How does flooding the US with millions of illiterate, unemployed people make the US better? (fast food, drugs)

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by Sumerian_Summer

And most of them were Caucasian, with an average IQ between 95 and 105 -- and most of them were already literate.

Wrong, as I already explained exhaustively with links last night.

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

And BTW, the notion that these Latin American immigrants are all illiterate is ridiculous. I'd be willing to bet the immigrants from Mexico and Central America these days have higher literacy rates (and possibly also educational levels) than European immigrants from 1850-1920.

Literacy rate by country
Mexico - 95.40%
Guatemala - 81.50%
Honduras - 87.20%
El Salvador - 88.50%

Even as recently as 1981 the literacy rate in Italy was 96.5%, which is little different from Mexico's current rate.

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

Found a better source:

https://link.springer.com/article/10...201-6/tables/1

In 1880:

The literacy rate of Italy was 38.4%.
The literacy rate of France was 72.8%.
The literacy rate of Germany was 92.0%.
The literacy rate of Spain was 31.4%.
The literacy rate of the UK was 82.7%
Though it's not listed, you can be sure Ireland's was probably similar to Italy's or, at best, France's.

By comparison the US was 83.0%.

The best nation back then was more illiterate than Mexico is now.

[Salty Water]

Originally Posted by James Bond 007

From about 1850 to about 1920 we let in millions of uneducated, illiterate and unemployed people into the USA. And we turned out just fine.

Yes, at a time when we had a need for uneducated, illiterate people. Now, not so much. Got it?

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Those aren't the people coming here illegally.... do you get that?

Yes, those are the major sources of illegal immigrants. I'm not sure why this is in dispute. Do you get that?

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by suzy_q2010

How many coming here illegally are literate in English?

Few of the immigrants who came here ~1850-1920 were literate in English. Mostly just the ones from Ireland and the UK.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by fat lou

This doesn't answer the question. This sentence here: "What are the chances of such people gaining employment in an economy that increasingly demands higher levels of technical education and degrees for employment?" is particularly relevant. And I'd say that things became much more "fine" after 1920, wouldn't you? So: do you have an answer for this question?

As with the immigrants who came here 1850-1920, the kids, grandkids and great-grandkids of today's immigrants will gradually move up the economic ladder. The great-grandkids of the Italian immigrants living in the tenements of NYC in 1890 are now living in nice suburban homes in New Jersey or decent apartments in NY. Same thing will happen to the great-grandkids of those Mexican immigrants living with another family in some house in East LA.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by fat lou

No we don't. I'm from Pittsburgh. Are you telling me that the steel mills are still open?

There are some steel mills, but the jobs in the steel mills back then have been replaced with a need for landscapers, roofers, janitors, etc. etc.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by fat lou

And most of these factories don't exist anymore. You're carrying on about 1914?Move into the present day, you're seriously stuck in the past.

That has nothing to do with the comment I was responding to.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by ringwise

And they were required to prove that they could support themselves...

No, they were required to prove no such thing. You got on a ship embarking from somewhere in Europe, landed at Ellis Island or another immigrant processing center, then when you got there you went through a quick health inspection, filled out a few forms and - voila! - you were in.

[rstevens62]

Originally Posted by scarabchuck

If this was true, why do we have so many in this country fighting for a $15 minimum wage ? Seems like there are an awful lot of people that chose non skilled labor as their career of choice.

Its not that they choose those places to work...its more like 'thats where they end up'.

[James Bond 007]

Originally Posted by Mr. Joshua

Did you just compare America in 2021 to America in 1850??????

There are more illegal aliens in this nation now than the total population of the US in 1850

The main reason why there was so little illegal immigration back then (aside from the fact an ocean separated the main source of immigrants from the US) was because it was so easy to immigrate to the US. As I noted in my post just above, you got on a ship embarking from somewhere in Europe, landed at Ellis Island or another immigrant processing center, then when you got there you went through a quick health inspection, filled out a few forms and - voila! - you were in. If it was THAT easy to immigrate to the US nowadays, we would have very little illegal immigration.