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Brokaw On Immigration: Neither Wall, Nor US Teens At $16/HR, Will Work
Today Show/NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 12/26/2006 5:32:27 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest

Appearing on this Boxing Day edition of the Today show to plug tonight's airing of "In the Shadow of the American Dream," the latest in the “Tom Brokaw Reports” series, the former Nightly News anchor offered a variety of views on the subject of illegal immigration straight out of the amnesty-crowd playbook.

View video here.

Annotated excerpts:

Why not? And if sending illegals home isn't the solution, how about drying up the jobs here so they will have their own motivation to return home?

Really? How much would it cost to build, say, a high-tech, 20-foot tall/20-foot deep fence along the border, and how much of the illegal immigration would it stop? I'm guessing a lot.

Ah, the classic formulation. But says who, and at what wages?

Really? High school kids won't work for $16/hour and would rather flip burgers for half that? Data please, Tom.

Except you just said - and history proves - that Mexico doesn't want to solve the problem. Which makes it our problem. To quote Mark Steyn, this sounds like a job for America, alone.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aliens; brokaw; immigrantlist; immigration; wall
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

"You can't get high school kids to earn $14-16 to dig ditches and carry bricks and do the hard work. They don't want to do it. They'd rather be at their computer or work in fast food stores."

Tom clearly has too much cash in the bank and too connections to life outside of the gated community. High school kids generally don't have access to much more than minimum wage. Hell, I know a lot of adults that would love to earn $32K a year digging ditches, carrying bricks, etc.
games.


21 posted on 12/26/2006 5:51:59 AM PST by Made In The USA (Bacon is infidelicious)
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To: EGPWS
"So what are we going to do when we legalize the illegals and make them Americans?"

You know already, but I love pointing it out...The current illegals will get legal status and immediately apply for full government welfare benefits. Then they will stop working because welfare is too good a deal. Then, employers will solicit more illegals to enter so that they can once more use taxpayer subsidized cheap labor and government liberals will be wonderfully happy because they will have a whole new class of welfare voters and they will have appeased business opportunists with fresh, new, cheap, illegal labor. It's a win/win deal!
22 posted on 12/26/2006 5:52:20 AM PST by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
"You can't get high school kids to earn $14-16 to dig ditches and carry bricks and do the hard work. They don't want to do it. They'd rather be at their computer or work in fast food stores."

Where is the proof of that statement? I doubt that is true.

A couple of years ago, a lady business owner was on FoxNews and she claimed the same thing -- that she couldn't find employees for XXX dollars (around $20 IIRC).

FoxNews got allow of email challenging her to prove her statement. The truth was that she would hire people at $6; then there were allot of conditions, including longevity, before they attained a level where they were offered $20. Most would quit or get fired before they got that level of salary. The end result was that her claim that she couldn't hire people at $20 was fallacious.
23 posted on 12/26/2006 5:55:47 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

funny, I see plenty willing to work for $5 and going in the army... but plenty of politicians and liberals not willing to take any responsibility and do their jobs in DC and accademia despite the millions poured down their throats...

You know what, why don't we give them what they want and enlist the Mexicans to fire Brokaw and all those losers...


24 posted on 12/26/2006 5:56:38 AM PST by JudgemAll (Condemn me, make me naked and kill me, or be silent for ever on my gun ownership and law enforcement)
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Comment #25 Removed by Moderator

To: Moonman62
Slavery still exists in Africa.

Slavery is still one of the few things that is still "illegal" in this country and rightfully so.

26 posted on 12/26/2006 5:57:34 AM PST by EGPWS
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To: randog
They still dig ditches by hand? Who knew? Maybe I ought to build a ditch-digging machine and solve the illegal problem and become a millionaire to boot. I'll call it...the backhoe.

Ummm ... The libs don't want you thinking and using your head :0)

Which is why they play this PR war of words

27 posted on 12/26/2006 5:58:02 AM PST by Mo1 (Thank You Mr & Mrs "I'm gonna teach you a lesson" Voter ... you just screwed us on so many levels)
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To: wgflyer

Your post just about sums it up. Sad, but it is too late. The only way would be to cut them off totally.None of us are going to get a choice.


28 posted on 12/26/2006 5:59:02 AM PST by dforest (Liberals love crisis, create crisis and then dwell on them.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
And Mexico is not much interested because these illegal immigrants across America are sending back an estimated $8 billion a year.

Somebody is doing some shoddy research, Mr. Brokaw. $8 billion? Try tripling that figure.

Immigrants Sending $45 Billion Home
  Posted by 3AngelaD
On 10/19/2006 8:56:00 AM CDT · 7 replies · 81+ views


The Washington Post ^ | October 19, 2006 | Krissah Williams
Immigrant workers are sending more money than ever to their families in Latin America, but two new studies show that only a small portion of the billions of dollars directed there has gone to economic development.... A report released yesterday by the Inter-American Development Bank estimates that immigrants living in the United States will send $45 billion to family members this year, representing a steady increase from about $2 billion in 1980... About $3 billion in remittances will go to El Salvador this year, or about 15 percent of that country's gross domestic product and more money per capita than...
 

