So a $600M bi-partisan bill passes to increase law enforcement on the Mexican border and... I suppose that there is a criminal element that is violent and uses that border to create wealth for themselves who really ought to be discouraged. Primarily that involves drugs and that isn't really what drives the illegal immigration furor.
People crossing the border in search of jobs is what it is really about. People are pretty smart about things like fences, they figure out ways to get around that. If the number of illegal aliens in this country is something like 20M, you can be real sure that drugs and other criminal activities isn't what needs addressed. The job picture is what needs addressed. Enforcement of the pissant employment laws is virtually non-existent, employers know that the chance of getting caught out is tiny and the fines small enough to cover with their illegal hire profits.
SS numbers really should be fairly easy to track, verify, and catch contradictions. Dead people and 80 year olds don't work construction. People seldom live in two places simultaneously, that might not be a disqualifier but it should hang a flag. Employment is the magnet and employers are the problem. Lacking real dis-incentives to do so, many will put profits ahead of the law and the well-being of the nation. This country cannot afford to have an illegal serf class socially and workers cannot afford to have labor devalued by cheating.
If I were to try to discourage employers I'd hang a first violation fine of Davis-Bacon wage for a year for each illegal employee, second time fine and jail, third time fine, jail, confiscation of the offending business. That would include an out for having verified the number/employee and notification of denied prospective employees and a corrective method for false negatives. I won't address the idea of guest worker programs, the impacts and methodology are beyond my knowledge level and time at this point.
Now you can judge for yourselves whether the GOP has any real interest in something that would address the problem or they're simply interested in pumping race and the interests of wealth. The one variable all businesses can most easily address in profit pursuit is labor, most other costs are very nearly equal for all. Labor is the smallest single cost in most enterprises that involve a product, but it is the most easily modified in this environment.
There are all kinds of other issues involved in some kind of comprehensive immigration reform that I have neither the time nor interest in dealing with. Issues like amnesty begin to vanish if the magnet itself is addressed and what to do with long term illegal residents really ought to be reasonably dealt with in a humane manner. St Ronnie's amnesty failed badly because no other issues were dealt with - a mistake we ought not repeat.
Showing posts with label Illegal Hire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Illegal Hire. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, September 11, 2008
$1.5 Million Golf Clubs Paid For By Illegal Serfs
Gordon Smith, a man who has proven his truthfulness with lying political advertisements, may have a bigger lie to defend. That lie would have to do with how it is he makes his millions of dollars to buy golf clubs and mansions and exotic Senate office furnishing with.
Willamette Week went over to Weston, Oregon to take a look at Smith Frozen Foods and - oooh, big surprise - found out that most everyone knows they hire illegally. They pay real crappy also, you can do that and make millions if you've got an illegal source of labor - I've said it before - the new serfs. Minimum wage to process food, irregular work, and apparently draconian employment policies all can follow hand in glove if you have an easily repressed work force. It is real tough to make the case that these jobs are being taken away from Americans, the wages and conditions are way too shoddy to garner much interest. From that point you might start to ask questions - like why are the wages and conditions too crummy?
Yup. Obviously working at Smith's plant is a real incentive for legal immigrants - everybody wants to work for peanuts and get treated badly - while they make a smarmy haircut millions. You may have heard of E-verify, a voluntary program that allows businesses to check that Social Security numbers match the person,
But Smith wasn't pleased with it, they didn't like it,
Well it certainly would be inconvenient to the practice of hiring illegally. It would sort of dry up that piece of the labor market - unless you were willing to blatantly hire illegally. Legally you can deny a certain amount of responsibility for illegal hiring but there are limits to it, not sufficient limits, but they exist. You are supposed to photocopy documents used for employment verification -
But, but...
You have to remember that there is little incentive for the plutocrats to hire legally when they have access to a labor pool that they can exploit. Wages in E OR are below the State's median income, it certainly doesn't help when a US Senator is doing his level best to get rich off the backs of people he can exploit while he does favors for other plutocrats. I think maybe it is time that Gordon got a break from the rigors of Congressional duty and took some care of his business, like before he winds up charged with a crime. He is aware that it is criminal behavior.
What a punk.
Willamette Week went over to Weston, Oregon to take a look at Smith Frozen Foods and - oooh, big surprise - found out that most everyone knows they hire illegally. They pay real crappy also, you can do that and make millions if you've got an illegal source of labor - I've said it before - the new serfs. Minimum wage to process food, irregular work, and apparently draconian employment policies all can follow hand in glove if you have an easily repressed work force. It is real tough to make the case that these jobs are being taken away from Americans, the wages and conditions are way too shoddy to garner much interest. From that point you might start to ask questions - like why are the wages and conditions too crummy?
On Aug. 14, Smith told WW: “We need to support legal immigration and not incentivize illegal immigration.” A year earlier he told KXL’s Lars Larson his company goes “the extra mile” to make sure it doesn’t hire any illegal immigrants.
Yup. Obviously working at Smith's plant is a real incentive for legal immigrants - everybody wants to work for peanuts and get treated badly - while they make a smarmy haircut millions. You may have heard of E-verify, a voluntary program that allows businesses to check that Social Security numbers match the person,
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement defended the free, voluntary program. “If an employer uses E-verify and they encounter errors, there are steps in place to address that,” says ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers. A representative for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services added that E-verify results in errors less than 1 percent of the time.
But Smith wasn't pleased with it, they didn't like it,
Smith Frozen Foods chooses not to use this program. “We tried it in the past, and we were not very happy with it,” Brown says of E-verify, which is used by 80,000 companies in the United States. “It doesn’t work very well.”
Well it certainly would be inconvenient to the practice of hiring illegally. It would sort of dry up that piece of the labor market - unless you were willing to blatantly hire illegally. Legally you can deny a certain amount of responsibility for illegal hiring but there are limits to it, not sufficient limits, but they exist. You are supposed to photocopy documents used for employment verification -
According to a May 23, 1988, memo from the U.S. Department of Justice obtained by WW, Bob Cortinas, who was then Smith’s personnel director, told federal investigators he was instructed by Smith’s legal department not to photocopy workers’ documents “so that it would make it harder for [immigration officials] to find errors.”
But, but...
He is a U.S. senator who voted against granting amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
You have to remember that there is little incentive for the plutocrats to hire legally when they have access to a labor pool that they can exploit. Wages in E OR are below the State's median income, it certainly doesn't help when a US Senator is doing his level best to get rich off the backs of people he can exploit while he does favors for other plutocrats. I think maybe it is time that Gordon got a break from the rigors of Congressional duty and took some care of his business, like before he winds up charged with a crime. He is aware that it is criminal behavior.
What a punk.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Farm Labor - Illegal
I'm real unsure why it is that farm labor becomes an issue whenever amnesty or path to citizenship comes up. Republican Brad Blakeman just brought up the fact that 40% of that labor is illegal and what will we do about 40% less groceries on the shelf? How exactly he plans to keep the newly legal farm labor down on the farm is beyond me. With legal "impediments" removed they would certainly prefer a better paying less stressful job, as with St Ronnie's amnesty. To make up the lack we will do just as we did after RR, in-source some more workers - illegally.
The agenda is to keep wages low and not inconvenience the plutocrats by enforcing hiring laws. One reason the Social Security data base is so screwed up is that no attempts have been made to weed out the fraudulent use of numbers. It is not that difficult to to sort non-issued numbers, duplicate numbers, and deceased numbers. It would cost money to fix the data base, but mostly it would inconvenience the employer cheats and force wages up.
