[427TJ]

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I don't understand his [Bush's] logic in the border area especially

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It' simple economics. Generally speaking, illegal immigrant labor (Mexican and south and central American, in this case) is the cheapest available. Illegal immigrants don't form labor unions, they don't have pensions or health care/retirement plans, and they are easily replaced by the steady inflow of more illegal immigrants. Oh, and most of them work like draft horses when handed a shovel, hoe, pick, leaf blower, or paint brush, in rain or shine. They also wield a large political influence in certain states (California, for one) via local Hispanic-American political groups. But, the bottom line is economics. Illegal labor does our dirty work and they do it CHEAP. If there's one thing we Americans love it's CHEAP anything, especially cheap labor.

Let's say you want some landscaping work done and you have a choice between an American guy driving a brand new $30,000 diesel crew-cab pickup truck with $2,000+ in chrome wheels and a lift kit. He wants $10,000 to do the job (and he'll probably have a crew of young Hispanic men do it). The other guy is an illegal immigrant from south of the border who has been here for ten years and he drove up in a '70s beater Datsun pickup. He wants $1,000 to do the job and his family will help him. The American guy has a truck payment, a fishing boat payment, and a house payment. He also has a '67 Camaro SS that he wants to buy a crate 502 for. The Hispanic illegal immigrant basically has none of that high-overhead stuff, just himself and his family to feed and a one-room apartment. He sure doesn't have a house payment to worry about. They're both digging a big hole in your backyard. Who will you hire?

(By the way, who does most of the block-sanding and other back breaking work in body shops? You gonna' pay Chip Foose to do it or the Hispanics down the street who'll do it just as well for a tenth of the cost? No offense to Mr. Foose, of course. He deserves every dollar he earns.)

As for the president (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and on back), his powerful political allies/campaign donors in the business community (agribusiness especially) desperately need illegal labor. American companies have always wanted the cheapest possible labor (cost control) and with illegal immigrants they can scare Americans with the constant threat of replacement.

I work in the airline industry and there are fewer and fewer "Americans" and more and more immigrants in and around the airplanes. My airline fired all of its cabin cleaners (mostly white women but others too) and they have been replaced by Somali women and other (many Muslim) immigrants. All of the local ramp workers (unionized employees with full benefits) were also recently fired and replaced with cheaper workers supplied by an outside vendor (much cheaper). Northwest's mechanics are on strike but were immediately replaced by scabs laid-off from other airlines--the "brotherhood," so to speak. The pressure's on in the race to the bottom.

Basically there's a war on labor and it's been going on for decades. With the recent globalization trends of the past 10-15 years the war on labor has heated up through out-sourcing (China, India) and other downward pressures on the cost of labor. When corporate managers seek cost control they go straight to labor's pockets and shove both hands in. I myself have taken a 32% pay cut this year and my company really wants to cut into my retirement plan when we start contract negotiations in 2006. As far as the airline business is concerned, the demand for lower and lower fares (and higher and higher fuel prices) has a cost and it comes right out of the employee's pockets. My company's management team continues to pay itself generous "performance" cash bonuses and the stock price is up a little.

Illegal and legal immigration has long been a cheap source of labor in this country and it's not about to end just because a few concerned citizens are patrolling the Arizona border. $10,000 vs. $1,000 -- you make that choice every day.

"Buy American" means that your money usually pays for unionized labor with healthcare and retirement benefits. It also pays for new pickups, fishing boats, vacations, college tuition, four-bedroom houses, a musclecar or two in the garage, etc., etc. But, Americans apparently have been speaking with their wallets and purses in recent years and the result is a continued high demand for ever-cheaper products and services. As America "Wal-Mart-izes" the ripple will be felt across the economic spectrum. As American's pay goes down, so does its spending power. Pretty soon that Hispanic illegal immigrant guy asking $1,000 to dig a hole in your backyard is the only choice you'll be able to make.

Oh, as one of the things I've had to cut back on because of my pay cut, I had to stop taking my 5 year-old son to the barber shop for $16 haircuts every few weeks. I now cut his hair in the kitchen with a $15 haircut kit that paid for itself the first time I used it. My barber's wife actually got a bit angry that I am cutting my son's hair. But, my barber buys a new car or truck every six months or so and has moved into three different houses in the seven years I've known him. Think of me as an illegal immigrant barber getting around the high cost of American barbers.