29 posted on 12/26/2006 6:00:01 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: RVN Airplane Driver
How about a 30% tax on all money sent back to Mexico together with restrictions on the cash carried from the US to Mexico in person??

30%?

A total tax burden would be a cut for me if I was able to achieve 50%..

30 posted on 12/26/2006 6:01:00 AM PST by EGPWS
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To: TomGuy

Thanks for the research - Brokaw's number struck me as low. Good to have the proof - I will edit original NB item accordingly.


31 posted on 12/26/2006 6:03:20 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Tom Brokaw is a stupid and pathetic figure, perhaps showing signs of senility, who has no clue and no credibility.

Of course a wall will not stop every single one. But it sure will reduce the problem, although perhaps not as effective as placing land mine. And yes, sending them back will work and should be done.

The solution is a combination of several factors:
*remove all perks - loads of them come here to rip off the welfare system and keep producing "anchor babies"
*jail and/or fine the employers of illegals
*round up and deport illegals, along with legal immigrants committing crimes or demanding welfare
*no amnesty, which will only encourage more of them - illegals should be forever be prevented from getting citizenship

We need to get organized and fight those in Washington who are eager to surrender to this invasion.

32 posted on 12/26/2006 6:05:02 AM PST by Dante3
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

""They're filling jobs that Americans don't want to fill anymore.""

Yeah like roofing, contstruction, factory and any other job that they will accept half the pay for.


33 posted on 12/26/2006 6:10:39 AM PST by DaiHuy (There is no problem so great it cannot be solved with the application of explosives.)
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To: raybbr

How come so few people seem to understand this little fact?
susie


34 posted on 12/26/2006 6:10:40 AM PST by brytlea (amnesty--an act of clemency by an authority by which pardon is granted esp. to a group of individual)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

If all of these illegals were not here, Americans WOULD take those jobs.

Mr. Brokaw thinks America doesn't need borders.

He has forgotten that America is still a sovereign nation, and not a public park.


35 posted on 12/26/2006 6:14:27 AM PST by RexBeach (In war there is no substitute for victory. - Douglas MacArthur)
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To: randog
***They still dig ditches by hand? Who knew? Maybe I ought to build a ditch-digging machine and solve the illegal problem and become a millionaire to boot. I'll call it...the backhoe.***

No, actually they still do some ditch digging by hand on construction sites. Backhoes are used, surely, but some trenches for underground pipes require a smaller, or shallower, 'almost custom' trench only a shovel can make.

The 'problem' arises due to the backfilling steps and different materials required per the specifications. A trench too big or deep and your backfill costs go through the roof. So some 'grunts' (Laborers or Apprentices) grab the shovels and start digging.

I personally run into this for HVAC piping but some smaller plumbing pipes require hand trenching too. And when I was Chief Estimator we always 'tried' to exclude Excavation & Backfill from the Bid. Most times the G.C. accepted it, sometimes no (which sucked).

36 posted on 12/26/2006 6:17:21 AM PST by Condor51 (Mayor Daley (D-Chi) For POTUS . Really, why not? He's more conservative than Rudy!)
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To: EGPWS

And how many rungs up the ladder is exploiting illegal immigrants from slavery?


37 posted on 12/26/2006 6:18:46 AM PST by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: Made In The USA

Not saying I associate with all of Brokaw's brayings,but as an employer in the metal roofing business In North Texas, I have actually offerred 14 to 15 dollar per hour jobs to young men working behind the counter at fast food joints. I have never found a taker. Admittedly, that is during the summers when willing English speaking metal roofing help is near impossible to find anywhere. In a desperate situation, I went and got almost certainly illegal help, though documents provided indicated otherwise, but I have had to keep my business small and slower because the willing and experienced legal help is rare and older, and my competition isn't as conflicted about hiring illegals, or are big enough that they restrict themselves to higher end jobs with big margins to cover higher wages and benefits. They scoop the shrinking number of willing young citizens along with the military. I started in the '80s and found that the best young workers came from rural areas as I did, but today, even small town kids see outside labor as 'Mexican work', regardless of pay. They like the money, but can't imagine themselves doing the work.


38 posted on 12/26/2006 6:21:47 AM PST by metalcor
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To: Moonman62
And how many rungs up the ladder is exploiting illegal immigrants from slavery?

They need not be here, however, being here illegaly should have it's disadvantages.

Uncanny knack you have to morph postings into a subject irrelevant to the post in the first place.

39 posted on 12/26/2006 6:24:46 AM PST by EGPWS
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To: DaiHuy
""They're filling jobs that Americans don't want to fill anymore.""

It astounds me that both the MSM and Administration continue to use that line.

Stats show that illegals may fill about 15-25% of certain job classifications. Well, who do they think fills the remaining 75-85% of those jobs?

Talk about selling us the big lie. The line, Jobs American's won't do, is definitely the big lie, and both the Bush Administration and the MSM are selling it.
40 posted on 12/26/2006 6:26:25 AM PST by TomGuy
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