It is not a matter of the work, it is a matter of the pay for the work. Americans do a lot of really crappy jobs, they do it for money that makes up for it. This is not about discriminating against a racial group or ethnic group, this is about wages. These wages discriminate in themselves against our citizens living in poverty, whatever race or ethnicity. The sympathisers ignore on whose backs they they place the burden. They ignore the history of the US. They ignore simple economics.
This nation is already the most willing and receptive to immigration in the world, questions?
The agenda is to keep wages low and not inconvenience the plutocrats by enforcing hiring laws. One reason the Social Security data base is so screwed up is that no attempts have been made to weed out the fraudulent use of numbers. It is not that difficult to to sort non-issued numbers, duplicate numbers, and deceased numbers. It would cost money to fix the data base, but mostly it would inconvenience the employer cheats and force wages up.
It is not a matter of the work, it is a matter of the pay for the work. Americans do a lot of really crappy jobs, they do it for money that makes up for it. This is not about discriminating against a racial group or ethnic group, this is about wages. These wages discriminate in themselves against our citizens living in poverty, whatever race or ethnicity. The sympathisers ignore on whose backs they they place the burden. They ignore the history of the US. They ignore simple economics.
This nation is already the most willing and receptive to immigration in the world, questions?
Friday, May 30, 2008
Maria Jimenez Dies For Profit
The Sacramento Bee reports that Maria Jimenez was until May 16th just another 17 year old undocumented farm worker. That is until she died of heat working for Merced Farm Labor pruning grape vines for West Coast Grape Farming. Gov Ahnuld showed for her funeral. Water and shade were the problems, probably compounded by being 2 months pregnant.
Cheap labor is provided by people with no legal right to employment. People with no right to employment and in the country illegally don't have a lot of avenues to pursue with complaints about working conditions. So, there you are; they'll work cheap in bad conditions and not complain. Sounds like a real winner if profit is your god, doesn't it? Oh, that's right, they'll do the work Americans won't. They also won't interfere in the system by voting and stuff like that. Damn good deal for the plutocrats, real rough on the serfs - what do you call right less workers? It also is kind of rough on legal labor, drags wages down something fierce and reduces employment opportunities.
The creation of a serf class in this country is an abomination and a return to the age of the Robber Barons. Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of this for different and equally short sighted reasons. I oppose it. Maria is one of the reasons I oppose it. You enablers killed this girl, face it, this is what you advocate tolerance of. I keep trying to tell you that there are real serious problems with your tolerance of illegal labor and you keep pooh-poohing. I keep trying to tell you that you harm everyone involved in labor for the benefit of plutocracy and you call me names. That's fine, you go there and tell Maria's family all the benefits of a disenfranchised serf class.
Cheap labor is provided by people with no legal right to employment. People with no right to employment and in the country illegally don't have a lot of avenues to pursue with complaints about working conditions. So, there you are; they'll work cheap in bad conditions and not complain. Sounds like a real winner if profit is your god, doesn't it? Oh, that's right, they'll do the work Americans won't. They also won't interfere in the system by voting and stuff like that. Damn good deal for the plutocrats, real rough on the serfs - what do you call right less workers? It also is kind of rough on legal labor, drags wages down something fierce and reduces employment opportunities.
The creation of a serf class in this country is an abomination and a return to the age of the Robber Barons. Democrats and Republicans are equally guilty of this for different and equally short sighted reasons. I oppose it. Maria is one of the reasons I oppose it. You enablers killed this girl, face it, this is what you advocate tolerance of. I keep trying to tell you that there are real serious problems with your tolerance of illegal labor and you keep pooh-poohing. I keep trying to tell you that you harm everyone involved in labor for the benefit of plutocracy and you call me names. That's fine, you go there and tell Maria's family all the benefits of a disenfranchised serf class.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Illegal Immigration Storm Rising
Illegal immigration is repeatedly referred to as a Republican issue, maybe in the big public fights in Congress but I am finding a considerable amount of discontent within the liberal.progressive category. It doesn't get to be very high profile and Democratic legislators don't get publicly bombarded by Democrats, but there is a very real discontent with amnesty programs.
At least some of the resistance has its roots in history, Reagan's amnesty was not followed by employer enforcement and opened the gates - again, by demonstrating American impotence on the issue. The progressives who pay attention can see the degradation of wages surrounding the flooding of the labor market, we're talking about a lot wider effect than grass mowing and crop picking; the direct effect runs the gamut of lower blue collar wages from construction to light manufacturing and the indirect effect spread into the middle class. The effects on social services in some locales has been drastic and is spreading widely. The results of an illegal underground society have been making headlines, along with the impotence of local law enforcement. Racism is on the rise, using the cover of a legitimate issue and yet to come are the results of having a disenfranchised serf class living amongst us.
There are several beneficiaries to this mess, racist demagogues get credence, plutocrats widen the disparity of wealth with the worst victims disenfranchised, radical race based organizations - La Raza to KKK build their membership, and ludicrous positions like open borders or police state enforcement get credence in the face of impotence.
Perceived impotence gives rise to stupid legislation like the Kennedy/McCain mess. Employers laugh at "enforcement" and if it shows cry inability to find Americans to do the jobs - which is true, Americans won't do the jobs for those wages; which would be self-correcting minus the illegal flood.
Democrats aren't hearing a large backlash from Democrats and at least a couple reasons seem to be in operation. Democrats tend not to be racist (at least overtly) and recoil from having that label attached to them. This is one of the demagogic tools in the open borders crowd's arsenal, debase all opponents with racism. Another is an appeal to their sense of justice and fairness, it is quite factual to state that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are responsible individuals attempting to improve their and their family's lot with hard work. Another tool is the assertion of impotence to deal with the issue without the institution of a police state and the expense in resources. There is finally local and state inability to do anything in the face of Federal inaction, popular politicians attempt to defuse rising tensions with any tool at hand firing the heat from rabid anti-illegals and shoring the "Party" defences. It is flatly difficult to to push a Democratic local official to take an enforcement stance when he knows there is legally nothing to be done and local problems require action.
The last is possibly one of the most illustrative and the example of "sanctuary" day labor halls shows what local officials are up against. Cheating employers use day labor pools to cut costs in low skill employment by hiring off the streets. This creates a disorderly and potentially dangerous condition of prospective laborers gathering in one place in hot competition for jobs. The local populous will not tolerate these conditions and in face of real tensions the local officials establish a location for hiring, because quite simply they cannot legally do anything to remove the root problem - cheating employers and illegal aliens. This is a Catch 22 solution, it takes the mess off the streets but is exacerbates the problem of illegal hiring and gives ammunition to the opponents of illegal immigration. The real villains in this, Congress and BushCo and employers, don't get attacked, the attack falls on the local official and if that official is Democratic, the Democrats are forced to back their play, whether they agree with unfettered illegal immigration or not.
While I do not have a comprehensive plan to deal with the mess, and since nobody would do anything with one I developed; I will at least state unequivocally that the Democrats have to face up to this issue and deal with it in a real manner and if that does not address the very real problems facing us they will face a large backlash. The problem has been building since 1984 and Ronnie's refusal to do anything more than an amnesty, some - myself included - have been calling for action for over a decade but this issue is finally hitting its boiling point. The effects have become widespread enough that they are plain to many without demagoguery and politicians that ignore or try to gloss the issue are going to pay in the '08 election. Some on the left have called this a fake issue and wondered why this is now an issue. It is an issue, validly, and even if it were manufactured it would still have to be dealt with, but its validity is demonstrated by articles like this in McClatchy - scarcely a reactionary publication. Some Republicans have already paid for their positions and while that may seem a Republican problem it is not, much of the middle or Independent vote is concerned and upset and within the ranks of Democrats disillusionment is spreading.
