> >Actually, Ridge is right. If the US were to somehow > manage to enforce > >its immigration laws and remove 8 to 12 million workers from our > >economy - the effects on the US would be catastrophic. > > > >JDG
> Prove it. > Kevin T.
That depends if the US unemployed workers would be willing to jump in and take those jobs. This may be a stereotypical comment, but I suspect that many illegal immigrant workers are doing jobs that many US workers would refuse to do - even if they are unemployed. It would be an interesting experiment to model.
Gary
Let's look at the numbers: The US population is ~280 million. The total employment is 138.6 million. The original article said 8 to 12 million illegals not 8 to 12 million illegal workers. 140/280 is 50 percent so 8 to 12 million illegals is 4 to 6 million illegal workers. At the high end that's 5% of the work force. Since the unemployment rate is 5.9%, that would go down to 0.9%. There, solved unemployment with a few keystrokes. (Of course that wouldn't happen, but just showing it.)
I do think it's stereotypical to assume that all illegals are fruit pickers and janitorial workers or that they are getting paid below minimum wage, that prices for good and services would go up noticeably if the illegals were removed. I'd love to trot out my own stereotype, that there would be a savings by removing the drain on society that non taxpaying illegals bring but I won't ;-)
This problem has been going on for years. If the country wants to be serious about it's border security then it has to have short term pain for long term benefits.
Kevin T. - VRWC 3:30, time to get dressed
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