Ummmmm . . . I don’t think they are refusing to do the work. I think they are not being offered the jobs because illegal immigrants are cheaper.
Bullshit, the work has always been there. NOBODY but illegal immigrant will do it.
Whatever one party supports the other party reflexively opposes. There are very few things in the United States that have such broad-based support that everybody agrees on the proper course of action. It falls on you as a voter to determine which collection of ideas best suits your ideological bent.
At the wages offered: if day labor paid $100/hour, people would be dropping out of college to do it. I’m not saying it’s worth $100/hour, just that “will do it” or “won’t do it” is always relative to wages, never absolute.
This. Sure, Obama is pushing immigration reform at the moment, but I suspect the Dems will just let it quietly die, just like they have on many occasions, and then blame the GOP for its demise.
With the economy still in the dumps, there just isn’t much enthusiasm for this issue right now. Hell even in good times (like in 2005 and 2006), it’s a tough issue to gain traction for. And let’s face it, if the GOP put up a fight over Bush’s immigration plan, you can only imagine the shitstorm they’re going to raise over whatever ideas Obama puts forth.
The only group of people really pressing for immigration reform right now (at least immigration reform that doesn’t involve heavily penalizing illegal immigrants) is Hispanics. And even for a lot of Hispanics, especially for this who are second or third generation and don’t really have much family left in the old country, it’s not really a make or break issue. If the Dems choose not to fight too hard for it, they’re not going to lose any sleep over it.
As opposed to what? Illegal aliens calling INS?
That was a ridiculous statement. Clearly it was legal residents tryin to get jobs a day laborers making the calls to INS.
Nope, because you end up with a population who vote for greater redistribution.
Really? I would think it’s far more likely that local residents would be calling to complain about gangs of grubby looking people congregating at parking lots or street corners while waiting for work. Or employers reporting competing employers to stop them from having an unfair advantage.
Do you have a cite for what is so “clear”?
Nice cite. :rolleyes:
Oh yes, another type of complaint that I would imagine is far more common than those from displaced day laborers – people complaining about illegals receiving undeserved government benefits like health care, schooling and the like.
Quoth Saint Cad:
How is there any difference between “illegal immigrants are cheaper” and “natives won’t do the work”? Anyone at all could agree to work for the same wages that the immigrants agree to. They could, but they don’t, because to almost all natives, that amount of pay isn’t enough compensation for the work. In other words, they don’t want the job.
So the Democrats can “herd” the Hispanic vote toward their columns by always pulling the immigration card. Fortunately Hispanic voters increasingly (excepting the 2008 aberration) have become more concerned with other issues.
As for me I’m pragmatic on illegal immigration. Those will skilled jobs, who are fairly Americanized, are college-educated, and otherwise useful can stay along with their immediate families.
I guess supply and demand doesn’t work in this case, huh? If there are jobs too shitty for people to take for the amount of money paid then the wages are too low. Immigrants will work for less for a number of reasons: they have fewer opportunities, the wage compared to home is high, their expectation for a standard of living is lower, and they often mail back a portion of their earnings to family in their home country where the dollar goes further. Sometimes immigrants will share a house with a large number of other workers to save money, knowing that when they return home they will live better with the dollars they earned.
The minimum wage in this country is very low right now in constant dollars, and pretty much across the board low end jobs pay too little to allow one to support ones’ self, never mind a family.
Why the snark? Are you disputing Sanandaji’s figures?
I lack adequate words to respond to the ridiculous assumptions in this post. I’ll try later.
It seemed like a reasonable post to me.
I can’t confirm or dispute them; they’re completely unsubstantiated.
So the Pew Hispanic Center isn’t a reliable source? Look at page 74 of their report which is linked in Sanandaji’s post.