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Social Security, Illegal Immigration and Ben
It would be correct to say:
“What is good for Social Security is good for America”.
Some of the variables include:
-Rising GDP
-Modest inflation
-Expanding employment (low unemployment)
-Worker productivity
-Innovation
-Rising population
SSA evaluates the prospects for the variables and produces a forecast.
They create three alternative cases. They call them the Intermediate and
the High/Low cost assumptions. That’s a bit murky. A better description
might be:
Intermediate = What we are hoping/assuming will happen.
High Cost = Bad News!
Low Cost = Break out the Champagne!
Now consider how SSA looks at the highly emotive issue of illegal
immigration/undocumented workers. SSA refers to this group in the PC way
as “others”. This from the SSA 2010 report to Congress, page 84.
Note that the “What We’re Expecting” case has illegal immigration at 400,000 per year for the next decade. The “Let’s Party!” case has the average over 500k. Heaven forbid that illegal workers fall to only 200k per year. That would be the “Worst Case”
outcome. Looking at this one has to wonder what would happen if illegal
immigration fell to zero. Clearly if 550k is the good news then zero
must be very bad news.
So it is not always correct that what is good for SSA is good for the
USA. It makes me wonder about those other categories where the interests
appear to line up but actually to do not.
As a mature economy we can only achieve high rates of growth with
significant expansion of debt at every level. Consumers, corporations,
cities, towns, states and of course the Feds all have to borrow and
spend more if we are going to have the growth that SSA (and all other
public and private entitlements) so desperately needs.
Debt = Growth
Growth = Good, therefore,
Debt = Good
Our dependence on illegal immigration to sustain growth is not unlike
our need for debt to fire the engines. But like illegal immigration,
debt/growth has a dark side to it. If you want evidence of that fact
just consider what Bernanke is going to unleash on us. Yes he might
achieve some growth with his QE-2. But what is the real cost for that
growth?
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How many folks posting about this article understood that the Govt. is actually COUNTING ON these Illegal Immigrants to HELP THEM BALANCE THE BOOKS for Social Security?? Now, it becomes obvious why the current administration chooses to let illegal immigrants cross the border(s) at will!
Stycho:
Thank you. I guess I am a shitty writer. You summed it up perfectly in just a few words while I struggled:
the Govt. is actually COUNTING ON these Illegal Immigrants to HELP THEM BALANCE THE BOOKS for Social Security
without nose in butt-crack, you actually helped point this out a few articles ago - to the tune of 250 billion-ish, if i recall correctly.
keep up the shitty writing. this reader appreciates it.
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Hiring illegals or anyone else "under the table" screws up a system already FUBAR. Public schools have to educate anybody that shows up. They don't check social security numbers. Now, the Mexican that you paid $10 an hour ....assume he is super industrious and works a full 2000 hrs a year...call it $20,000. and the goofs at the SS office are thrilled. Except he has three kids. At $10k a kid per school year. And the very same f-tard that paid him will bitch about his crappy school...oh, I forgot to include the special ed folks that the school hires for the "English Language Learners". It ain't racism. It is math.
Now, on the culture front, I don't get the attraction to bending over backwards for Mexican immigrants. IBM will process more patents in a week than Mexico has in its entire existence. Name one university in Mexico that you would send your kids to. The government is so corrupt that it has finally fallen under the weight of the powerful and rich drug cartels. At first, it was just a little monthly stipend for the cops. Now, the monster owns the place. I just don't get it. You want to improve schools? Mow your own damn lawn.
As far as immigration goes, we need to open the floodgates to folks that economically pencil....scientists, engineers, doctors (please, no lawyers...in fact we will trade three lawyers for each scientist)...we don't need low skilled folks that want huge families. It don't pencil....oh, if the Mexicans have scientist and engineers that want to come, rover red rover, come on over....I have worked with engineers for 25 years and have met folks that came from all over Asia, yet not one of Mexican descent. I am sure there are exceptions. (I have a Vietnamese friend who was a "boat person" at 17. By 24 he was a BSEE grad, no scholarships, just hard work. Votes republican (thought democrats were like communists).
I think this makes me a something-ist, but I am not sure. Definitely not a bigot. I have too many Asian and Indian engineering immigrant buddies. Mathist?
