Illegal Immigrants II. The Job Issue

THE JOB ISSUE

Here is the main point for Americans and the most important issue of this debate. Foreign workers and the end of the American Dream. It was not long ago when an AVERAGE worker could afford to buy a house, car and have enough left to send their children off to college. Those days are gone. There aren't any jobs for even skilled laborers anymore that can support hardly one person let alone a family. With the influx of so much labor that can be purchased for less than minimum wage, the effect is a stagnation of the rising minimum wage. The system has been worked for almost two centuries to a point where labor in this country was given decent wages, benefits and hours because the constant flood of cheap labor had been removed. Immigrants from south of the border that are here to work and leave, dont have to pay for all the community costs of native workers and therefore can afford to work at smaller wages because their cost of living is based on Chihuahua or Juarez costs of living: there is a supreme mismatch. Americans can't afford to work as cheap.

What right do we have in this country to have higher wages and standards of living? Because Americans became a nation based on meritocracy and ability rather than how white your skin was and who your father was, that's why. Everyone had the opportunity to work hard and play ball as long as they play on an equal playing field (That's not to say it was without some advantages and disadvantages but it was more fair than anywhere else). When that field begins to be pulled from beneath, who wouldn't be concerned? This balance of power, the equilibrium that developed over the years had prevented big business from running away with all the money, but with so many workers in play, they can pick their team, paying far less. Thats what the constant influx of foreign workers does to the labor force. It floods the market driving prices way down and profits way up. Because we are citizens in this democratic country, it is our right to restrict who can come and go through our great country. This is any sovereign nation's free right. Besides, it is probably harder for an average American to get a job in Europe or Australia or NZ than it is for anyone else to get one in American and yet because we want to limit illegal workers from entering, we are at fault? I don't think so.