One of the advantages of wealth is that it insulates you from the negative effects of wrong-headed governmental policies and cultural detritus. For instance, rich politicians and Hollywood types can get the best health care money can buy. The average person working 9-5 or more usually has to take whatever his employer offers unless he can afford extra coverage. The rich don’t have to trek to government hospitals already gutted by uninsured illegal aliens for treatment.
People with a lot of money can send their kids to private schools instead of government schools overcrowded with kids with poor English skills, adding to the burden of schools already in the academic basement. That’s why when I hear Hollywood types on TV droning on about other “cultures” and “tolerance,” I almost lose my lunch.
These same twits don’t associate with these “cultures” unless they hire an illegal alien to do their yard work or clean their toilets. The middle- and lower-class in America can’t afford to be so generous with their money, especially if they’re trying to pay the mortgage and send their kids to decent schools.
Conor Friedersdorf of Beyond Borders has written an op-ed called Multiculturalism’s double-edge sword. He discusses the sort of class conflict that ordinary Americans are faced with every day as they compete for scarce resources:
I sense a great many Westerners are beginning to feel that way about illegal immigrants, who bear the added strike of being uninvited guests. As the costs and inconvenience of their presence grows, our tolerance for it shrinks. Soon overburdened schools, rising social welfare costs and demands that we acquiesce to cultural changes undermine support even for legal immigration.
The transformation is ugly, whatever one thinks about immigration policy. Generally good-hearted citizens feel anger and animosity toward generally good-hearted immigrants seeking a better life. Race and class tensions muddy the surrounding debate, dividing citizens against one another.
I predict that tensions between black Americans and Mexican illegal aliens, for example, will increase in the coming years, and wealthy people like George Bush, with his penchant for wide-open borders, will remain unscathed. Despite the tone of this post, I am in no way resentful of rich people; in fact, I hope to be wealthy one day myself. Or marry wealthy. 
But I resent elites, especially liberals, telling me how I ought to think.
I just want Americans competing with illegal aliens to know they have the power to change things. They should focus less on political parties and more on policies these politicians are advocating. Or avoiding. Illegal immigration is running a close second behind Islamic terrorism as the most important issue facing our country, and no American should treat these things lightly.
Clearly wealthy elites, conservative and liberal, aren’t worried about competing with illegal aliens for jobs or concerned about government schools systems or bankrupt hospitals. They can afford to be nonchalant about the unintended consequences of “tolerant” social and educational policies. While affecting an “average Joe” image by day, they head straight for gated, locked-down-tight communities after the sun goes down, probably thanking whatever deity they worship that they’re able to live as far away from “minorities” and multiculturalism as they can get.
We all know the type.
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An outstanding post. I was proud to link to it.
I wrote to my senators about illegal immigration, and got a response from Durbin, but none from Obama.
Read this post about dealing with illegal immigrants: http://dailydemarche.blogspot.com/2005/09/illegal-immigration-feeling-effects.html
Here’s a quote: “Now, I will tell you about the dark side of the job. That was going into Latino neighborhoods (this is going to make the open border people crazy). By far, the filthiest and most dangerous neighborhoods in the city were Latino.”
And read this article about “anchor babies”: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters4608
Here’s a quote: “…she, like other women who enter the United States illegally each year, knows that giving birth in the U.S. means her child will be an ’anchor baby’ and granted U..S. citizenship. For Alma, that means her child will immediately qualify for a slew of federal, state and local benefit programs. In addition, when Alma’s child turns 21,he can sponsor the immigration of other members of the Guitierrez clan.”
I got the link to the article from this post: http://dailydemarche.blogspot.com/2005/10/anchors-aweigh.html
Growing up in Texas, I have always had to deal with the illegal alien reality. It is time that the rest of the country woke up!
Excellent point, Lashawn!
Bingo!
And when the socialist’s dream of the “greatest good for the greatest number” is put in place and we have socialized medicine to go along with socialized schools, guess what happens? The “greatest number” goes up and “greatest good” is lowered.
The immigrants are giving the welfare blacks a fit in our community. They huddle up in trailers, work three jobs, pool their resources, buy a house, start a cantina, and move on up. This is not all, of course, but it is a sufficient plenty.
Who shows up when I hire a service for lawn, carpet, masonry or carpentry? Odds are a Mexican will be a part of the team. Employers are looking for people who will show up on time every day and carry a good attitude. Falling back on welfare has murdered the incentive of too many Americans.
Steve Sailer made a great point. That is, imagine the President of the USA as CEO of a publicly traded company. The CEO of any corporation has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders to maximize the value of their shares, not to dilute the value of same by issuing new shares and selling them at a steep discount to new investors. Current shareholders = you and me. New investors = illegal immigrants. In other words, if Bush were an ordinary CEO, at the very least he’d be fending off shareholder lawsuits left and right, and maybe even facing criminal prosecution.