A very large portion of the voters are not willing to provide Mexico and other plutocratic racist countries with a safety valve at the expense of Americans. Taxpayers will hold still for some wasteful spending but telling them that they must subsidize plutocrats and corrupt foreign governments will upset them no end. If anyone thinks that Republican candidates will not appeal to this they live in a fantasy world. There is no reason whatever for Democrats to need to appeal to the racist xenophobes, but it is necessary to address the real issues at hand. Americans generally have an inherent sense of fairness, but it takes little to offend that sense - the Kennedy/McCain mess offended it, there is a balance to be struck between reasonable treatment of long term illegals and a total disrespect for law and legal employees - and for that issue - the suffering of legal employers. There also are methods of dealing with largest proportion of illegal aliens, the more recent arrivals, without creating a police state. If one wishes to address such an issue one needs to proceed logically, and the starting point is the reason people engage in an illegal activity, crossing a border without permission. They do not cross that border to sight-see or otherwise vacation, they cross for the improved economic conditions available to them. While some form of control must be provided for the border the actual root cause must be addressed and that is economic. It is not realistic to think that the US can somehow improve the corrupt racist xenophobic plutocratic government of Mexico (and others) short of an invasion, the problem must be most directly attacked domestically and that involves employment and social services short of emergency care. Children born in the US are citizens and must continue to be so, but that need confer absolutely no benefits on the parents - the ability to breed is not somehow a legal entitlement. The ordinary law enforcement contact with illegal aliens occurs at the local level, for the federal government to deny authority and funding for these contacts is ludicrous and encourages illegal activity. It must be recognized that some contacts are very serious and involve people with little to lose and when those people are simply cut loose their behavior is encouraged, that is the most serious outcome, the less serious is the demonstration of simple impotence of law enforcement.
Does this currently rise to the level of crisis? Not in the sense of widespread civil disorder and property damage, but we are rapidly approaching a tipping point in ability to deal with it at all and worse yet the onset of the damages of all the natural outcomes of the creation of a serf class. History holds lessons regarding this type of situation, and the outcomes are universally nasty. Let's see if we can't avoid repeating previous stupidities engaged in here and other countries.
At least some of the resistance has its roots in history, Reagan's amnesty was not followed by employer enforcement and opened the gates - again, by demonstrating American impotence on the issue. The progressives who pay attention can see the degradation of wages surrounding the flooding of the labor market, we're talking about a lot wider effect than grass mowing and crop picking; the direct effect runs the gamut of lower blue collar wages from construction to light manufacturing and the indirect effect spread into the middle class. The effects on social services in some locales has been drastic and is spreading widely. The results of an illegal underground society have been making headlines, along with the impotence of local law enforcement. Racism is on the rise, using the cover of a legitimate issue and yet to come are the results of having a disenfranchised serf class living amongst us.
There are several beneficiaries to this mess, racist demagogues get credence, plutocrats widen the disparity of wealth with the worst victims disenfranchised, radical race based organizations - La Raza to KKK build their membership, and ludicrous positions like open borders or police state enforcement get credence in the face of impotence.
Perceived impotence gives rise to stupid legislation like the Kennedy/McCain mess. Employers laugh at "enforcement" and if it shows cry inability to find Americans to do the jobs - which is true, Americans won't do the jobs for those wages; which would be self-correcting minus the illegal flood.
Democrats aren't hearing a large backlash from Democrats and at least a couple reasons seem to be in operation. Democrats tend not to be racist (at least overtly) and recoil from having that label attached to them. This is one of the demagogic tools in the open borders crowd's arsenal, debase all opponents with racism. Another is an appeal to their sense of justice and fairness, it is quite factual to state that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are responsible individuals attempting to improve their and their family's lot with hard work. Another tool is the assertion of impotence to deal with the issue without the institution of a police state and the expense in resources. There is finally local and state inability to do anything in the face of Federal inaction, popular politicians attempt to defuse rising tensions with any tool at hand firing the heat from rabid anti-illegals and shoring the "Party" defences. It is flatly difficult to to push a Democratic local official to take an enforcement stance when he knows there is legally nothing to be done and local problems require action.
The last is possibly one of the most illustrative and the example of "sanctuary" day labor halls shows what local officials are up against. Cheating employers use day labor pools to cut costs in low skill employment by hiring off the streets. This creates a disorderly and potentially dangerous condition of prospective laborers gathering in one place in hot competition for jobs. The local populous will not tolerate these conditions and in face of real tensions the local officials establish a location for hiring, because quite simply they cannot legally do anything to remove the root problem - cheating employers and illegal aliens. This is a Catch 22 solution, it takes the mess off the streets but is exacerbates the problem of illegal hiring and gives ammunition to the opponents of illegal immigration. The real villains in this, Congress and BushCo and employers, don't get attacked, the attack falls on the local official and if that official is Democratic, the Democrats are forced to back their play, whether they agree with unfettered illegal immigration or not.
While I do not have a comprehensive plan to deal with the mess, and since nobody would do anything with one I developed; I will at least state unequivocally that the Democrats have to face up to this issue and deal with it in a real manner and if that does not address the very real problems facing us they will face a large backlash. The problem has been building since 1984 and Ronnie's refusal to do anything more than an amnesty, some - myself included - have been calling for action for over a decade but this issue is finally hitting its boiling point. The effects have become widespread enough that they are plain to many without demagoguery and politicians that ignore or try to gloss the issue are going to pay in the '08 election. Some on the left have called this a fake issue and wondered why this is now an issue. It is an issue, validly, and even if it were manufactured it would still have to be dealt with, but its validity is demonstrated by articles like this in McClatchy - scarcely a reactionary publication. Some Republicans have already paid for their positions and while that may seem a Republican problem it is not, much of the middle or Independent vote is concerned and upset and within the ranks of Democrats disillusionment is spreading.
A very large portion of the voters are not willing to provide Mexico and other plutocratic racist countries with a safety valve at the expense of Americans. Taxpayers will hold still for some wasteful spending but telling them that they must subsidize plutocrats and corrupt foreign governments will upset them no end. If anyone thinks that Republican candidates will not appeal to this they live in a fantasy world. There is no reason whatever for Democrats to need to appeal to the racist xenophobes, but it is necessary to address the real issues at hand. Americans generally have an inherent sense of fairness, but it takes little to offend that sense - the Kennedy/McCain mess offended it, there is a balance to be struck between reasonable treatment of long term illegals and a total disrespect for law and legal employees - and for that issue - the suffering of legal employers. There also are methods of dealing with largest proportion of illegal aliens, the more recent arrivals, without creating a police state. If one wishes to address such an issue one needs to proceed logically, and the starting point is the reason people engage in an illegal activity, crossing a border without permission. They do not cross that border to sight-see or otherwise vacation, they cross for the improved economic conditions available to them. While some form of control must be provided for the border the actual root cause must be addressed and that is economic. It is not realistic to think that the US can somehow improve the corrupt racist xenophobic plutocratic government of Mexico (and others) short of an invasion, the problem must be most directly attacked domestically and that involves employment and social services short of emergency care. Children born in the US are citizens and must continue to be so, but that need confer absolutely no benefits on the parents - the ability to breed is not somehow a legal entitlement. The ordinary law enforcement contact with illegal aliens occurs at the local level, for the federal government to deny authority and funding for these contacts is ludicrous and encourages illegal activity. It must be recognized that some contacts are very serious and involve people with little to lose and when those people are simply cut loose their behavior is encouraged, that is the most serious outcome, the less serious is the demonstration of simple impotence of law enforcement.
