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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Suma who wrote (21379)	6/19/2006 9:05:08 AM
From: epicure	Respond to of 541961

This is key, imo "There are no jobs that Americans won't do for a decent wage." The problem is the costs that a decent wage imposes in certain industries. Illegals keep costs down. You can certainly pay a living wage to Americans if you want to, but it will raise costs for everyone. I'm for that, but I'm not sure most people are, and businesses certainly aren't- that's why the big ones outsource to China and India, and little ones hire illegals. Illegal aliens (imo) are the poor man's "outsourcing". It's the same function- giving a job to someone not a US resident because they are cheaper. It seems fundamentally hypocritical to me to allow big companies to do this (or even reward them for doing it), and then tell small US bound employers they are law breakers for doing the same thing. I'd prefer barriers to outsourcing and hiring illegal immigrants, since I like consistency. But if we impose such barriers we need to know we'll pay for them, and we probably won't be as competitive globally, though from the experiments in outsourcing I have personally seen, outsourcing can be quite the snafu- so I'm not sure it really gives all the benefits one might expect when you are talking about high skilled workers- for low skilled jobs it probably has huge benefits, and taking those benefits away would damage the competitive nature of our companies- though it might be in our interest to do that- I don't know how the balancing would work out, in terms of harms and benefits.

To: Suma who wrote (21379)	6/19/2006 9:06:03 AM
From: Dale Baker	Respond to of 541961

The flip side to "Americans will do any job for a decent wage" is "will customers pay the higher prices to employers who pay those wages?" It's like everyone wanting to conserve energy but no one wanting to pay more for gas to discourage consumption.

To: Suma who wrote (21379)	6/19/2006 11:40:32 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541961

Today's NY Times has a good article on illegals in the work force. Of course they do jobs Americans won't do. Whether the jobs would exist if illegals wouldn't take them is another story. Here Illegally, Working Hard and Paying Taxes nytimes.com As for wanting to be citizens, illegals can't become citizens. They have to go back to their home country and apply from outside, and wait there until they get legal documentation. With legal family in the US, it takes a couple of years and a lot of money. With no legal family in the US, it can take many years. The rest of the rant I won't respond to. Pretty biased, no?