Interesting. I see the opposite. I see guys standing around, not at the unemployment house, but at the Home Depot begging to get a chance to dig a ditch, (and not demanding a "living wage"). I'm not sure that I want immigrants (illegal or else) to absorb ALL of what American slothful culture has become.
How about if I say that I am interested in seeing American small business owner being able to earn enough - working oh, say, 60 or 70 hours a week? that tough enough, not "lazy" enough for you? - to pay all the taxes we get, the insurance costs, the overhead on the business, the rising gas prices to get to the job sites, maybe a salary or two to keep a qualified worker, and then still be able to pay the mortgage, keep the lights on, heat the home, keep the phone turned on, and buy food? Maybe even save enough to have a rainy-day fund or a 401K?
And yeah, that's what is meant by a "living wage".
I don't need to get my fair day's pay for a more-than-fair day's work undercut by some folks who don't speak English, don't pay taxes, and live 43 to a house eating beans and rice seven days a week. Maybe you want to have your family live that way to compete on a wage basis with these illegals, but I do not.
Does that make us lazy? Because we want to work hard and have a relatively decent middle-class life? And no, we're not talking even upper quartile here.
That Wal-Mart construction site in eastern Pennsylvania employing 125 illegal immigrants was shut down 10 days ago by the local sheriff because the Pennsylvania workers were losing decent-paying jobs to this phenomenon.
WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK IS WRONG WITH WANTING DECENT PAY FOR WORKING HARD? What makes an illegal immigrant more virtuous for being willing to live in hovels because they take whatever rotten wages the subcontractor is going to pay?