Does this currently rise to the level of crisis? Not in the sense of widespread civil disorder and property damage, but we are rapidly approaching a tipping point in ability to deal with it at all and worse yet the onset of the damages of all the natural outcomes of the creation of a serf class. History holds lessons regarding this type of situation, and the outcomes are universally nasty. Let's see if we can't avoid repeating previous stupidities engaged in here and other countries.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Race, Immigration, and Illegal Immigration-Updated
I just finished reading a NYT article Our Town about Carpentersville and Illinois town whose demographics have undergone a significant change in An estimated 40 percent of its 37,000 residents are Hispanic, a jump from 17 percent in 1990. recent years, "an estimated 40 percent of its 37,000 residents are Hispanic, a jump from 17 percent in 1990." The result has been a backlash with proposed ordinances mirroring Hazelton's. Estimates vary, a priest estimates that 50% of his Hispanic parishioners are here illegally.
The tone of the article is somewhat disapproving of the ordinances and the fallout, tensions between residents have risen and village council meetings are testy. A local businessman, Tom Roeser, president and owner of Otto Engineering thinks the council people driving the ordinances are essentially racists and troublemakers. He states that he is careful about legal hiring and only allows English in the factory, with the goals of assimilation and productivity, but there is an issue, wages on the assembly line range from $7.95 to $10 with some benefits for long term employees. Carpentersville is 40 miles from Chicago which would make those wages rather pathetic, with revenues of $77 million last year from supplying switches to NASA, the USAF and others those wages seem low. The accusation about town is that while he may hire legally his interest in keeping wages low drives his opposition.
The gulf between the more affluent and the low income in town is growing, driven by language, culture, housing conditions and a perception of advantage for those who are illegal. Racism is one of the louder accusations and evidently some opposition to the illegals is race driven or most favorably xenophobic. Legal Hispanics feel discriminated against, in some cases rightfully.
So, this is the straits we're being driven into. Perfectly legal contributors to our society are lumped with law breakers, law breakers are held up as examples of contribution and victimization of racists, wages are depressed and cultural assimilation is brought to a screeching halt by suspicion and fear. Racism is justified by criminal behavior and opposition to criminal benefit of illegal behavior is labeled racism. It goes around and around. It is the natural outcome of the condoning of illegal immigration by the federal government until the numbers become so large that social dislocations begin. It is now beginning to tear communities apart.
As the BushCo ramps up fear of "the other" with its phony war on terror, skin color becomes increasingly relevant in people's lives, this approval of (denied) racism by BushCo becomes a larger approval, brown is bad. The presence of so many "brown" law breaking illegal immigrants fuels the reaction. All this race nonsense obscures the very real consequences of creating a serf culture. Places like Carpentersville demonstrate the beginnings of what may become a tide of behavior.
There is no easy feel good solution to this problem, that is the very first recognition that needs to be made. No matter what approach is taken someone is going to get to suffer for it. It is not a case of some minor sacrifices, any solution is going to result in very real pain. Get over the idea that it won't, there is absolutely no scenario in which that happens. If you brace up to the idea, you can begin to think about realistic solutions.
First of all it is not economically feasible or legally desirable to begin a round-up and deportation of all illegal immigrants, the creation of the required police state apparatus would make this into a country we couldn't recognize - except maybe as a BushCo wet dream. Outright amnesty (a la Ronnie Reagan) would blow social services to pieces and crush wages completely and encourage a further influx, or rather, flood. It would once again leave agriculture as the beginning phase of further illegal hiring.
The "path to citizenship" that ran into so much opposition is a form of amnesty (don't start BS), but if set into motion with some rather stringent requirements and enforcements might have some results; there have been illegals here for an extended period who have paid taxes and maintained an otherwise legal life and an absolute denial of such is both unfair and unrealistic. That bar must be set rather high in order to pass muster with the citizenry and to act as a bar to further incursions. Giving employers a real system of verification and then enforcing very real and painful sanctions for violation is a beginning. The denial of any and all social services beyond actual life threatening ones and the reporting of all such false applications and illegal usages will remove some draw. Placing all law enforcement officers into an enforcement of the applicable federal law will begin to make a dent. Rigorous enforcement of the laws regarding false documentation with stringent penalties will discourage the manufacture of such documentation and its usage. A child born in the US is a citizen and that must not be interfered with, that fact however also must not be linked to deportation of illegal parents, the outcome of such behavior is entirely their own responsibility and decision to make. Any US citizen has a right to be in or enter or re-enter this country regardless of the status of parents. While such a policy may have difficult outcomes it is the only method of ensuring that citizenship cannot be interfered with.
It is of the utmost importance that the US get control of entry and residence. It is entirely unlikely that any fence, however tall and long will dissuade illegal entry if the draw is still there. If the lifestyle and benefits of US residency remain open to anyone who can get here we will soon devolve into just another third world nation. At least one foreign policy issue should be the raising of the lifestyle standards of the third world nations near our borders rather than taking advantage of their status as third world countries. Trade agreements that do not recognize the general well-being of US citizenry and the citizenry of the trading partners are not workable in the long run. Under BushCo and previous administrations the US government has turned into a tool of plutocracies in this country and our trading partners, this must stop. The generation of the wealth of this nation is not synonymous with the generation of the wealth of the wealthy and powerfully connected.
As the Hazeltons and Carpentersvilles spread across this nation we risk very real social dislocations that bode ill for the kind of government envisioned in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and Civil Rights. This essay is not considered by myself to be a finished document or a source of all solutions, it is only a beginning point for discussion and rational planning.
***Update***
Please include on your blog as a rebuttal
You mistakenly make a judgment regarding the wage level at OTTO and the effect that a large Hispanic population has regarding wages in the area. Carpentersville is a large community of 37,000 close to many companies such as Motorola, Sears, and a plethora of smaller manufacturing and service companies. OTTO’s ability to hire people ( and we have increased our employment by 44 people so far this year) is only possible if we pay competitive wages. With unemployment at 4.6% it would be unfeasible if not impossible to find employees if wages were not competitive. Our AVERAGE pay for an employee in our assembly area is over $10.35. Our benefit plans include a health care package with a $300 deductible and 90% co-payment. Employees pay 16% of the premium, far below the national average. Allegations that OTTO hires illegal aliens is more mean-spirited that factual.
Tom Roeser
President
2 E Main Street
Carpentersville, IL 60110
847-654-8205
http://www.ottoexcellence.com/
Mr Roeser needs to learn to read completely what is written and not what he assumes. There is not a single statement in my article linking OTTO to illegal hiring although apparently a case of "borrowed" documents resulted in an illegal hire - rather difficult to blame OTTO for and not even mentioned in my article, but since he references it, I am forced to include it now. I did not mention it previously because I considered it immaterial and accidental.
Their benefit package he mentioned is an excellent one, but the wages are still pathetic being less than $5/hour in 1984 dollars. His assertion that flooding a labor market does not depress wages is counter to economic theory and practically demonstrated fact. I stand by my article.
I will always include such "rebuttals" and I do not delete comments unless they are stupidly rude. (or commercial spam) I couldn't do this without making sure I play fair and play straight.