@ downrodeo >> Where are you getting the information that lends to the view that, 'they tend to have multiple families living under the same roof'. Is there somewhere I can verify that, or was that just an emotionally charged statement?… Who made up the rule about 1 family to 1 house?<<
It’s called zoning law; zoning is land use planning to protect the property values of the largest single investment most families make in their lifetimes—their home. Zoning segregates land uses that are thought to be incompatible with the permanent nature say of R-1 (single family residential) designations, excluding, say, multiple family dwellings in areas designated single family, mixed residential-commercial uses, commercial, and industrial developments within neighborhoods... Zoning regulations control where high rises can be built, area density, etc. Without zoning law, all would be chaos; there would be serious damage to property rights.
ACORN, for whom Obama was key point man, was caught on camera offering all manner of advice on how to avoide zoning, tax and prostitution laws.
As to overcrowding: “[I]t is widely believed that immigrant Hispanic families live in dense households… under one roof… Hispanic people may live in overcrowded conditions out of economic necessity and simply because they choose to live differently than others. Lack of affordable housing and a poor selection of well-paying occupations may combine to create the necessity of many living close together…” (Roth, Benjamin J. The Latino Community in Suburban Chicago: an Analysis of Overcrowding. Latinos United.) <http://www.latinopolicyforum.org/drupal55/files/Overcrowding_Report.pdf>
It’s been said that most all subjects relate to politics. But it’s also true that almost all subjects relate to economics; man working to provide for himself, his family and his future. The heath care bill, of course, is political, but more than anything, it is economic. And following right behind health care in the Obama Administration’s political agenda is another major economic issue—illegal immigration.
Illegal immigration is nothing if not economic :
CHEAP TOMATOES? | From a California school teacher - -
As you listen to the news about the student protests over illegal immigration, there are some things that you should be aware of :
I am in charge of the English-as-a-second-language department at a large southern California high school which is designated a Title 1 school, meaning that its students average lower socioeconomic and income levels.
Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, etc., where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.
Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking a glass of milk and roll, but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten.
I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more have cell phones.
The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids.
I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer-learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti…
I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students here in the country less than 3 months who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them 'Putas' (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.
Free medical, free education, free food, day care etc., etc., etc.
To those who want to point out how much illegal immigrants contribute to our society because they like their gardener and housekeeper and they like to pay less for tomatoes: spend some time in the real world of illegal immigration and see the true costs. Higher insurance, medical facilities closing, higher medical costs, more crime, lower standards of education in our schools, over crowding, new diseases etc., etc., etc. For me, I'll pay more for tomatoes.
We need to wake up. The guest worker program will be a disaster because we won't have the guts to enforce it. Does anyone in his right mind really think they will voluntarily leave and return?
It does, however, have everything to do with culture: A third-world culture that does not value education, that accepts children getting pregnant and dropping out of school by 15 and that refuses to assimilate, and an American culture that has become so weak and worried about 'political correctness' that it doesn't have the will to do anything about it.
CHEAP LABOR? Isn't that what the whole immigration issue is about?
Business doesn't want to pay a decent wage.
Consumers don't want expensive produce.
Government will tell you Americans don't want the jobs.
But the bottom line is cheap labor.
The phrase 'cheap labor' is a myth, a farce, and a lie. There is no such thing as 'cheap labor’.
Take, for example, an illegal alien with a wife and five children. He takes a job for $5.00 or $6.00/hour. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, yet at the end of the year, if he files an Income Tax Return, he gets an 'earned income credit' of up to $3,200 free.
He qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent.
He qualifies for food stamps.
He qualifies for free (no deductible, no co-pay) health care.
His children get free breakfasts and lunches at school.
He requires bilingual teachers and books.
He qualifies for relief from high-energy bills.
If they are or become, aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI.
Once qualified for SSI they can qualify for Medicare.
All of this is at taxpayers’ expense.
He doesn't worry about car insurance, life insurance, or homeowners
insurance.
Taxpayers provide Spanish language signs, bulletins and printed material.
He and his family receive the equivalent of $20.00 to $30.00/hour in benefits.
Working Americans are lucky to have $5.00 or $6.00/hour left after paying their bills and his. The American taxpayers also pay for increased crime, graffiti and trash cleanup.
Cheap labor? Right!
do you mind if i borrow that last segment for the beginnings of a viral email to all my 'friends'?
i hate to steal, but attributions to 'JR' are pretty vague...
great post - tnx.
just say "under the table" and you'll get every race, creed and color. neither poverty nor riches has a barrier on that score. Now let's get back to QE and ask "is it really bad or isn't it?" I mean "don't these low rates cause even the rich to work"? Lord knows it causes them to save...and invest. and what about "actuarial considerations"? won't that be the "real origin of the crisis"? all that free labor...the irony of "a collapse being caused by free money" should be lost on no one.
