
But people will take those jobs. They will gladly take them.
But they will have to pay what the market demands. They will have to pay legally. They will have to pay honestly.
They will have to give up the crutch of illegal labor. They will have to be capitalists, not crooks.
Americans will pick lettuce and fry fries and clean toilets and pave roads and milk cows.
You just have to pay them what the work is truly worth.
Everyone prefers the free market that endures and prospers -- and history shows that's only the one with some clear simple and honest rules.
...And then there is reality. For the last eight weeks I have been trying to hire a landscape contractor to do work at my house. I telephoned eleven contractors, but only four called me back. All four made an appointment to give me an estimate. Only one showed up. I accepted his estimate "as is." He never showed up to do the work. The issue can't be about money, because I never talked money with the contractors who I called and I accepted the only bid that I received without question. I don't want to hire illegals, but I can't do the work myself, and I can't get a legal contractor to do the work. But I do know that if I go to a certain street corner at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, I'll be able to hire three illegals who will do an excellent job at an excellent price (although I will have to take them shopping for materials). I'm not going to hire the illegals, at least not yet. My point is that in certain areas of the country there really are some jobs that only illegals will do.
Yup. But hey, I'm always interested in hearing an opposing viewpoint that's rational and laid out properly. IF it even exists, that is.
Some people prefer the underground economy. They prefer to cheat their way through life at your expense. They're perfectly happy to let you subsidize their cheap labor. Take from you to give to them. They can't compete with honest businessmen.
We call them liberals, they call themselves "moderates".
Businesses employing illegals are no different that businesses dealing in stolen goods. They are making profit on illegal activity.
How many businesses would be allowed to stay open if it became known they were fencing stolen goods? So, .................
And I also know that hispanics will encourage their children that are here illegal, or otherwise to get a good education so they can get a good job, so in twenty years we will be looking at really good jobs going to hispanics and we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
Racist is cheering on the replacement of native-born Americans with masses of immigrants.
Bttt!
America is being sold out, period.
This argument is time worn and accurate, but the way this article deprecates those arguing the opposing view produces a superlative presentation of the reason Americans "won't do the jobs illegal immigrants will"
Was there in Moscow a bit in the mid-90s when all the fun was going down. The Mafiya types were everywhere - leather jackets, bulges underneath their coats, metal detectors in the restaurants they owned - and always the availability of everything you weren't supposed to have: "You Vant Girl?" they always said.
It was clear that these a**holes were holding Russia back. They created their own kind of friction: bribes. You couldn't do a damn thing business wise without them (sound like a certain failed country to the south of us?). And failing to pay the bribes led to bang-bang...
I know. It's boring and annoying. Like having teenagers pestering you all day. Which I suspect it is...
>There's a wide range of colors and features in "hispanic" people, including some who look like "white guys". The idea of a "hispanic race" is laughable.,
No one said anything about a Hispanic race.I promise you I know the difference in a "Anglo" and a Hispanic.
Correct me if I'm wrong - it seems as though you are saying that the cost of a head of lettuce will go up to $5, right? Talk about bad economics.
If they pick, on a conservative estimate, 800 heads of lettuce in an 8 hour day and they get paid $4/hr that means it costs 4 cents per head to pay them to pick it. If they raise the pay to $10/hr the cost beomse 10 cents. How does that translate into an increase from $2 to $5 at the supermarket?
At the same time, won't the increase in wages bring in better workers, increase the motivation to work harder, etc. Isn't that the true capitalist way? Or does it only work when the employer benefits?
Still babbling, huh moron?
Okay. Thanks for telling me that you realize that you were wrong; that your assertions were wrong; and you don't have any way to back up your claims.
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