The tone of the article is somewhat disapproving of the ordinances and the fallout, tensions between residents have risen and village council meetings are testy. A local businessman, Tom Roeser, president and owner of Otto Engineering thinks the council people driving the ordinances are essentially racists and troublemakers. He states that he is careful about legal hiring and only allows English in the factory, with the goals of assimilation and productivity, but there is an issue, wages on the assembly line range from $7.95 to $10 with some benefits for long term employees. Carpentersville is 40 miles from Chicago which would make those wages rather pathetic, with revenues of $77 million last year from supplying switches to NASA, the USAF and others those wages seem low. The accusation about town is that while he may hire legally his interest in keeping wages low drives his opposition.
The gulf between the more affluent and the low income in town is growing, driven by language, culture, housing conditions and a perception of advantage for those who are illegal. Racism is one of the louder accusations and evidently some opposition to the illegals is race driven or most favorably xenophobic. Legal Hispanics feel discriminated against, in some cases rightfully.
So, this is the straits we're being driven into. Perfectly legal contributors to our society are lumped with law breakers, law breakers are held up as examples of contribution and victimization of racists, wages are depressed and cultural assimilation is brought to a screeching halt by suspicion and fear. Racism is justified by criminal behavior and opposition to criminal benefit of illegal behavior is labeled racism. It goes around and around. It is the natural outcome of the condoning of illegal immigration by the federal government until the numbers become so large that social dislocations begin. It is now beginning to tear communities apart.
As the BushCo ramps up fear of "the other" with its phony war on terror, skin color becomes increasingly relevant in people's lives, this approval of (denied) racism by BushCo becomes a larger approval, brown is bad. The presence of so many "brown" law breaking illegal immigrants fuels the reaction. All this race nonsense obscures the very real consequences of creating a serf culture. Places like Carpentersville demonstrate the beginnings of what may become a tide of behavior.
There is no easy feel good solution to this problem, that is the very first recognition that needs to be made. No matter what approach is taken someone is going to get to suffer for it. It is not a case of some minor sacrifices, any solution is going to result in very real pain. Get over the idea that it won't, there is absolutely no scenario in which that happens. If you brace up to the idea, you can begin to think about realistic solutions.
First of all it is not economically feasible or legally desirable to begin a round-up and deportation of all illegal immigrants, the creation of the required police state apparatus would make this into a country we couldn't recognize - except maybe as a BushCo wet dream. Outright amnesty (a la Ronnie Reagan) would blow social services to pieces and crush wages completely and encourage a further influx, or rather, flood. It would once again leave agriculture as the beginning phase of further illegal hiring.
The "path to citizenship" that ran into so much opposition is a form of amnesty (don't start BS), but if set into motion with some rather stringent requirements and enforcements might have some results; there have been illegals here for an extended period who have paid taxes and maintained an otherwise legal life and an absolute denial of such is both unfair and unrealistic. That bar must be set rather high in order to pass muster with the citizenry and to act as a bar to further incursions. Giving employers a real system of verification and then enforcing very real and painful sanctions for violation is a beginning. The denial of any and all social services beyond actual life threatening ones and the reporting of all such false applications and illegal usages will remove some draw. Placing all law enforcement officers into an enforcement of the applicable federal law will begin to make a dent. Rigorous enforcement of the laws regarding false documentation with stringent penalties will discourage the manufacture of such documentation and its usage. A child born in the US is a citizen and that must not be interfered with, that fact however also must not be linked to deportation of illegal parents, the outcome of such behavior is entirely their own responsibility and decision to make. Any US citizen has a right to be in or enter or re-enter this country regardless of the status of parents. While such a policy may have difficult outcomes it is the only method of ensuring that citizenship cannot be interfered with.
It is of the utmost importance that the US get control of entry and residence. It is entirely unlikely that any fence, however tall and long will dissuade illegal entry if the draw is still there. If the lifestyle and benefits of US residency remain open to anyone who can get here we will soon devolve into just another third world nation. At least one foreign policy issue should be the raising of the lifestyle standards of the third world nations near our borders rather than taking advantage of their status as third world countries. Trade agreements that do not recognize the general well-being of US citizenry and the citizenry of the trading partners are not workable in the long run. Under BushCo and previous administrations the US government has turned into a tool of plutocracies in this country and our trading partners, this must stop. The generation of the wealth of this nation is not synonymous with the generation of the wealth of the wealthy and powerfully connected.
As the Hazeltons and Carpentersvilles spread across this nation we risk very real social dislocations that bode ill for the kind of government envisioned in the Constitution and Bill of Rights and Civil Rights. This essay is not considered by myself to be a finished document or a source of all solutions, it is only a beginning point for discussion and rational planning.
***Update***
Please include on your blog as a rebuttal
You mistakenly make a judgment regarding the wage level at OTTO and the effect that a large Hispanic population has regarding wages in the area. Carpentersville is a large community of 37,000 close to many companies such as Motorola, Sears, and a plethora of smaller manufacturing and service companies. OTTO’s ability to hire people ( and we have increased our employment by 44 people so far this year) is only possible if we pay competitive wages. With unemployment at 4.6% it would be unfeasible if not impossible to find employees if wages were not competitive. Our AVERAGE pay for an employee in our assembly area is over $10.35. Our benefit plans include a health care package with a $300 deductible and 90% co-payment. Employees pay 16% of the premium, far below the national average. Allegations that OTTO hires illegal aliens is more mean-spirited that factual.
Tom Roeser
President
2 E Main Street
Carpentersville, IL 60110
847-654-8205
http://www.ottoexcellence.com/
Mr Roeser needs to learn to read completely what is written and not what he assumes. There is not a single statement in my article linking OTTO to illegal hiring although apparently a case of "borrowed" documents resulted in an illegal hire - rather difficult to blame OTTO for and not even mentioned in my article, but since he references it, I am forced to include it now. I did not mention it previously because I considered it immaterial and accidental.
Their benefit package he mentioned is an excellent one, but the wages are still pathetic being less than $5/hour in 1984 dollars. His assertion that flooding a labor market does not depress wages is counter to economic theory and practically demonstrated fact. I stand by my article.
I will always include such "rebuttals" and I do not delete comments unless they are stupidly rude. (or commercial spam) I couldn't do this without making sure I play fair and play straight.
Friday, August 03, 2007
McCain, Immigration, and Politics
AP reports that John McCain has brought forward a new immigration bill with fellow Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jon Kyl of Arizona as co-sponsors. McCain's support for the failed "comprehensive immigration bill" is believed to have cost him politically. Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, said of this, "It is fairly stunning they have gone from leaders on comprehensive reform legislation to lemmings running over the cliff."
The bill creates an electronic employment check system for employers, makes being in the country illegally a criminal misdemeanor and ups the penalties for re-entering after deportation and that illegal immigrants who commit a crime remain in jail until deported.
I'm not exactly sure what it is that is objectionable in this bill, illegal immigration is a self-defined crime and misdemeanor treatment is scarcely draconian. I can think of no reason employers are held responsible for hiring violations without a system of verification and less reason to encourage criminal behavior by foreigners or our domestic employers. Labor supply is the business of business, not immigration policy, if business finds labor wage rates rising there are perfectly legitimate methods of dealing with it. The US is not a dumping ground for foreign governments nor is it their safety valve for their corrupt plutocratic policies.
None of this makes me a Republican nor a John McCain supporter, but it also doesn't make me a partisan nut case opposition to any Republican legislation.
