Posted on 11/26/2005 10:23:17 AM PST by ncountylee
PAHOKEE, Fla. (AP) -- Ernesto and Carmen Vasquez intend to celebrate the holidays at home despite the SUV-sized hole in their living-room ceiling - a calling card left by Hurricane Wilma - and the red "X" on their door marking the trailer as condemned.
It's been one month since Wilma whipped through their Everglades mobile home park in western Palm Beach County, flattening many of their neighbors' homes, but the couple have yet to receive a visit from aid workers or local officials. Shelters here are scarce, so they plan to remain in their two-bedroom trailer with their two children - if the rest of the roof doesn't cave in.
"We still have a house, so I suppose we are among the lucky ones," Carmen Vasquez said, as she looked up at the ceiling boards, sagging above photos of her children.
The Vasquez family is among thousands of Florida's uninsured farmworkers, some still without electricity, who are awaiting help in the wake of the Oct. 24 storm that thrashed South Florida at the end of the nation's worst hurricane season on record. Farmworker advocates say the situation is bad, but worse is the fact that it is looking like a repeat of last year, with migrant workers' flimsy housing rebuilt just in time for the next season's storms.
They say Wilma also has underscored a larger problem: the state's failure to respond to the needs of the mostly Mexican and Central American workers who in recent decades have reshaped Florida's agricultural communities, replacing many of the native black and Jamaican workers who once dominated the sector
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Would you ever stop the flow of people into this country? At what point would there be too many people?
Can't you see what unchecked population growth (India, China, Africa) does to a nation?
ping
I have sympathy for them. But I know dang well no matter how poor they are it's 10x better than what they had in Mexico or Central America
I wouldn't mind having a million or so illegals here to do farm work. The rest should be forced to leave via employer sanctions. Cut off the money they'll self deport
I would think it wiser to develop and invest in our own domestic labor pool.
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How does one do that? Using whose tax money? Why not let the people develop themsevles, free of government coersion?
Cut off the ability to send money to their home rat hole and many will also leave.
You're confusing some concepts. Yes, the FDA should be abolished and yes, Merek should be able to sell what it will directly to citizens and yes, moonshine should be legal.
http://www.fdareview.org/harm.shtml
However, thieves and rapists are initiating involuntary actions on their victims and not respecting property. It is the duty of any government to punish those responsible for these acts.
Since government exists to protect property and liberty, borders are appropriate. :)
There are many other secondary problems of socialism, socialism which is often justified because it is not attacked by conservatives, who attack the symptoms of the problem, not the cause.
FYI:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/secondaryproblemsofsocialism.htm
Would you ever stop the flow of people into this country? At what point would there be too many people?
Can't you see what unchecked population growth (India, China, Africa) does to a nation?
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There would be too many people when people stop coming for that reason. :)
We live in a huge country and it is relatively unpopulated. I don't think governemtn should be in the business of judging how many people it should rule over....
Not me. Economic migrants have no respect for the country or its culture. They are here to make a buck to enrich their own country.
I say let anyone who escapes communism freely into the country. Economic migrants need to be stopped at the borders.
Economic migrants have no respect for the country or its culture. They are here to make a buck to enrich their own country.
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I think they are here to enrich themsvles and their families back home in their home country. I'd think the more people coming to America to 'enrich' themselves in this way, the better. Hard working people acting in their self interest grow the economy for all of us. The problem lies with some of our own citizens who desire 'redistrubtiion' of wealth, stealing from other citizens and worry about the 'common good' and worry about the interests of others. Perhaps we should deport some of them and keep the 'illegals'. :)
If I read that right you are saying that "when the population is too great then people will stop coming". Is that right?
We are supposed to have government for the people by the people. I think the existing citizens have every right to have a say in how many new people come to America and their voice is supposed to be expressed through their elected representatives. Almost every poll suggests that American citizens are overwhelmingly in favor of stopping illegal immigration and either reducing or maintaining current levels of legal immigration. Unfortunately, the people have been ignored by their representatives for decades in favor of the desires of the Chamber of Commerce.
yea, thats correct. People will stop coming when economic conditions here have deteriorated because of liberalism. Or, somewhat abstractly, when there is no place for them as when the price of rent has risen so high or there is no place for them to stay....
I am not disputing that people want more restrictions on immigration. Just stating my belief that that desire is incorrect and bad public policy.
What on earth are you thinking about?
Of course, once the population (under your open borders plan) reaches the saturation level (and we are indestinguishable from India or China) people will stop coming. There will no place for them to work... eat... sleep. Just like India, China and parts of Africa due to overcrowding.
In my mind Liberalism is the same thing as socialism which advocates open borders. Just like you are.
Or, somewhat abstractly, when there is no place for them as when the price of rent has risen so high or there is no place for them to stay....
That's pretty abstract, all right. In fact, it defies logic. Why would the rents be so high? What about owning a home? Won't these hordes under your utopian world all have housing? Or, do you advocate their living on the street just so you can have a cheap maid?
China and India etc... are not 'overcrowded'. People are fleeing those places because of the economic conditions there brought about by corruption/socialism/liberalism. If China and India had strong economic growth, people would begin to move TO those areas. There are deserts and Mountain in both of those countries that are unpopulated. Here in Las Vegas, where I live, the desert is being replaced by a city. What is the difference?
The rents would be high because immigration boosts land prices (enriching American citizens that hold that land - again, benefiting us). I was hypothesizing that a crowded and prosperous future America would be so rich and prosperous that the value of real-estate would be so high that the price might begin to disuade some from coming, although wages might also rise accordingly. Probably shouldn't have brought this into the discussion as it isn't too relevant and a bit confusing... lol
We don't need illegal alien lawbreakers in the United States for any reason. If we need more foreign workers, Congress can arrange to let in more legal immigrants.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant ~ Bump!
I just got back from Florida. while I was there, I spent some time in Imokolee, just east of Fort Myers. In my life, I have never seen such poverty. The town is a migrant town...lots of damage
still visible from the recent hurricane. Trees on top of trailers..still being lived in.
These people aren't stealing jobs.
The sad reality is that no one will do the miserable work that they have to do.
Fast forward to Cape Cod, where I live. One large resort that I do work for has a house-keeping staff
staff that is 100% Brazillian. Last Summer, for six weeks, they advertised for housekeepers. Not ONE American applied. The pay was $10/hour, plus tips. What has happened is that people that might have filled these positions in years past, have either found better opportunity, or have found a way to not work and collect..either thru direct welfare, or or some other program
that rewards laziness.
The entire hospitality industry would colapse if it didn't have the foreign workers (legal or illegal). BTW, all the one's I know of do pay taxes (witholding).
Richard
If we need more foreign workers, Congress can arrange to let in more legal immigrants.
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Congress has historically not been a very good judge of what is 'needed'. I'd rather let the people, ie employers, determine what is needed. (see comment 38)
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