Much as this country dislikes illegals...it also really likes them

[chicagonut]

Originally Posted by Arjay51

And of the approximately 300M Americans, how many have you polled to confirm this "fact" of yours?

Let's take this argument that Americans want everything cheap and put it into perspective. Cheap - 5 cents for a tomato picked by an illegal alien. Expensive - millions if not billions of our tax dollars going to cover the social costs of these illegals not to mention the loss of Americans jobs. Do the math. Where are these bargain prices now?

[ambient]

Originally Posted by malamute

Have you seen prices lately? I've seen beef prices as high as $10 a pound recently. Lettuce as high as $1.50 a head. It's obvious that 30 million illegals are not bringing prices of food down the way they should.

Health care prices most certainly aren't down. For one huge reason -- the costs of all the free health care given to illegals and their children are passed to the insured and paying patients.

So? They'd obviously be even higher if those were American workers being paid a decent wage and business owners were able to pass on the cost. To the extent that prices are where they are right now and wage costs are low (thanks to illegals), the difference is going into the business owner's pocket.

The fact remains that illegal labor is convenient at least for the business owner and in many cases probably also for the consumer. As far as additional societal costs of health care or whatever...what does the business owner or consumer care? They don't see it coming directly out of their pocket. It's a classic case of a negative economic externality.

[chicagonut]

Originally Posted by ambient

So? They'd obviously be even higher if those were American workers being paid a decent wage and business owners were able to pass on the cost. To the extent that prices are where they are right now and wage costs are low (thanks to illegals), the difference is going into the business owner's pocket.

The fact remains that illegal labor is convenient at least for the business owner and in many cases probably also for the consumer. As far as additional societal costs of health care or whatever...what does the business owner or consumer care? They don't see it coming directly out of their pocket. It's a classic case of a negative economic externality.

Of course the business owner doesn't care if they pass on the social costs of their illegal employees to the taxpayer but why is it that you don't care? Are you a business owner?

There is no "obvious" that costs would rise even higher without illegal alien labor. Case in point is where illegals were used to build houses and the prices of houses still escalated.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Marce30

Wrong ! Americans want everything cheap.

LOL....well maybe it's wishful thinking on my part. But let's just say that i hope you're wrong.