Where can I hire some painters?
It's unfortunate that so much emotional energy is devoted to pissing and moaning about this sort of thing when the only people really affected by illegal immigration are the same people most screwed over by the vastly wealthy and mega-business interests.
There's about 1% of the population who matter at all. Then there's the rest of us. You really want to waste time hating on (pick your favorite) segments of the 99% when the real issue is that a tiny number of folks have EVERYTHING and don't experience any of life's little hardships?
Sure, the illegals take your job. And the government takes your earnings. And the banks take your house. And the robots take your retirement. And...then?
The government is supposed to help prevent the illegals from taking your job and prevent the banks from taking your house WITHOUT collecting anyone's earnings.
If you're going to pick a target, pick one that at least has some meat on its carcass. The poor, the illegals, the stupid, the lazy--they really just aren't WORTH kicking in the teeth anymore.
There's no return on that shit!
No one hunts vultures for food, either.
http://www.rall.com/rallblog/comics/2010-10-11.jpg
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday that a 17 percent drop in Border Patrol arrests this year shows that heightened enforcement is slowing illegal immigration.
Gosh, I feel better already. However, on a trip we will take from Dallas to San Diego, we will go the Northern way and avoid El Paso and Hwy 8 and hopefully the drug guys. S. Az is unsafe at any speed. Across from El Paso is the #1 unsafest place in the World--- no kidding.
The federal government recently posted signs along Interstate 8 in the Vekol Valley warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers. The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, warning travelers they are entering an "active drug- and human-smuggling area" and may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed."
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county includes the valley, told The Washington Times earlier this month that Mexican drug cartels have posted scouts on the high points around the valley to control movement in the area. He said they have radios, optics and "night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has."
"This is going on here in Arizona … 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States," he said.
The sheriff said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but got 15 signs along Interstate 8 instead.
Any of you in favor of massive amounts of immigration, legal or illegal--can we start with your backyard? Literally.
the irony of course is that "the illegals" live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet (California.) In fact parts of Mexico are amazing as well. That's why people live in the Northeast: we have no illegal immigrants it's such a rough place to live.
What part of the NE you refering to? Metro NY, Boston are full of illegals??
I'm with chopper on this one. Quit whining about "unfair" competition and get your balls back. This world is not fair.
Yes, as a native-born American you inherited the citizenship of a rich and powerful country, partly because some of your genetic and/or cultural ancestors were relatively well educated and organized and even enlightened, and partly because some were mean sons of bitches very successful at slaughtering, confiscating and slave-driving. It's understandable that you resent illegal immigrants stealing slices of your birth-given privilege. But don't give me some weepy bullshit about how those immigrants are being unfair. They are doing what's best for them, exploiting the opportunities made available to them as best they can.
I'm all for smarter controls on immigration. Ideally, we Americans would be honest with ourselves about how many immigrants we want to bring in. We do need to think about who is going to fund Social Security and all other retirement programs and generally support the economy as the ratio of retirement-age to working-age grows. If we did that honestly, we could use the visa process to bring in the best possible immigrants, and reduce illegal immigration dramatically by radically toughening and very strictly enforcing laws against employing illegals. Any crack down must focus on employers to be effective.
What we have instead is a situation where everybody knows whole industries rely on illegal immigrant labor but there's one of those weird American unspoken agreements to pretend it's a border control problem. Employment laws are lightly enforced, especially for the least attractive kinds of jobs. Farms, nurseries and domestic help agencies run on immigrant labor, half of it illegal, and most of the other half formerly illegal or children of former illegals. And everybody knows. Anybody with a proposal to crack down on these employers would get laughed at in Congress or any state legislature across the country.
But of course there are complaints about illegal immigration, which of course has its negatives, especially given the dirt-poor, totally uneducated type of immigrants that these industries are mostly seeking to attract. So to enable people to uselessly blow off steam, some politicians campaign for crackdowns on the immigrants. Absolutely never on the employers, only on the immigrants. Build cool fences! Chase them across the desert in cool jeeps!
None of this does anything whatsoever to decrease the amount of illegal immigration, which is determined by the number of jobs open to illegal aliens. It does however somewhat decrease the quality of immigrants, by discouraging the less desperate ones. And of course there's some pork contracts for friends of border state politicians, which is a big motivator.
Anyone else amused that the supposed free-marketeers are so hot to trot for the biggest labor market control ever?
The gubbamint is big and bad....until you need them to build you a fence to protect your right to pick veggies for $1.50/hr?!
