Mexicans leaving? (Gainesville: rent, home, buy)

[lilmusket]

I frankly don't see a problem with illegals having to go back to their home country. You shouldn't base your local economy on illegal immigration anyway.

[B Wagner]

With the crackdown of immigration laws you are seeing more and more illegals head north to Tennessee and South Carolina for jobs. The laws are a lot more relaxed there. This is affecting the local economy in various ways:
Housing- the rental market has a lot more vacancies than they have had in years; this is contributing to the foreclosure rates as investors cannot get their rental homes rented out, thus driving rental prices down.
Taxes- as they move from this state, they will work in another state, thus paying taxes there, spending there wages there, etc.
Spending – if they don’t live here they will not be buying here; this affects all retailers from grocery stores to car dealers and so on.
There are plus and minuses here that can be discussed. Healthcare being one of them. If you are worried about illegals taking a job away from you, you are in the wrong business.

[Bulldawgfan]

Originally Posted by B Wagner

If you are worried about illegals taking a job away from you, you are in the wrong business.

B Wagner,

About a year ago or so I would have totally agreed with the above statement. But in the last couple of months I have seen an interesting trend on construction sites I have visited. The Hispanic workforce is no longer working in just entry level, unskilled construction labor. There has been a noticeable shift to skilled labor. A large number of electricians, plumbers and sheet metal workers are now speaking mostly Spanish. Now of course there is no way for me to tell if these Hispanic workers are illegal or not, I would have to assume that some are. The point is that it is not just entry level unskilled labor positions that Spanish speaking folks are working at these days.

[MCPatrick1970]

I haven't been to Gainesville but I worked with someone who lived there. They had a bigger problem than neighboring Forsyth had and that says a lot. Have they bankrupted the hospital in Hall County yet?

[lilmusket]

But how much taxes do they really pay? It's doubtful that illegals are paying any income tax (federal or state)..now they do pay sales taxes when they purchase things but that is only a drop in the bucket to cover the enormous cost to school their children. Everyone else has to pick up that cost. Then consider the burden they place on the healthcare system.. the vast majority have no insurance.. so when they get sick they go to the emergency room... that's expensive.. and who pays for that?? The taxpayers. And illegals typically drive down rents... and many have 6 or more ppl living in a 2 bedroom apt. There are alot of costs associated with illegal immigration that negate any of the benefits.

[OhioNative]

Originally Posted by MCPatrick1970

Have they bankrupted the hospital in Hall County yet?

Bankrupt? Hardly. You should see the size of the addition they just put on that place. They are also planning to build a campus in South Hall by Chateau Elan.

[leonard]

Originally Posted by Bulldawgfan

B Wagner,

About a year ago or so I would have totally agreed with the above statement. But in the last couple of months I have seen an interesting trend on construction sites I have visited. The Hispanic workforce is no longer working in just entry level, unskilled construction labor. There has been a noticeable shift to skilled labor. A large number of electricians, plumbers and sheet metal workers are now speaking mostly Spanish. Now of course there is no way for me to tell if these Hispanic workers are illegal or not, I would have to assume that some are. The point is that it is not just entry level unskilled labor positions that Spanish speaking folks are working at these days.

I shut down a business many years ago, hiring only citizens, because my competitors were hiring illegals at a fraction of the pay and had them work long hours and 6 days a week. Pocketing the extra profit. Citizens willing to work could not. While they are hard workers, they will work for less than either the law or normal market prices dictate. This is happening in virtually ALL industries.

[AnnieA]

Originally Posted by Bulldawgfan

B Wagner,
The point is that it is not just entry level unskilled labor positions that Spanish speaking folks are working at these days.

this is absolutely true. I spoke with a young woman a year or so ago and she said her husband, an electrician was having to go out of county or whereever to find work because the hispanics were filling the construction jobs. He had to spend 5 years in apprenticeship before he could sit for his journeymans license and the hispanics did not have to do so. But they would work for a lot less money.

My nephew had a house built in Jacksonville and he said most of the crew was hispanic. There wasnt a straight wall in the house.

They laid off all the white and black workers on our garbage pickup company and hired hispanics. They do a rotten job, break your cans, throw them every which a way and you cant talk to them about it, they dont speak English. The other workers didnt do that.

I have a hispanic man who works for me and I have told him he has to learn to speak English or I cant work him. I pay him the same thing I was paying any other worker though he would have worked for less.

I am unhappy how the quality has slipped from so many things. YOu most often get what you pay for.

[lilmusket]

When you factor in the costs to the taxpayers to educate the children of illegals, and to pay for their healthcare costs.. their labor really isn't that cheap.. it's just the businesses that hire them pocket the profit and pass the costs on to the rest of us. I have no problem with ppl coming here legally and competing fairly for jobs. But basing one's economy on illegal immigration is simply a bad thing period.

[Bulldawgfan]

Originally Posted by lilmusket

When you factor in the costs to the taxpayers to educate the children of illegals, and to pay for their healthcare costs.. their labor really isn't that cheap.. it's just the businesses that hire them pocket the profit and pass the costs on to the rest of us. I have no problem with ppl coming here legally and competing fairly for jobs. But basing one's economy on illegal immigration is simply a bad thing period.

lilmusket,

I can completely see what you are talking about. But written on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty you will find these words-

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It seems to me that we got our economy from immigration. And at that point, there was no such thing as illegal immigration... just immigration. As Bill Murray said in the movie Stripes-

Cut it out! Cut it out! Cut it out! The hell's the matter with you? Stupid! We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt. Who saw "Old Yeller?" Who cried when Old Yeller got shot at the end?

My how things have changed.