Competition for jobs: I was reading the classified ads and every third, or in Los Angeles, Mexico ,….every other ad says “Spanish Speaking/Bi-lingual preferred”.
How obvious.
I took four years of Spanish, out of convenience, and because the classes fit into my schedule…. I never thought it would be a requirement to get a job.
Assimilation would go a long way to healing the class conflict. Irish immigrants, Italian immigrants quickly learned English.
Can you imagine, if back in the 1920s, say, everyone was required to learn Irish Gallic, so the immigrants would feel more comfortable.
You make an excellent point in addressing the fact that the rich and even middle class can abandon the gov’t schools but unfortunately we all still have to pay for them. This is a huge problem with federalization of public education and one of the huge problems with NCLB. Whenever you see posts on public policy or education blogs mandating universal preschool or extended day public school or tutoring it’s always with the expectation that this will be federally funded. So remember when you hear some bleeding heart bleating about the lack of public school funding what they want is more than the $7 trillion already poured down the rathole of anti poverty programs which incredibly increase poverty.
Regarding “Illegal immigration is running a close second behind Islamic terrorism as the most important issue facing our country…” how long before they are linked as Islamic terrorists use our loose immigration to enter the country bringing in nuclear/biologic weapons?
It would take the average high school civics class a couple of periods to come up with a guest worker law that would resolve most of our illegals problems. Legislators do not legislate any more if thy can make political hay yelling at someone else.
Bottom line. Until blacks, whites, and Hispanics get together as Americans and realize that illegal immigration is truly crushing us as a country, economically AND socially, whether from a security perspective or a unitive one, we are in trouble. As long as we remain divided along racial lines, and fail to unite as Americans and get behind what is good for us as a country, we are headed for disaster. Elites are NOT the ones paying the price for their ‘multicultural’ arrogance….They still think it has to do with fine dining and music and dance…The rest of us are impacted by lowered property values, high crime rates, dysfunctional schools, low-paying jobs, rising property taxes, over-burdened medical systems, increasing unemployment…not to mention the hordes of non-latinos flooding across the border…and for what reason? Do we as a country no longer have a concept of doing what is good for those of us who are citizens? Are we so fragmented that we no longer recognize what an American is anymore?
interesting article on frontpagemag today on the costs of immigration…
A federal judge says illegal aliens who are incarcerated has a right to privacy (in regards to his criminal record)…
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/marktapscott/2005/10/01/158888.html
just think, even LEGAL citizens don’t have this right (in regards to why you are in jail)
You guys are not going to believe this…I am watching the news..Apparently, anybody can get information about any American citizen who is in jail. One can get their names and details about their crimes. Cox newspapers tried to get information about the illegal aliens in custody, and a federal judge ruled that THEY had privacy rights, which American citizens do not possess…I’m gobsmacked….
Jan,
We must have been watching the same thing. i found a townhall editorial on it (above). Funny how that was written 1 October and we still have it seen it plastered all over the news. Go figure.
LaShawn’s post seems to be mostly an anti-liberal rant that stereotypes many progressive persons. I certainly am no rich Hollywood type hiring Mexican nannies, and the point is missed that added labor expands overall economic output, leading to *more* jobs in the economy down the line. She also does not address some of the key issues undergirding illegal immigration: namely that these people take jobs Americans don’t want, and that the agricultural industry is heavily dependent on them. Illegals also pay taxes, and are thus contributors to the budget, something too often ignored and uncredited by conservatives with sweeping claims of gutted government services. As for privacy rights, arent these the same extended to European immigrants when they came to America? It is easier for many here to go in for another round of liberal bashing, rather than address these specific issues.
Furthermore, illegal labor helps cut the unions down to size, and more Hispanic votes for the GOP helps offset the black vote for the Democrats. Shouldn’t conservatives be celebrating such things?
Renee;
Either our comments crossed in cyberflight, or I am really really stupid?….Both are possible…Still, is this not a mind-boggling situation? I have two son-in-laws who are immigrants, and I love them dearly, but an unfettered flow across the border of illegals is another matter entirely….What the heck is going on? And where is the transparency in our government?
#18: It is obvious also that you would not get information about illegal aliens for 2 reasons: First their crime is already known, it is illegal immigration. So what’s all the outrage about *not* getting information already known? Second, the illegals often do not speak English and more time is needed to process their paperwork. Obviously, this is done at the convenience of law enforcement authorities, not Fox News at 10.