If your 'ancestors' did such a great job in progressing this country, why are you jockeying for a lawn mowing, fast-food, or underpaid construction job again?!
So let the illegals work fast food and all the fast food workers will go on welfare. They aren't going to starve in this country and you freaking know it. MORE TAXES
In this matter the Japanese have been smarter than the Europeans and Americans who have allowed the immigration debate to be stigmatised by spurious charges of racism. When debate has been possible in the West, immigration has been discussed in mainly economic terms. But as the Japanese saw from the outset, it is above all a social and cultural issue.
So, Japan's birthrate isn't replacing its population any more. They... discourage immigration. How will they ever grow again?
Yea. You don't hear a whole lot about smiling white guys coming across from Canada with primo BC.
A clarification.
Illegals get fake SS# and have payroll taxes taken out. But they don't claim benefits as they do not get enough earnings. (they can get benefits if they do)
SS has said they have collected between 120 and 240 Billion of payments from illegal workers. That is why SSA "looks" better when illegal immigration is both high and sustained.
bk
So it follows that the amounts collected from falsified ID #'s have been welcomed so they have not really made it a point to police the phony ID #'s.
But they really do. The employer has to file an explanation of numbers that don't match up to SS Admin records. So it is on the employer and it really makes sense for employer's to try to determine if the number is authentic or not before paying wages. But still most don't.
"If a 24-year-old Mexican national who has worked illegally in the U.S. for three years is able to present documents from a friendly doctor and either a W-2 or pay stubs that indicate $12,000 in annual earnings, he will be eligible for the following: nearly $8,000 per year in disability income (adjusted for inflation), until age 65, at which point he would receive the same amount as retirement pay. (If he manages to get an under-the-table job in the U.S. or Mexico, he will be able to double-dip for a second income stream.) If he is survived by his wife or dependents, his family would be able to receive up to almost $12,000 annually. If he dies at 60, and his widow lives to 85, U.S. taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly a half-million dollars. That’s for one worker brought into Social Security by the pact." Source: Joel Mowbray, National Review, 1/27/03, pp. 22, 24
Tks L
True Personal Experience:
Three years ago, we were called out on a Friday night by Ryan Homes to a flooded house where the owners had closed three hours earlier. When their son flushed a half bath commode downstairs before running out the door, it backed up and covered about 700 sq ft of the first floor and most all of a 1,800 sq ft crawl space, as the flap got blocked and it ran for 15 minutes before the mother went downstairs. "Blackwater", Class III damage.
The plumber found that the "crew" had been cleaning off drywall and glue into a utility sink in the garage. It had completely clogged the 4" sewer drainpipe.
Ryan laid out over $55K for repairs and housing the family for three weeks. So much for saving $$$ by hiring 'documented' illegals.
It's pretty damned expensive keeping a car legal. The Columbians, Nicaraguans, and Mexicans don't bother. When they are stopped by the cops, they pull out some obviously fraudulent ID, pretend to understand nothing about insurance, inspections, and the like, and the fucking cops let them go. Anything less than murder is of no interest to the flat feet.
We have three societies in the States, welfare bums, illegals, and a declining group of suckers paying the bills for everyone. This will end badly.
"As a mature economy we can only achieve high rates of growth with significant expansion of debt at every level"
Wow, what a crock of shit, we can have higher growth with automation & increased productivity, every time a human laborer is replaced by a more efficient machine-that requires no pension no medicaid, no medicare we get real growth, not "rented with debt" growth.
Of course automation means more energy usage-which is totally incompatible with our national energy policy of reducing energy consumption for every person.
Just look at a modern machine shop and their productivity compared to one from the 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s, and there's no reason modern technology wont push up productivity even more.
On the flipside they assume every immigrant as a group is a net economic benefit and they completely ignore future accumulated liabilities-like every true ponzi/pyramid scheme, that's only true if the immigrant workers are net Social Security donors (ie pay more in taxes then they'll receive in benefits).
Anybody familiar with America's current and recent past immigrant demographics or public subsidy demographics, or welfare demographics knows not only are they not "tax donors", they're actually tax parasites and will make the problem worse (debt & unfunded liabilities).
More immigrants=more tax parasites and more future tax liabilities.
Unless of course you're referring to population growth and not economic growth, 2 entirely different subjects, if your nation/state grows its population that fact doesn't necessarily translate into higher living standards, per capita economic growth however does.
