Mayor Bloomberg of New York shocked many by saying that not only shouldn’t we deport 11 million illegal immigrants but we need millions more of them. He said he has 500,000 illegals in New York City, and without them the city’s economy bv, and the entire U.S. econ- om)’, would collapse.
The owner of a blueberry farm in Hammonton, N.J., was on TV the next night explaining that his farm would go out of business without his Mexican workforce. American workers, he said, just don’t show up to pick blueberries.
A growing percentage of the U.S. agricultural workforce is composed of illegals, as well as a large portion of the workforce
Give us your upwardly mobile, your hard-working masses in nursing homes. My doctor told me that Americans don’t want to do the hard work of being doctors – all the schooling, the responsibility, the lawsuits, etc. – so the jobs are going to Indians, and others.
Ask around; don’t believe me. Look up the numbers on the nursing shortage. Or try to get a construction guy at the shore! We’ve been waiting in Jersey for three years for someone to show up and give us a price on new decking. It’s not about money. It’s a labor shortage.
Last year, a new beach house next door to us was built entirely by Mexicans. For all we knew, these guys could have been illegals, or former blueberry pickers on their way up the economic ladder. I have no idea what they were being paid, but with one American overseeing them, by themselves, they built a $4 million house. They learned a skill. Maybe next year they’ll start their own construction company.
The issue of illegal immigration has many sides, but for once I’d like to see our government try to solve a problem with incentives, with carrots and creativity, instead of with ugly sticks.
The thing I dislike about the U.S. is the punitiveness, the meanness that our legal system, our government, and Republicans too often bring to a problem. Too many are looking around for the next person to punish. Some want to punish the illegals, others want to jail the employers who hire them. These days, it’s how too many Americans look at life.
Immigration is a problem that needs to be solved with respect for all concerned, and with a little more compassion. But forget the old leftist solutions of mandating a “living wage,” health insurance, pensions and golden parachutes, plus lawsuits and fines, for the business sector, so that immigrants aren’t “slaves.” That will simply cause more American enterprises to end up like General Motors, with big union wages and pensions, unable to compete.
Despite the leftist cries about how immigrants are exploited by corporate greed, the illegals think they’re doing well. They vote with their feet. And in the United States, we’re benefiting from their hard work by way of lower prices and an improved economy. Those who complain are looking a gift horse in the mouth.