The bill creates an electronic employment check system for employers, makes being in the country illegally a criminal misdemeanor and ups the penalties for re-entering after deportation and that illegal immigrants who commit a crime remain in jail until deported.
I'm not exactly sure what it is that is objectionable in this bill, illegal immigration is a self-defined crime and misdemeanor treatment is scarcely draconian. I can think of no reason employers are held responsible for hiring violations without a system of verification and less reason to encourage criminal behavior by foreigners or our domestic employers. Labor supply is the business of business, not immigration policy, if business finds labor wage rates rising there are perfectly legitimate methods of dealing with it. The US is not a dumping ground for foreign governments nor is it their safety valve for their corrupt plutocratic policies.
None of this makes me a Republican nor a John McCain supporter, but it also doesn't make me a partisan nut case opposition to any Republican legislation.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Suffolk County versus New York State
Steve Levy (D) is Suffolk County Executive with an 80% approval rating amongst all voters and has been endorsed for re-election by both Democratic and Republican Parties in the county. He is an adamant opponent of tolerance for illegal immigration and refuses to create hiring halls for illegal hiring, which has put him in opposition to the Democratic lead (108 of 150) State Assembly in Albany which has tied up a 1% sales tax for Sufffolk County amounting to $320 million.
Hiring halls are intended to get the illegal immigrant day workers off the street and out of sight of the increasingly unhappy voters. Now it isn't apparent that Mr Levy is some closet racist, NYT points out:
' The chairman of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns of Brooklyn, said in an interview that “it’s time for two former colleagues to have a cup of coffee,” noting that Mr. Levy had supported antidiscrimination bills during his years in the State Legislature. '
But, here is what the battle in Suffolk County seems to come down to:
'John Taylor, standing with a cup of coffee outside his Village Art and Frame shop nearby, echoed Mr. Levy’s feeling that illegal immigrants are taking jobs and undermining wages, saying of the caucus: “What is it about the word ‘illegal’ that people don’t understand?” '
Now I cannot speak for the underlying thinking of the proponents of illegal immigrants, but implicit in their stance is this, "all you have to do to get a job and services in the US is get here."
Evidently a segment of the Albany Legislature agrees with this. Too bad there's no way to tie their income to the wages of those affected, they'd squeal quick enough. It's real easy for folks to kick around ideas that do not harm them, it's real easy to hang out the 20% of the population who work with their hands, you save 5% on the price of your house, you save 5% on the price of your vegetables, you save that 5% at the cash register and pay multiples of it in State and Federal subsidies to those workers and the costs to the health care system. Legal American workers are pushed into poverty by this plutocratic agenda. George W Bush is fine with it, doesn't that give you a clue?
Hiring halls are intended to get the illegal immigrant day workers off the street and out of sight of the increasingly unhappy voters. Now it isn't apparent that Mr Levy is some closet racist, NYT points out:
' The chairman of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns of Brooklyn, said in an interview that “it’s time for two former colleagues to have a cup of coffee,” noting that Mr. Levy had supported antidiscrimination bills during his years in the State Legislature. '
But, here is what the battle in Suffolk County seems to come down to:
'John Taylor, standing with a cup of coffee outside his Village Art and Frame shop nearby, echoed Mr. Levy’s feeling that illegal immigrants are taking jobs and undermining wages, saying of the caucus: “What is it about the word ‘illegal’ that people don’t understand?” '
Now I cannot speak for the underlying thinking of the proponents of illegal immigrants, but implicit in their stance is this, "all you have to do to get a job and services in the US is get here."
Evidently a segment of the Albany Legislature agrees with this. Too bad there's no way to tie their income to the wages of those affected, they'd squeal quick enough. It's real easy for folks to kick around ideas that do not harm them, it's real easy to hang out the 20% of the population who work with their hands, you save 5% on the price of your house, you save 5% on the price of your vegetables, you save that 5% at the cash register and pay multiples of it in State and Federal subsidies to those workers and the costs to the health care system. Legal American workers are pushed into poverty by this plutocratic agenda. George W Bush is fine with it, doesn't that give you a clue?
Friday, June 08, 2007
Cheap Labor In Peril
When Jerry Brown, CA AG, gets up on CNN and says that agriculture is in trouble because cheap labor won't be available without the Immigration Act, because these people will work for wages an American can't live on. Yes, that was a part of his argument. You have to understand that work is not to be rewarded in a plutocratic society, only the elite gets to prosper. Lower blue collar wages have been trashed by THIS problem. It is surely not the only thing happening to wages but this one you can trace right straight back to Ronnie's amnesty.
Here's how that played out, so you have some background on what the upshot of this mess (the bill) is. Ronnie decided that there were too many illegals to deal with so he amnestied them. They promptly and understandably moved up out of those nasty paying jobs they were filling. Those holes were promptly filled by new illegals. The continued non-enforcement of law encouraged employers farther up the wage scale to engage in exactly the same behavior as their agricultural cousins. If a farmer can't compete with legal wages in the face of their cheating bretheren he follows suit and the trend moves up with the violations. The result is something other than economic justice. For ANY workers, whatever color, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin.
If a real employment verification system and serious conswquences were set up this would not be the outcome. The immigration law violators on both sides of the equation have no imperative to comply, the status quo simply continues. A fence is not going to keep determined people out and they are determined because there is a great big fat magnet called NO ENFORCEMENT. You will notice that it is not a feature of the Act, that would slap the plutocrats.
How it is supposed to be fair and of benefit to illegal immigrants to continue the depression of wage and the continuation of the creation of a disenfranchised serf class is beyond me. That is exactly what this mess does. They get paid crap, a wage an American won't take, which part of that is good? Legal hiring and living wages happen when the work is worth being paid for, if there are no willing pickers at substandard wages all those wages go up and if there are very serious consequences for violation on either side it ceases. How is it racist to insist a living wage be paid?
You can't deal with 12-20million people, you certainly can. When illegal employment is cut off and when fraudulent use of social services is cut off the magnet disappears and the pressure to legalize your behavior is huge. That does create a situation where a carrot needs to be offered, but carrots aren't supposed to be cakes. Leave and we'll work out a good deal to come back in, but not at the expense of the American worker and that means actual limits which is not proposed Don't leave and fix yourself - you get hurt. Don't fix your hiring - you get hurt. Surely.
George W Bush likes this mess, if that isn't an automatic disqualification for "progressives" then what is? He has at no point in his Presidency ever backed the American worker, to the contrary, he has consistently cut their throats. This is not different. It makes me furious to watch good hearted people increase the misery of their fellow citizens in pursuit of a "feel good" solution. It has to be understood that there are losers in this equation, no matter how you approach it, so you are forced into choosing who they are. Facing reality can be difficult when emotions are so strong, clear thinking is required when you propose to hurt people. You cannot just have it both ways, maybe after RR's amnesty there was a chance to minimize the hurt but it was so easy to look away. Now Congress and BushCo proposed to do exactly that again, how much more pain will that cause? I'm not heartless, do you have a conscience?
Here's how that played out, so you have some background on what the upshot of this mess (the bill) is. Ronnie decided that there were too many illegals to deal with so he amnestied them. They promptly and understandably moved up out of those nasty paying jobs they were filling. Those holes were promptly filled by new illegals. The continued non-enforcement of law encouraged employers farther up the wage scale to engage in exactly the same behavior as their agricultural cousins. If a farmer can't compete with legal wages in the face of their cheating bretheren he follows suit and the trend moves up with the violations. The result is something other than economic justice. For ANY workers, whatever color, religion, sexual orientation, or national origin.
