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The reality is that there are plenty of low paying jobs out there. I think its appropriate for society to tell people without physical and mental disabilities that they must take such a job if it is available--before asking for public assistance.
However, we need to understand that jobs which pay the minimum wage or only slightly more don't really a provide a decent living. I am in favor of offering people who take these jobs some form of governmental assistance. Perhaps, we could pay their health insurance (we often do through Medicaid), provide them with subsidized housing, and/or childcare while they work.
Illegals take these jobs and get by precisely because they are used to getting by on next to nothing. One of my biggest complaints about illegal immigrants is that they drive wages down in the least skilled occupations, hurting our native born American poor people the very most. If our working poor did not have to compete with illegals for jobs in restaurants, construction, etc. the wages in these industries would rise. This would probably be more effective than any governmental assistance program in helping them up the economic ladder. When we fail to deal with illegal immigration, we should remember we are hurting the working poor in this country the very most.
I live in an area that has a lot of seasonal work, restaurants, hotels, etc. that employ immigrants, mostly legal. They don't pay a living wage. The immigrants are willing to live communally, some in substandard housing offered by employers. The local tourist hospitality industry is based on these facts so the wages will never rise to the level accommodating for locals without shattering many businesses. Many of these very same jobs had been staffed for years by students.
With the bottom falling out of the housing industry, all the satellite businesses, construction, carpentry, landscaping, painting, are all suffering. So there is a glut of labor competing for even the lowest wage work. Somehow the government has always exempted restaurants and such work that may include gratuities from the standard minimum wage requirement. As long as people can be paid peanuts for such laborious work we will maintain an underclass peopled by illegals.
The reality is that there are plenty of low paying jobs out there. I think its appropriate for society to tell people without physical and mental disabilities that they must take such a job if it is available--before asking for public assistance.
However, we need to understand that jobs which pay the minimum wage or only slightly more don't really a provide a decent living. I am in favor of offering people who take these jobs some form of governmental assistance. Perhaps, we could pay their health insurance (we often do through Medicaid), provide them with subsidized housing, and/or childcare while they work.
Illegals take these jobs and get by precisely because they are used to getting by on next to nothing. One of my biggest complaints about illegal immigrants is that they drive wages down in the least skilled occupations, hurting our native born American poor people the very most. If our working poor did not have to compete with illegals for jobs in restaurants, construction, etc. the wages in these industries would rise. This would probably be more effective than any governmental assistance program in helping them up the economic ladder. When we fail to deal with illegal immigration, we should remember we are hurting the working poor in this country the very most.
I agree.....shut down the borders and don't let any more in until the recession ends.
I have a couple of kids in their late teens/early 20's who are desperately looking for jobs. Truth is....in the particular area where we happen to live due to MY job, if you don't speak Spanish, it it hard to find a service type job. (Flipping burgers, bagging groceries, lawn work, etc.). This is because most crews speak Spanish among themselves and having an English only speaking person isn't in the plan.
So, I am the last person who would begrudge people who are bi-lingual....but when a young person can't get a job because they AREN'T Latino....then something has went terribly wrong. I do not have a personal problem with Latino people. I work with them and consider them friends. However, I'm pretty pi$$ed off when my kids can't find jobs not because they aren't bilingual for the customer's sake....but because the manager will only hire those who are born Latino so they don't have to speak English among themselves.
Glory, too bad you can't move to South Texas. No job here requires Spanish. My town is 45% Hispanic, and among the 55% non-Hispanic, very few can speak any Spanish at all. They all have jobs and get along just fine.
Illegals cram a few families into a house. Are you willing to share a bedroom with five other people? If so, then you could afford to live on those wages, because you'd have five other wage earners to share the expenses.
There are already tens of millions of children who are not being raised by their mother. Is being a Mom one of the things that you think people can be put to work doing at government expense? Great. Let's just start paying moms full-time wages for staying home with their kids, and see if everything else just works itself out. Maybe if the moms all stayed at home, there would be jobs for everybody else, and the problem is solved.
People with children already get tax breaks, and those on welfare extra money for having children. I'd much rather see people paid NOT to have children. There are already way too many people on this planet as it is.
Plus, as it is, many women are NOT qualified to be good mothers and staying at home with their children isn't going to improve the quality of the parenting. I've seen plenty of stay at home mothers that only do the barest minimum of parenting and focus the majority of their energies on shopping for themselves.
If the robots take all the jobs, and there are no more workers making the incomes, hmm, those products that the robots are producing..... Who will buy them???? The workers?? no, they don't make money anymore, the robots?? no, they don't need a TV, or a car,, so, if you don't put Humans to work to make products, which other humans can buy, then those workers can buy the products the other workers produce, its a cycle, and its broken.
People with children already get tax breaks,
. . . . Plus, as it is, many women are NOT qualified to be good mothers and staying at home with their children isn't going to improve the quality of the parenting.
What, a $1,000 exemption in a 15% marginal bracket? A hundred and fifty bucks? $12 a month. No wonder our government is going broke. Put an end to this senseless waste of my hard-earned tax money stolen from my paycheck
Maybe you've hit on a great idea. Since moms don't know how to mom, we should take away all babies at birth, leave mothers free to commute across town to productive telemarketing cubicles, and put the babies in grow-up factories, where they will all learn to do meaningless brain-dead labor for almost no pay and not complain about it. Then you will have your paradise.
Last edited by jtur88; 08-30-2009 at 04:03 PM..
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