#13: “Elites are NOT the ones paying the price for their ‘multicultural’ arrogance….They still think it has to do with fine dining and music and dance… The rest of us are impacted by lowered property values, high crime rates, dysfunctional schools, low-paying jobs, rising property taxes, over-burdened medical systems, increasing unemployment…not to mention the hordes of non-latinos flooding across the border”
Not really. Multiculturalism has taken in the serious study of cultures around the world. It is not wine and cheese parties by so-called elites. And what ‘hordes’ of non-Latinos might these be? Martians? Chinese? Blacks moving into white neighborhoods perhaps? Also the negatives mentioned above are problems in cities where there has not been a heavy influx of illegals. Detroit in the past has not been swamped with these mysterious hordes, as compared with say Los Angeles, and has suffered things like “values, high crime rates, dysfunctional schools, low-paying jobs, rising property taxes, over-burdened medical systems, increasing unemployment…”
Mandy,
You obviously miss the point that they are put in jail for MORE than being illegal (you know those things like rape, theft, murder or did those things stop becoming crimes here also).
Jim Gilchrist, founder of The Minuteman Project, is in a runoff for election to Congress. Yesterday, FrontPage magazine published a transcript of a speech he recently delivered that summarizes the illegal alien issue quite well.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19771
This quote from the says a lot:
“You know, have you ever thought of what the cost of carrying maybe as many as 30 million illegal aliens in your country is? Now, I came up with the number 30 million by weighing what Bear Stearns issues as a report last September. Their claim is that there were approximately 20 to 22 million illegal aliens. Barton’s Research says there’s 29 million illegal aliens occupying U.S. territory. La Raza claims it’s more than 40 million, but I don’t trust La Raza’s numbers. I think that [number] was used to intimidate us. In other words, ‘There are 40 million illegal aliens here; you’d better start giving us voting rights or we’re going to take you over.’”
We’d better get over our Politically Correct brain blocks quick, or we’re going to look and act a lot like an even more third-worldly version of the Balkans.
We’re harming Mexico by taking many of its most ambitious and driven citizens out of its culture.
#19, leaving aside the issue of illegality, let’s have a reality check. These people are mostly semi-literate high school dropouts, so almost by definition they’re going to be poor. To say that they pay taxes and contribute to the economy is like saying that the guy who just got his welfare check and goes down to the corner store to buy a 40 ouncer is “contributing to the economy.” Sure, money gets spent and sales tax gets collected, but does anyone really think it’s a net gain to the economy in any macro sense?
The reality is that anyone making less than $40K or $50K a year, especially if they have a couple of kids in the local public school, is a net consumer of taxes, not a tax payer.
#24:
Of course I know that, I am just pointing out that the privacy claim may not be all you make it out to be. Is it a case of the government not releasing information on the crimes you mention because the persons are illegal, as compared to American citizens charged with such crimes? Your post says little along those lines.
#26:
“We’re harming Mexico by taking many of its most ambitious and driven citizens out of its culture…”
—-
Not really. Mass immigration did not have the claimed harmful effect on Ireland, or England or Germany. Why is Mexico somehow different? The same thingis also said about the Caribbean, but they suffer from no shortage of ambitious, driven citizens. This claim is dubious.
#27
“The reality is that anyone making less than $40K or $50K a year, especially if they have a couple of kids in the local public school, is a net consumer of taxes, not a tax payer…”
–
Another dubious assertion. In fact there are low paid working class people who do not get welfare or the amount of government subsidies that those below the poverty line get. These people are stretched. I rather doubt that they are making 40-50K per year, except maybe in affluent conservative fantasies, and it is an open question whether they get back more than they pay in. Furthermore if they have a couple of kids in school, they themselves actually paid in taxes to support the schools, so in a sense they are not mere consumers.
Great post..this country is being overrun. However I’m disappointed that you lust after wealth for Our Lord explicitly prohibits it.”Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”.
Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. 23 And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. 24 And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! 25
Mandy;
Ask the border towns who have now declared a state of emergency because they cannot handle the tons of trash, the crime, the disruption to the lives of the people who live there, the destruction to the ranches and land, the hospitals which have closed down, etc…
We all GET the appreciation of other cultures, but thank you for reminding us.I am always amused when individuals find it so necessary to inform Phillistines about the MEANING of culture…..When the day labor site opened up in Austin, it was in a racially diverse neighborhood, and the people were very concerned about crime and property values….They hardly need to be informed about the appreciation of culture, because they are worried about their day to day life…Assuming that people with concerns about immigration are racist is facile and lacks substance…
To say that illegals pose no more of a problem than already exist in many cities, is hardly an argument…Why add more problems to the ones we already have..
As a matter of fact, the research I have seen, indicates that the influx of illegals has actually contributed to higher unemployment among the poor, especially blacks. Further, many economists feel that wages have been driven down by the same influx.
When I say hordes of non-Latinos, I am thinking of Middle Easterners coming across the Mexican border, and impacting us from a security angle…143,000 non-Latinos were caught crossing the border last year, and we only catch a fraction of the crossers. THAT’S what I mean by hordes……and I do consider it a security concern….