If a real employment verification system and serious conswquences were set up this would not be the outcome. The immigration law violators on both sides of the equation have no imperative to comply, the status quo simply continues. A fence is not going to keep determined people out and they are determined because there is a great big fat magnet called NO ENFORCEMENT. You will notice that it is not a feature of the Act, that would slap the plutocrats.
How it is supposed to be fair and of benefit to illegal immigrants to continue the depression of wage and the continuation of the creation of a disenfranchised serf class is beyond me. That is exactly what this mess does. They get paid crap, a wage an American won't take, which part of that is good? Legal hiring and living wages happen when the work is worth being paid for, if there are no willing pickers at substandard wages all those wages go up and if there are very serious consequences for violation on either side it ceases. How is it racist to insist a living wage be paid?
You can't deal with 12-20million people, you certainly can. When illegal employment is cut off and when fraudulent use of social services is cut off the magnet disappears and the pressure to legalize your behavior is huge. That does create a situation where a carrot needs to be offered, but carrots aren't supposed to be cakes. Leave and we'll work out a good deal to come back in, but not at the expense of the American worker and that means actual limits which is not proposed Don't leave and fix yourself - you get hurt. Don't fix your hiring - you get hurt. Surely.
George W Bush likes this mess, if that isn't an automatic disqualification for "progressives" then what is? He has at no point in his Presidency ever backed the American worker, to the contrary, he has consistently cut their throats. This is not different. It makes me furious to watch good hearted people increase the misery of their fellow citizens in pursuit of a "feel good" solution. It has to be understood that there are losers in this equation, no matter how you approach it, so you are forced into choosing who they are. Facing reality can be difficult when emotions are so strong, clear thinking is required when you propose to hurt people. You cannot just have it both ways, maybe after RR's amnesty there was a chance to minimize the hurt but it was so easy to look away. Now Congress and BushCo proposed to do exactly that again, how much more pain will that cause? I'm not heartless, do you have a conscience?
Friday, October 27, 2006
Illegal Hiring, Prices, Fences - Marquez
Marquez' questions were intelligent and reasonable, you can see "Comments" in "Smoke & Mirrors if you like, so they deserved a thoughtful response. A comment blew up into an essay, so I'll share it.
Marquez, (and others)
Until a little while ago, one of my employee's surname was Hispanic, his father was a Reagan amnesty. He's a good guy, did good work, and made more than he ever had, see, I don't care as long as the hire is legal. And we're friends still, because I do give a damn.
What I care about, and if you read back through this Blog's history, what I've written is about flooding the labor market and depressing wages. There is labor avaliable, legally, now. What isn't available is wages and it's not available because the cheating forces the market down.
In actual reality, a real wage impact on prices is small, the effect on farmers, ranchers, construction contractors, and anyone else in competition with illegal hiring is catastrophic. If the criminal hiring were ended, orchardists (for ex) would be playing on a level field, everyone's wage costs would increase as would the price of the end product - but there's the catch - the effect on the end product's price at the store is small, the catastrophy occurs on the production end if the field is not level. I am in the business of providing labor - framing, roofing, siding, finish carpentry and I am paid per square foot, I get what is left over after everybody is paid wages, insurance is paid, etc. I have no place to go with my prices, my company is replacable with one that is cheaper. My guy's wages are impacted and so am I.
GWB's plan is to "legally" flood the labor market to keep wages down. This is why minimum wage increases at the Federal level haven't happened. If we have an actual labor shortage, it's no trick to raise the limits for immigration. That's why this is BS. It's legally addressable already.
The fence is nonsense. The fence that will work is serious sanctions on illegal hiring - with a verification system - and serious action regarding document fraud - real jail time followed by immediate deportation.If "I" believed that I could get out of the corruption, racism, and feudal plutocracy that's Mexico into the US I'd find a way around that 700 mile fence. The cure for what ails Mexico (and other states) is for those people to have to change that place not run away to our place. I really don't care if they find 1776 a good example, either. GWB&CO are despicable, but those guys make them look good. It needs changed and it won't be as long as the US is the safety valve. That would certainly be hard on those who would come here instead, but the responsibility does not lie with the blue collar workers they replace or whose wages are depressed. It's one of those choices between two ills.
Do the 12-20 million illegal aliens here need to leave? Yes. I prefer a voluntary exit with some form of inducement and the alternative of immediate deportation and confiscation of all assets, a second offense carrying jail time. It is easier to induce people to leave when their employment has evaporated and other avenues are closed.
An argument is made that they've earned or deserve something, they deserve to be treated humanely, they've earned the money they've gotten. Humane means allowing them time to wind up their affairs and go, with a chance to sign up for a "first up" for work visas or something like that.It is not a simple thing, nor is it an easy thing, but the alternative is throwing up our hands and saying, "oh well" and thus demonstrating that all you have to do is get here to all those who aren't already here. As long as this is a better alternative, they will come, until parity is achieved - not good for the US.
Marquez, (and others)
Until a little while ago, one of my employee's surname was Hispanic, his father was a Reagan amnesty. He's a good guy, did good work, and made more than he ever had, see, I don't care as long as the hire is legal. And we're friends still, because I do give a damn.
What I care about, and if you read back through this Blog's history, what I've written is about flooding the labor market and depressing wages. There is labor avaliable, legally, now. What isn't available is wages and it's not available because the cheating forces the market down.
In actual reality, a real wage impact on prices is small, the effect on farmers, ranchers, construction contractors, and anyone else in competition with illegal hiring is catastrophic. If the criminal hiring were ended, orchardists (for ex) would be playing on a level field, everyone's wage costs would increase as would the price of the end product - but there's the catch - the effect on the end product's price at the store is small, the catastrophy occurs on the production end if the field is not level. I am in the business of providing labor - framing, roofing, siding, finish carpentry and I am paid per square foot, I get what is left over after everybody is paid wages, insurance is paid, etc. I have no place to go with my prices, my company is replacable with one that is cheaper. My guy's wages are impacted and so am I.
GWB's plan is to "legally" flood the labor market to keep wages down. This is why minimum wage increases at the Federal level haven't happened. If we have an actual labor shortage, it's no trick to raise the limits for immigration. That's why this is BS. It's legally addressable already.
The fence is nonsense. The fence that will work is serious sanctions on illegal hiring - with a verification system - and serious action regarding document fraud - real jail time followed by immediate deportation.If "I" believed that I could get out of the corruption, racism, and feudal plutocracy that's Mexico into the US I'd find a way around that 700 mile fence. The cure for what ails Mexico (and other states) is for those people to have to change that place not run away to our place. I really don't care if they find 1776 a good example, either. GWB&CO are despicable, but those guys make them look good. It needs changed and it won't be as long as the US is the safety valve. That would certainly be hard on those who would come here instead, but the responsibility does not lie with the blue collar workers they replace or whose wages are depressed. It's one of those choices between two ills.
Do the 12-20 million illegal aliens here need to leave? Yes. I prefer a voluntary exit with some form of inducement and the alternative of immediate deportation and confiscation of all assets, a second offense carrying jail time. It is easier to induce people to leave when their employment has evaporated and other avenues are closed.
