Posted: Thursday, July 20, 2006 12:00 am
The truth about cheap labor
Isn/t cheap labor what the whole immigration issue is about? Business/s don/t want to pay a decent wage, consumers don/t want expensive produce.
Government will tell you Americans don/t want the jobs but the bottom line is cheap labor is a myth, a farce, a lie.
Take for example, an illegal who sneaks in here with his wife and five children, takes a job at a lower wage. At that wage, with six dependents, he pays no income tax, but when he files income tax he gets an earned income credit of ,3,200 free, qualifies for Section 8 housing and subsidized rent, qualifies for food stamps, free health care, children get free breakfasts and lunches at school, which requires bilingual teachers and books, gets relief on high energy bills. If they become aged, blind or disabled, they qualify for SSI. When that happens they can qualify for Medicare. All this at the taxpayers/ expense.
Not a worry about car insurance, life insurance or homeowners insurance. Taxpayers provide Spanish-language signs, bulletins and printed material. He cannot be fired, harassed or sued. He and his family receive the equivalent of ,20 to ,30 an hour in benefits. Working Americans are lucky to have ,5 or ,6 an hour left after paying their bills and his. We also pay for increased crime and trash cleanup.
Cheap labor? Yeah, right. Work hard and pay your taxes, 12 million illegal aliens are counting on you!
Jon Jessup
Lompoc