Though I think that most immigrants are extremely hard working and want to make a better life for themselves, I think that the situation is placing a heavy burden upon Americans in the middle and lower classes.Because immigrants participate in the underground economy to such a large extent, a far smaller percentage of their wages are suseptible to taxation. And, though they consume less than the average American, they consume more than they pay in by estimates of 25%. This is a burden. If you choose to see this in another light, go for it…your perogative…
Not true. In Greenwich, CT, the hospital in neighboring “poor town” of Port Chester was closed. Now, many emergency cases are shipped instead to the Greenwich Hospital emergency room. That, plus aligning with the mediocre Yale-New Haven health care “system” has turned what was once a decent community hospital into a borderline basket case.
The quality of health care in one of the nation’s most affluent towns has reached new lows and they are going down even more. Just watch.
So, the notion that the wealthy get a better deal is not always true.
I am a strong advocate of open borders. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Any person who is not a criminal should be allowed to enter this country legally. That being said, I am also an advocate of reserving the benefits of citizenship to…. drum roll, please …. citizens.
No person illegally in this country should be eligible to receive any government benefit. No driver’s license, no free public school, no welfare, no AFDC, no Medicare, NOTHING. A legal immigrant on a work or student visa should also not be eligible for government assistance. Only citizens and legal immigrants on track for citizenship should be eligible for any government benefit, and the benefits for legal immigrants should be limited to free public school, driver’s licenses and business/occupational licenses.
Gary writes:
>>>”The reality is that anyone making less than $40K or $50K a year, especially if they have a couple of kids in the local public school, is a net consumer of taxes, not a tax payer.”
Here are some facts from the US CENSUS:
>>>”Real median earnings of men age 15 and older who worked full-time, year-round declined 2.3 percent between 2003 and 2004, to $40,798. Women with similar work experience saw their earnings decline by 1.0 percent, to $31,223. Reflecting the larger fall in the earnings of men, the ratio of female-to-male earnings for full-time, year-round workers was 77 cents on the dollar, up from 76 cents in 2003.
Poverty
Overview
There were 37.0 million people in poverty (12.7 percent) in 2004, up from 35.9 million (12.5 percent) in 2003.
There were 7.9 million families in poverty in 2004, up from 7.6 million in 2003. The poverty rate for families remained unchanged at 10.2 percent. The poverty rate and the number in poverty showed no change for the different type of families.
As defined by the Office of Management and Budget and updated for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, the average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2004 was an income of $19,307; for a family of three, $15,067; for a family of two, $12,334; and for unrelated individuals, $9,645. ”
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html
Here’s some starting salaries:
NYPD- $34,970
Philadelphia Fireman–$34,877
E-3 Military serving in Iraq- $18,635
I would use the above statistics before making any sweeping generalization about people in America making less than forty or fifty thousand a year.
–Cobra
Another government policy we need to insulate ourselves from is inflation.
http://watchfulinvestor.blogspot.com/2005/10/inflation-what-to-do.html
#33 Charlie Beckett said:
>>>>>”I am a strong advocate of open borders. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Any person who is not a criminal should be allowed to enter this country legally.”
>>>>”I am a strong advocate of open borders. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Any person who is not a criminal should be allowed to enter this country legally.”
Posting trouble. If this doesn’t work, I give up.
#33″I am a strong advocate of open borders. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants. Any person who is not a criminal should be allowed to enter this country legally.”
I’ve got two problems with this:
1) The phrase “nation of immigrants” is overused, trite and innacurate. Never in the history of the United States has there been as many as 15 percent of our residents being of foreign birth. Many of us who trace our ancestry back to the exploration and colonization of this land find it offensive to be cast as “immigrants” or even “descendants of immigrants.” We are Americans who descended from Americans and/or colonist subjects of the English throne. There is a certain disrespect in lumping us into your “nation of immigrants” when it was our ancestors who coined the term “immigrants” to denote new arrivals who had not participated in the struggle for independence. It is as if their sacrifices no longer matter.
The “nation of immigrants” can, in the manner in which it is so commonly misused, be applied to every nation on the face of this earth; therefore, there is nothing “special” about it at all; the catchphrase surely lacks grounds to be the de facto basis of immigration policy.
2) America, being as it is a beacon, a “shining city on a hill,” that is now hopped up on global distribution of our manufactured pop culture surely looks very attractive to the five billion or so residents of earth who maintain standards of living significantly below ours. Using your “open borders” advocacy, I’m assuming you have no problem with each and every soul desirous of a “better life” whom is able transport himself or herself to our shores being allowed to stay. There’s a certain conundrum in this. If we had truly open borders, then there would be no “illegal alien” issue at all. All you would accomplsh by …drum roll…reserving benefits of citizenship to citizens would be to irritate a huge, restless, unempowered underclass you’ve invited in. That’s not a good recipe for harmony or a long-lived Sovereign State, is it?
I don’t think so.
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