An argument is made that they've earned or deserve something, they deserve to be treated humanely, they've earned the money they've gotten. Humane means allowing them time to wind up their affairs and go, with a chance to sign up for a "first up" for work visas or something like that.It is not a simple thing, nor is it an easy thing, but the alternative is throwing up our hands and saying, "oh well" and thus demonstrating that all you have to do is get here to all those who aren't already here. As long as this is a better alternative, they will come, until parity is achieved - not good for the US.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Smoke and Mirrors or Saxton Down a Rabbit Hole
Boy, there's a nice little tempest over at Blue Oregon, Kari Chisholm seems to think this picture has something to do with Ron Saxton's credibility. So we're clear on what this image is (I know, there's one below) this is the assessor's photo of "farm building" on Ron Saxton's Cherry Farm, er, Vineyard where migrants "lived" while they did something - Ron called it his cherry farm long after it was a vineyard - so who knows what they picked. (why it stayed a cherry orchard in verbiage when it had grapes in fact is not known - maybe orchard sounds better than vineyard). Since I don't pay by the foot, I can digress further - image plays a more important Saxton role than facts. Anyhow, Ron Saxton doesn't know if the migrants were im-migrants or not or illegal im-migrants, since "it wasn't an issue at the time" (apparently pre-1997). He does know it's an issue now, since he attacks the Governor and Sec State Bradbury on the illegal immigration issue. So we're still clear, Form I-9 is a US form, previously INS, rebranded to DHS (Homeland) which identifies the legal status of an employee and it was legally required, and carries some stiff penalties for mis-use or non-use, so it was an issue, then, as well as now.
So there are two issues about this housing, a) did it house legal or illegal workers and b) does this look like something a Governor of Oregon ought to find acceptable as housing for his employees. Now some folks have made an issue of Ron's $586,000 beach house, I don't care if it is a $40,000 beach house, he can afford a "vacation" home and he can afford a lot of things that do not include reasonable housing for employees.
So you see, something is not an issue when it makes Ron Saxton money, but it is an issue when it makes Ron Saxton votes. Alice, are you paying attention, there's more, Smile...
Here's the real rub, illegal workers depress legal worker's wages - badly. Now maybe a couple of these folks are stupid enough to try to vote, but that's an immaterial percentage. Every one of these illegal workers is taking a job and depressing wages and they're getting these jobs from *GASP* employers. Illegal employers. Now there is all manner of damage inflicted on society by an illegal subculture of disenfranchised serfs but quite simply, they come here to have those jobs. And while Ron wants to do things to those nasty illegal aliens he doesn't want to do anything to the Illegal Employers. Now here's two mutual criminal enterprises going on and Ron figures we need to whack the party who benefits least. Why? Well I do know they're primarily brown and don't speak English and they're not rich enough to donate to Republican campaigns (evidently they DO vote - the ad says so), that would seem to be the dividing line between the criminals. Do not misunderstand me, I say they're all criminals and deserve exactly that treatment. But I'm not a rich Republican running for Governor.
The Party's still on Alice - pass the tea, please.
Frequently migrant workers travel with their families - you know - spouse, kids - family. I'm not real sure I'd want my children in there. But Ron Saxton cares about the kiddies. Like School Board Chair cares about the kiddies. Ron knows how to save money in eddykashun, you bet he does, this is why his Board had to go crying to Portland for more money, lots of more money. Now, don't look away, the schools are all paid on a per-student basis, yes, all of them all over the state. I live in 5J School District - most of Baker County does - um - 3500 square miles of winter, mountains, intense sun, expensive gasoline, unpaved roads with a fairly small school population with all the same required programs and student needs and - Baker City doesn't give us money. So we make do. Remember the economies of scale and all the savings Ron can find - none of that here - well, evidently he couldn't find it in Portland either. So now he wants to do it for all the schools in all the State. Baker City can't bail out 5J from Ron's type of management. Just so you don't think Ron would skirt the rules for a favored few, he might go rent an apartment in another district with a school he likes for his kiddie and use the house in the other district to run for School Board. Legal? Yes. Like it? I think it stinks, but I'm not a rich Cherry Farmer, so maybe I just don't see.
Alice, if you will go following white rabbits...
Ron offered you 10 seconds to list Ted Kulongoski's accomplishments, you could list Ron's in less than one second, none. Ted has made the hard decisions, at times offending his base, for the good of the entire State. Ron is just plain offensive. He tells you he will cut taxes, and he tells you he will restore services. Now he can cut taxes (primarily for the rich - sound familiar?) but that means something has to go away. Don't forget, Initiatives have created some Constitutionally required expenditures- no give there. He doesn't tell you what goes away, he tells you eliminating waste and private contracting will take care of it, does anybody know who his Halliburton is?
All that's left is the Cat's smile,
It's smoke and mirrors, folks, all of it. That's the real shame, six years of George Bush's smoke and mirrors and Oregon comes late to the table? All the same old tired rhetoric and double dealing features in every one of Ron Saxton's so called policy positions. It wouldn't be so bad if he were goofy on just one thing, but analyze his whole deal and it's goofy (sorry Walt - this was supposed to be Alice's deal)
Here's a PS
Ron Saxton has more campaign funds than the incumbent governor, TK was a shoo-in, not now. There are a whole bunch of "liberals" that don't care for Ted, well maybe you haven't been paying attention, but this much ought to be clear, Ron Saxton is a train wreck and you don't want to be a part of it. Link to Ted's site and see what he's actually been up to. If you like GeorgeII and Waldenbush, then Ron Saxton is for you, but there's no hope for you anyhow, so flame away, you certainly can't make that decision look more stupid.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Greg Waldenbush Endorses Saxton's Idea of Housing
Hey Ron Saxton, where's the I-9s ?
Picture pulled from Riddenbaugh Press, if you don't know this site, get acquainted for good writing and great political analysis.
C'mon, Walden endorses - School Board Chair, Rural Issues, Forest Safety, he'd be a Governor who'd look out for Oregonians...
Well this is the kind of housing he thinks is adequate for workers in Oregon, it's his Migrant Housing, you know, where they kept the workers they don't know the "legality" of. I'm sure the schooling was reasonably priced. It'd be unfair to pick on the forestry practices of whacking down the cherry trees to plant grapes, I suppose...
But really, I do better by my dog, and all he produces is slobber and dog poo. Then again, I do like him and don't accuse him of over-running the State and trying to vote. I can't get him to give up with his political persuasion - though I do know he's dead-set against UPS trucks, Coyotes, and illegal immigrant cats in his yard - and yes, 150 pounds of white dog persuades those illegal cats to leave, suddenly.
Somehow it seems as if waldenbushandsaxton ought to make a real nice couple, they both serve a very narrow set of interests and seem to be able to kid the general Republican voter that they have their interests at heart. Not that either of their records would indicate such a thing, but you don't have to give accurate information in your political ads, just not let your lies get so outrageous that they're actionable.
Here's how this works, waldenbush stands on a dike with Klamath farmers for some photos and goes back to DC and does absolutely not squat about it, saxton cries about illegals after he's a part of the problem - it wasn't an issue, then; and some of the public buys into it.
I do not agree with everything Ted Kulongoski has done, but he's been a man of principle, he's made the hard choices when they had to be made and owned them. He hasn't ducked - it wasn't an issue, then - he doesn't lie to Oregonians, and he doesn't try to scare them. When he says he cares about Oregonians nobody has a picture like this to stick in his face, he does care. He's been there, he's made something out of a very difficult beginning, he didn't inherit wealth and influence - he earned it and didn't get very rich in the process. When Ted talks about work, you hear a construction worker talking to you, and I'll flat out guarantee you that it is work.
If you like those two guys, then George II is your kind of guy and mismanagement, lies, fear, no principles, and corruption are your milk and honey.
This picture ought to be everywhere Saxton goes, too bad I'm only a little read lefty blogger...
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