Posted on 07/09/2008 4:05:30 AM PDT by RU88
At least 12 million illegal immigrants live in the U.S. Most pick crops, wash dishes, build houses, cut lawns and do other jobs for between $6 and $15 an hour. They make up about 5% of the total U.S. work force. But …
What if we threw them all out?
Lettuce and strawberries would rot in the fields. Dirty dishes would pile up in restaurants. Thousands of farmers and builders would go bust. Predator aircraft drones would prowl the Mexican border. And chunks of Los Angeles and Houston would look like ghost towns.
The biggest losers would be middle-class families with two working parents, living in high-immigrant states such as California, Texas, Florida or New York. Why? They would pay more for food, housing, entertainment and child care as a shortage of low-skilled workers drove up some wages, and therefore, some prices. Meantime, their own pay would remain the same. What's more, the ripple effect of thousands of businesses shrinking or closing for lack of staff might put one of the parents out of a job. Not to mention the garbage collection going to pot and no one to polish the missus' nails.
The winners, for a change, would be the low-skilled unemployed, living just about anywhere -- if they were willing to move. Of the 12 million illegal immigrants, about 8 million are employed, mostly in low-skill jobs. The U.S., meantime, has about 22 million less-educated jobless adults, many of them blacks and legalized Hispanics, according to a 2008 report from the Center for Immigration Studies, a research group based in Washington, D.C.
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.moneycentral.msn.com ...
What about the cost of anchor babies, welfare, subsidized housing, food stamps, education, crime, and prisons? Who pays for this and who wouldn't have to pay any where near as much when they're gone?
Besides, the work would be done because other people would do the work. Wages might go up, which might increase costs, but compared to the hit on our wallets from fuel, it would be relatively light.
Our country would be far worse off if immigrants were thrown out. Our economy would falter.
One example that would hit him quickly is that Mom would have nobody at home to watch the kids while she goes to work. Big problem there.
It’s an Election year. Expect a similar article from the WSJ any day now.
I want them out and as the saying goes: I will “pay any price, bear any burden”.
Very clinton-like of you to leave out the word “ILLEGAL”.
I’ve seen this article before, I believe it was last year when we were putting the pressure on to stop the amnesty crap. What a pile of excrement.
You forgot the sarcasm tag on that.
How about throw all those off welfare who can work? HOw about quit the cradle to grave govt. handouts? How about ya get rid of those who came here illegally?
How about getting those who didn’t apply themselves in school so they could get a good job to do the picking or starve?
Throw them out. And send their employers to prison. NOW.
She doesnt say anything about California cities being ghosts towns over night.
What if we got rid of law breaking illegal immigrants and allow in large numbers of law abiding applicants to take their place? AND, how about we give more than lip service to “diversity” and allow them to come from a broad spectrum of nations and not just a small handful?
I always thought Los Angeles was in California.
Have I been wrong all this time?
By the way, both my dad and my bro washed dishes in their youth. By bro eventually went into electronics working on "boards" (1960). My father became the Maitre D at a major hotel in NY.
My 3 kids picked fruit at a local farm. Two became Vice Pres of companies. One is a computer geek with a major corporation.
That... that’s.... That’s CRAZY talk!!!!
;^)
Snotty, well-to-do American liberals will have to pay a bit more to keep their landscapes perfectly manicured.
What a catastrophe!
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