I snipped almost all your message. But I do agree with just about everything you said.
I like it here. It does get a bit hot in summer. On the other hand, we have great nature and the political climate is much more to my liking than that of Santa Cruz. You can also afford to buy a house here. I paid $92,000 for a house that would have cost me well over $400,000 in Santa Cruz. It needs some work, but I'm getting there.
As to the immigrants, I have often wondered whether something like temporary worker passes might not be a bad idea. We used to have those.
There are a lot of problems. I know about them. But I think they can be fixed. Number 1 on my list would be to require English to be learned and spoken. I think speaking any other language should be prohibited.
You are right about line jumping. I was married to a New Zealander, and we tried to comply with the laws. It was not easy, and we went to a lot of trouble to do it.
Still, "those people" do work hard. I would see them in the fields when I was driving to Sunday brunch, stooped over, picking. Not the easiest of jobs. Not something either of my kids would ever do.
I once wanted a juniper plant removed. I don't know how much you know about juniper plants, but they have very deep roots. They are an absolute bitch to remove. I couldn't do it myself. I tried.
So, I drove down to KMart and hired a couple of the day laborers who hang around out in the front. Two hours and $40 later, the bush was gone. A perfect job.
Now, let's say $10 of that $40 went to buy quart bottles of cervaza. Another $5 went to buy gas for their beat up old car. $5 went to pay rent. The remaining $20 got sent back to Mexico.
There is no harm in any of that. Every dollar that gets sent to Mexico winds up back here. Taxes are ultimately paid on everything. And my juniper bush was gone.
You think I could have hired a couple local school kids to do that job? I could have hired a contractor for $500, but I would not have done that.
You go look in the produce section of your local market and think about this. If there were no illegal immigrants, there would be no produce section.
More BS from you. Most of the farmers in my area of Idaho don't depend on illegals. They harvest using large farm machinery. There are lots of kids who don't have jobs because of illegals. The illegals have taken the jobs "that americans won't do". More BS. It is people like you who hire illegals and pay them cash that perpetuate the problem. It's like leaving food out for stray cats.
I'll be your ex-juniper bush is laying in a neighbor's yard nearby, instead of properly shredded and placed in a landfill. The responsiblity for properly dealing with your garden problems is now another person's headache. But, you saved money.
This does sum it up well --- $0 for income taxes, $0 for school property taxes even with the 8 kids attending the school each year, $0 for health insurance, $0 for car insurance, $0 for the county hospitals and medical clinics, $0 for food.