Their best case scenario also pegs immigration at 400,000 a year, our legal immigration exceedes and has exceeded 1 million a year for the last 10 years, and to get the same effect on our 300M person nation we'll need even more immigrants to get the same economic growth effect as past immigration levels, like 3-4 million a year with annual increases indefinitely.
Of couse increased immigration means increased investment in infrastructure (roads, rails, electricity plants, national electrict grid, bridges, sewage plants, water plants to name a few and millions of acres of new farmland, water & fertilizer).
Most of the arable land & cheap water is already taken, so we'll have to spend ever more funds to feed clothe, shelter and water our citizens which is fine except we're not even maintaining our current infrastructure, let alone investing for the future.
This story is pure politcal propaganda.
But the U.S. is big, don't you know we can have infinite growth on a finite planet. Especially in a country where there is a large amount of energy and commodity consumption?
Why can't we just have legal immigration? Is that too much to ask? Wouldn't assumptions and projections be more accurate and manageable if the government had functioning mechanisms for determining who came into the country and under what conditions?
The US has legal immigration, and they make highly-skilled workers jump through hoops to get the few slots that are available because of the fear that highly-skilled migrants will take good jobs from Americans.
Meanwhile they let low-skilled workers, welfare seekers, and criminals cross the border almost at will.
Practically speaking, discussing anything pertaining to immigration is a political non-starter in a country with 10% UE and 25% underemployment.
Madness! Are you saying the labor market functions like any other market with supply and demand curves? Who would have thought that?
“Give the votes to people who have no property, and they will sell them to the rich who will be able to buy them.” –Gouverneur Morris 1787
Illegals and debt have a huge impact on state budgets in their scrambling to pay for incredible enrollment pressures on school districts. The agreement on California’s budget, for example, put together with an amazing number of assumptions, band-aids and pretenses, includes a bit of school funding magic called “deferrals.”
To meet California’s mandatory balanced budget rule, legislators are now promising school districts money for the coming fiscal period, but not actually giving it to them. “Deferring it to a future,” IOW, is cutting the budget, but not cutting the budget.
This morning’s San Francisco Chronicle says the delayed school payments have become more frequent every year bigger and stretched over longer periods. The budget deal struck on October 8 added $1.7 billion to the state’s increasingly deferred school tab, which now totals $7.4 billion owed, according to the Department of Finance.
“In past years,” the Chronicle wrote, “school districts spent the money—with the blessing of state leaders who told them to do the same this year—by doing things like tapping their reserves or borrowing on the private market. But with the state facing ongoing deficits, some districts have stopped counting the money in their budgets.”
Americans are financing international corporations’ low-wage workers in America and taxpayers are paying the welfare, crime, housing and school costs. With increases in illegal immigration and outsourcing, California is now ground zero between a pressured tax base and complicated, mushrooming school financing which is tied up with rising enrollments and teacher union blackmail.
According to Ed-Data, using National Center for Education Statistics 2005-06 data, Hispanics now make up nearly 50% of California’s 6,259,972 student population; whites comprise only 31% of California’s students. About half of California students (49%) are eligible for free or reduced-priced meals, compared to about 43% nationally.
California is a failed state, enjoy the fireworks. I bet they will look similar to Greece.
The Bismark as we know reply's that Social Security build's Soldiers loyalty. Farther back Caeser seen soldiers living under bridges and crossed the Rubicon later since the Senate was content with patronage. My Family had members slaughtered by the Nazi's then, and My wifes people walked the trail of tears also. No matter what Government it needs to be limited and on a leash as warned from Athens until the Sun implodes. We the People are the only defence to prevent evil as social darwinism we see. More than a price has been paid already and we can see the weather but not the sign's of the times. Think for yourselfs and acept its consequences. And all did was what was right in there own eyes is a warning and for a short cut it is in Judges. People assume the law in Liberty is given freely. As we are reminded the Consumer decides the fate, since the rest is manipulated for control. IMO
Bruce Krasting,
Have enjoyed many of your articles. Looks like you have touched a live nerve with this one.
Had seen an earlier article elsewhere on similar info presented as the setup for an argument as to why illegal immigration is good.
As this country comes to grapple with the chasm between promised benefits and actual wherewithall, this will become an even livelier debate, as folks will likely turn the spotlight on benefits received by those not legally here first. After that not so low-hanging fruit has been mauled, then we get to the far more contentious and vexing issue of currently unsustainable levels of promised benefits/transfer payments to citizens and legals.
Canada does a much better job regulating immigration and labor. Farms are given subsidies on labor especially, rather than the antagonisms that govern the US's approach to business. If a business in the U.S, however, wants to do the "legal" thing, and hire workers who are paying taxes and are properly insured, they will be at a disadvantage.
