CA: Dear cost of `cheap' labor for state - California can't ignore its enormous impact

Mercury News ^ | 7/8/03 | Dan Stein

[daviddennis]

Oh, one other thing - using this argument gives political cover to Governor Gray Davis, who has to be the worst governor in California history.

If he can say "Oh, it's the illegals, and that's a big problem", we might not be able to get rid of the idiot!

Think about that for a minute :-(.

D

[skeeter]

Hope that helps understanding.

Well, not really. It doesn't explain why you believe illegal immigration is a good thing we all should welcome.

[judgeandjury]

Surely my local auto repair shop benefits from having illegal labor, and I benefit when they fix my car cheaper than could otherwise be done.

Actually that "cheap" car repair is not as cheap as you may think when you take into consideraton all of the taxpayer funded services that illegal aliens take advantage of in order to subsidize their earnings.

[judgeandjury]

Who is a better person:

(1) An American citizen, who has been subsisting on charity for his entire life. He's sitting on a street corner right now, begging for a buck or two to feed his Night Train habit;

(2) A illegal alien Mexican who works really hard washing people's cars, or fixing them, or emptying toilets, or whatever. Right now, he's emptying someone's office wastebasket. He's tired but satisfied that he's doing as good a job as he can.

That's an easy question to answer - The American citizen. He didn't enter another country illegally, he isn't working illegally, and he didn't used fake documentation to get a job or access taxpayer funded services. I have no respect for lawbreakers, regardless of their country of origin.

[jpsb]

The BIG LIE is that illegals to the work Americans will not do. That is simply not true, American worker are willing to do the dirty Jobs, they just want to be paid a decent wage so they can afford to feed thier family.

[skeeter]

Is the San Diego Union Tribune a legitimate source?

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/938739/posts

Like has been said, the entire price of your next inexpensive tune up might not be included on the invoice.

[kellynla]

Well I am afraid you are preaching to the choir. Ya might want to see if you knock some sense into "daviddennis" because I gave up...he seems to think that I work and pay taxes so others can immigrate to this country illegally and live off my taxes. He thinkks that Ameicans "owe" illegals a place to work, live, educate and medicate at taxpayers' expense. I don't think so. As I am sure you already know, even the foreign farm workers get a temporary work visa to pick crops.

[norton]

Illegal means law breaker.

Illegal means step one was to ignore our laws.

Illegal means step two involves more lawbreaking.

Illegal means that 'amnesty' equals capitulation to an invader.

Getting the picture??

Legal immigration is fine and should consider both our intellectual/professional needs (scientists) and our "cheap labor needs (bracero programs).

It should NOT consider making current law breakers temporarily law abiding via amnesty so they can feel better about breaking the same laws and new ones tomorrow.

[daviddennis]

It's all about mindset.

I think of them as guests, here to help us out by working for us.

You think of them as hostile invaders.

I don't think of us as capitulating because I think their work, which our economy deperately needs, is helping us, not hurting.

You think of laws as absolute.

I think of how many times I disobeyed the 55mph speed limit when it was law. I think of the Boston Tea Party and other times in our history where laws have been rightly defied.

Above all, I want to have as free a society as possible, one that welcomes groups of people whose only sin is to want to work for us.

I agree that there have been abuses of the system that must be corrected. But I don't believe in turning back people who want a share of the American dream and no more.

"Bring us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free!"

I believe in America as a country of potential where anything is possible.

You folks believe in taking these people and shoving a boot in their faces, just because a small percentage of them do bad things.

Well, a comparable percentage of American citizens do bad things.

Aren't we better off going after those who do bad things, whether they are citizens or not?

If we put the kind of resources into regular law enforcement you people want to put into the Border Patrol, I think we'd be a much safer nation than if we concentrated on the borders.

D

[daviddennis]

A good article, and no, I have no doubts as to its accuracy or the source.

And that there are some illegal aliens who are bad, I have no doubt.

But there are plenty of US citizens who are bad, too.

Maybe we should find all our US citizens and throw them in jail or expell them from the country, because some of them are bad.

Now if you could prove that they were bad at, say, double the percentage of the US population at large, I would say you have a point. But as far as I can tell, it's pretty much proportionate.

Bad people are everywhere. And as long as that's true, we should simply put more resources into finding baddies instead of guarding our borders, an expensive exercise which is more likely to trap decent people than murderers.

For more, see #69.

