I wrote: > > But illegal aliens work > > for far less than union scale. That's why a lot of companies break > the law > > to hire them. Also, I won't dispute that citizen employees who work > in > > construction get good benefits. But employers don't treat illegals > the > > same.
Rob replied: > Bear with me on this. > Anyone who would break one law by hiring a worker illegally and then > would break or skirt another with discriminatory pay policies is not > much better than a slaveowner. > A "real" American would turn them in. (I'm serious!) > > I had a cousin who was a great friend when we were kids. > I didn't see much of him after his time in the US Navy, but he started > a roofing company. I later found out he wouldn't hire Americans. He > would only hire illegals and then payed them less than minimum wage > when he could get away with it. (This is in Houston mind you. Boiling > in summer, miserable when its cold.) > Oh yes, he was a real piece of work. He got caught cheating on his > taxes, and when his lawyer informed him he would only have to pay > pennies on the dollar he screamed at him "I paid you so I wouldn't > have to pay taxes at all". > Apparently he felt that because he had served as a cook on an aircraft > carrier during Gulf War 1, he shouldn't have to pay taxes. > > The jerk owned 3 houses, a real nice boat, several cars and that still > wasn't good enough. > [On a side note, he also was a Rush quoting fire breathing Republican > without a concience, which goes a long way toward explaining why I > mistrust the motives behind that party, even though I like the > conservatives I know here on the List] > > Knowing all I know now, *I* would have turned his sorry ass in, but in > one of his frequent drunk driving episodes he was killed in an auto > accident along with 4 other people in the car he hit. > > He was about 33. But perhaps if he had been subjected to the full > force of the law a few years earlier, he might have changed his ways > and would still be here bitching about Clinton. Before I address the issue of reporting the guy, let me back up a step. The discussion in the thread was whether people would take jobs that illegal immigrants take for the pay that illegal immigrants make; in other words, would tossing out illegals directly translate to more jobs for Americans. I think the answer to that is pretty clearly "no" at this point, as shown by my quote earlier on the income of farm workers and by your example of illegal immigrant roofers being paid less than minimum wage. Having said that, I'd like to remind you that the report I was quoting on farm workers was on *all* farmworkers, not just illegal alien farmworkers. There are a few Americans who make a living (such as it is) following crops around the country, but they are the vast minority in the industry from my understanding of it. If all the illegals were tossed out of the country, the farming industry as we know it in America would cease to exist. There would be almost no one willing to do the work these people do at the rates of pay these people accept for their work and under the conditions in which they work. Food prices would skyrocket because the cost of hiring people to harvest the food would skyrocket. Of course this would only affect the part of the farm industry where there is not a lot of automation (or possibly not any way to do automation). And I'm pretty sure economies of scale would play into it as well, with giant corporate farms having more money available to hire higher priced workers, giving the corporate farms yet another advantage over the small-farm owner. And if in addition to deporting all the illegal aliens, we also threw in jail everyone who hired them, then not only would we have very few farmworkers left in America, we'd also have not many farm owners left. I've followed the farmworkers issue for quite a while. My family has fortunately never had to do that kind of work (Dad was in the military for a while as a radar guy, then worked for Bendix and eventually retired as an electrician from AT&SF Railway Company, and Mom was a professional cosmetologist and even taught cosmetology for a while), but social justice issues have always been important to my family and in the hispanic community (at least around KC), the migrant farmworkers issue has always been one of the more prominent social justice issues. So I guess I knew about some of the complexity of the migrant farmworkers issue going back just about as far as I can remember. But I never knew much about the construction issue until I met this guy my niece decided to marry. I just assumed that the same kind of complexity existed in that industry as well and decided not to jump to conclusions about the guy who hired my niece's husband. Hopefully not everyone in construction who hires illegals is as much of a profiteer as your cousin. Reggie Bautista _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