As my CPA says, most small service businesses are paying their workers cash and avoiding the extra costs. Why isn't the IRS doing more audits? That would end it there. Audit the s.o.b.s and tax them. Word spreads real fast in the immigrant community..."Oh, amigo, did you hear, the I.R.S. took down "Tres amigo's" painting/landscaping/labor company! Time to either pay up or go back to Mexico.
I tried stoop labor. I was not hired even though I had better experience and was better at the job and offored lower wages. so, money is not the real reason, just the excuse. so, what is the forbidden truth here?
http://covert2.wordpress.com
"it's good to be king." they can't be that with you on board.
Who are you kidding? High cost is what they hope will happen, intermediate is what they would like you to believe there is some chance might happen, and low cost is there for entertainment value. Last year, reality turned out worse than the high cost scenario by more than 3x the difference between high cost and intermediate. This year's looking better, they might miss high cost by only 2x to 3x the difference between high cost and intermediate.
"Some try the guilt trip that since we are a "rich" country, we should be able to afford to spend a lot of extra money on welfare, schools, etc, for illegal immigrants. Again, my heart goes out to them, but we are anything but wealthly when we are maintaining our standard of living on borrowed money. Someone told me long ago that charity starts at home."
Others say that they are building up "sweat equity" through their hard work. Sure....Look, I've been on both sides of this as a self-employed person doing farm work, landscaping, tree work, etc., and then trying to find others to employ to get the job done at the customer's price, quickly, efficiently and safely. And also on the receiving end of competitor-initiated threats from the DEP for being an "unlicensed" tree care worker. You learn a lot running a self-employed business, as you do as a farm worker.
The law ultimately decides these cases, which tends to make the issues complicated and agonizing in every way. Immigration needs to take the kid gloves off and go after the manipulative immigrants. The law is the law.
Have unfortunately had to visit the emergency room a couple of times in the past two years due to kids' mishaps and a spouse who got distracted slicing food with a very sharp knife. First thing you notice upon entering is that over two thirds or more of the folks there are hispanic and seem to have problems with English. When you walk up and the staff see that you have insurance, you can literally see the relieved look on their face.
Husband had to go in for surgery. He was ready to leave, but the hospital really wanted him to stay an extra day, even though he could be discharged. Why? Insurance I'm guessing. My heart goes out to those who don't have insurance, but it is frustrating as a taxpayer to foot the bill for folks here illegally. They are human beings, but it's the illegal part that gets me.
Used to sort of buy the line that illegal immigrants took the jobs that no one wanted. However, after reading about a couple of meat processing plants that were raided by Immigration back in 2006 and 2007, I realized that was not the case. In the wake of losing most of their work force, these processing plants decided to hire legal workers. Initial job ads at minimum wage didn't rustle up many workers. After running ads at higher wages, they were able to find plenty of legal workers. Yes, it raised their costs somewhat, but when juxtaposed against the hidden costs (car insurance in CA anyone?), I am happy to pay a bit more at the grocery store.
Some try the guilt trip that since we are a "rich" country, we should be able to afford to spend a lot of extra money on welfare, schools, etc, for illegal immigrants. Again, my heart goes out to them, but we are anything but wealthly when we are maintaining our standard of living on borrowed money. Someone told me long ago that charity starts at home.
"When you walk up and the staff see that you have insurance, you can literally see the relieved look on their face."
Becuase they know the inflated fees your insurance company will be paying help to finance the freebie care that 2/3 of the waiting room will be receiving.
Fuck this bullshit!!!!!
I've done it--weeding, picking apples, even blueberry raking. The next generation will not get those jobs because the farmers do not have the patience to train them. The Jamaicans, the Guats and the Mexes hit the ground running, and "stoop" labor is not encouraged by our culture. Last time I worked with an apple picking crew, I brought up some legal violations and was threatened--"I could kill you and get your money" the Jamaican told me. I should have reported him but decided not to bother.
The legal H2A/H2B farm workers pay no taxes since they are not citizens.
If you committed fraud and perjury when you filled out a W4 & I9 then you get to pay SS & Medicare withholdings out of your pay but you will get NO BENEFITS WHATSOEVER paid to you because you committed fraud.
Is that a hard concept to get your heads around?
it is if you're talking prostitution.
Sorry Ripped you are wrong. Illegals can get SS benefits, just like you can:
http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2010/09/ss-to-pay-100s-of-billions-to-...