D

[goldstategop]

Yep. Good Guy. The GOP is afraid to take on the sleep dog called illegal immigration for fear of being tarred as "racist" by the Democrats. Which they would do anyway. Instead of moving to implement a national Proposition 187 style policy, the feds are considering an amnesty. You gotta love this. Along with piling on more goodies for the illegals, California looks to go further into the tank. It couldn't happen to a more deserving state. And Jorge W. thinks turning America into Mexica seems to be the way to go too.

[goldstategop]

Exactly. Dan's absolutely correct the situation can't continue. Sooner rather than later, something's got to give. We simply don't have the means in California to be a Sweden On The Pacific as the Democrats want.

[skeeter]

But as far as I can tell, it's pretty much proportionate.

No its not, unless 25% of the population in Kali are illegal. Thats the percentage of illegals in our jails. Each one represents a real victim who is never considered as part of the cost of the cheap yard care those who employ illegals enjoy.

Undoubedly your heart is in the right place, and I've enjoyed your posts on other issues, but on this one you are a hopeless myopic, IMO. Lets agree to disagree.

[autoresponder]

just whose land is this anyway?






a u t o r e s p o n d e r

[autoresponder]

.....since you do not think laws are made to obeyed and enforced, please post the desciptions of your vehicles, state of license plates, license plate numbers, and current locations at home and at work.....

..... While you are at it, post the addresses of your homes and businesses.....

.....Since you are into the human element, post the names and ages of your families.....

.....You are so much into "sharing" let's make sure everyone is aware of your liberal views on ownership.....

[DoughtyOne]

In 1990 births to illegal aliens made up 90% of all births at Los Angeles County owned and managed hospitals.  The slice of the general care medical provisions aren't that high, but it is significant.  If you can figure out what the budget of Los Angeles county owned and managed hospitals is, consider half of that, at the very least to be a cost of illegal immigrants.

Around 1997 I visited the LAUSD site.  There it provided the total budget for the year.  I believe that budget was $9 billion dollars.  At that time 1/3rd of all LAUSD students were the children of illegal aliens.  That's $3 billion dollars per year in the LAUSD school district alone, not even tapping the rest of the state.

The state and federal government provide funding for massive building campaigns that barely keep up with the exploding child population at those schools.  These funds are not general funds, so the general budgets don't reflect these funds.  To break this down in to a process we can understand, I need to address an issue of race here.  Caucasions in the US are barely concieving enough children to replace themselves.  Fact is, I'm not totally sure they are.  Under this climate, California's school system is barely able to manufacture new schools rooms fast enough to house the demands of growing numbers of students?  Ask youself, where are these kids coming from?  The answer is obvious.

Then next time you're sitting in freeway traffic, ask youself, what would that freeway look like with anywhere from 10 to 30% fewer cars on it.  What would the business savings be from not having to provide bi-lingual services?  What would our schools be like if children could understand the teacher when they enter the first grade?  How would our emergency service departments be impacted if multiple languages weren't required to provide service to people too damned lazy to learn the language of the nation they claim to adore?

This is a serious issue.  Illegal immigration has got to stop.  Pat Buchanan advocated we have an immigration moratorium until things were straightened out.  If only our leaders could have recognized the value of that advice in the year 2000, wether he was elected or not.

[autoresponder]

Ask the owner, CEO, or accountants of any honest business.

An employer that does not withold payroll deductions for federal, state, and city income taxes, Medicare, and Social Security also does not have Workman's Compensation payments to make, Unemployment Insurance to pay to their state, and the matching funds of a legally hired and paid employee.

Therefore:

4 illegal alien workers

cost less then

2 legal workers

per hour/week/month/year

also the US taxpayer gets whacked with all the welfare an under the table worker's family gets, food stamps, housing, medical, prescriptions, hospital, births (BONUS: baby is now a US citizen!), and on and on and on

Employers, business or homemaker/family, should be targeted by the IRS, State Revenue, and local DAs.

Serious criminal felony prison time (loss of right to vote!), big fines, confiscation of business and home assets to pay for what the employer stole from the honest US taxpayers, plus heavy punitive fines.

If you cherry-pick the crimes you wish to break, any US citizen should be able take your belongings and assets.

It's only fair.

[skeeter]

Thanks D1. I don't know how anyone can continue to spout platitudes & slogans regarding how beneficial illegal immigration is with all the info thats available.