My understanding is that it’s actually quite difficult to get a tourist visa if you are a resident of Mexico or a Central Amercian country.
So let me get this straight, you are rushed to the emergency room and you are in extreme pain and as a U.S. citizen you want to be hastled and questioned and prove that you are a U.S. Citizen?
I am?
Love the word “poser” btw. Haven’t heard that in a while.
Strictly speaking, “libertarian-poser” means you are a libertarian and a poser, and not necessarily that you are posing as a libertarian.
“Low skilled workers who come to work in the service/labor industry should be allowed to do so and government should get out of the way of this.”
While I agree with open immigration for skilled or wealthy people, I only partially support open immigration for unskilled workers. If someone comes here penniless and uneducated, they could be a liability to social services, education, or healthcare. For instance, we spend a lot of money on ESL courses, and this could be instead spent on science and math.
If someone wants to come to the US, they have $500k in their pocket, they speak English and have a $150k job lined up, we should welcome them with open arms.
The US should make rational policy decisions, but it cannot be obligated to provide a better life for all the people in worse countries.
That’s even more disconcerting. What am I posing as? I’m feeling very insecure right now. I wonder how my hair looks…
I was referring to the small number on non-Canadians who take advantage of Canada’s welcoming arms and then sneak across the very open border into the US.
You’re an elitist and anti-business. Not every small-mid size business owned and operated by a U.S citizen needs a science & math major. Enough with the arbitruary rules and let anyone who wants to trade labor for a paycheck should be allowed to.
I agree that people who want to come here and earn an honest living should be able to do so without having to jump through hoop after hoop and wait for years. I do think, however, that the argument in favor of allowing a lot of unskilled laborers is a bit flawed. The pay for the jobs those folks fill is as low as it is because they are willing to work for those low wages. If they were not able to come to the US and do those jobs, legally or illegally, pay for those jobs would have to increase. While that seems like a potentially bad thing, and maybe it would be initially, higher pay for those jobs might actually get some welfare folks off their couches and back into the workforce. The way I look at it, when we pay some guy from Mexico $0.04 per pound to pick tomatoes, we’re actually paying him $0.04 pound and some dude in LA to lay on his ass and collect welfare.
Well someone is a cranky-pants today.
I might be elitist, but I don’t think I am anti business. If we don’t provide subsidies for more poor people, we can reduce taxes, which helps business.
If you don’t agree with science and math majors (which the US does need more of), feel free to substitute that with whatever you would do with the money saved by not providing ESL or other classes. Educate people on healthy eating. I don’t know. The point is, we save money.
I don’t think my opinion is arbitrary. In fact, if I were drafting a policy, I would definitely include a numerical target of the breakeven point where immigration policy would change. An “all or nothing” policy would be much more arbitrary than an approach that attempts to quantify the marginal contribution of immigrants.
I guess you’re not up to what’s happening in the fields. It is getting harder and harder to find labor because of 1. slow economy, tighter border and insane immigration laws and guess what; U.S. citizens still don’t want those jobs.
I’m 100% for immigration. The thing that makes me not 100% for these approaches is the welfare systems we currently have in place. Those systems mean that you run a risk that some percentage of immigrants will not be net producers and depending on the amount of this group, it could mean the whole endeavor isn’t good.
We should try our hardest to steal every entrepenaur from other countries that don’t have the systems and safe guards in place to prevent someone from nationalizing your company or other nonsense. And we make it very difficult for those people to come.
You’d be surprised to know a lot of illegals (of course we can’t know the number) actually pay taxes under the stolen SSN’s they use.
http://seattletimes.com/html/nationworld/2017113852_immigtaxes29.html
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — While many Americans believe illegal immigrants don’t pay taxes, billions of dollars deducted from paychecks issued to undocumented workers flow to the Social Security Administration (SSA) every year. Those workers almost certainly will never see that money again.
I support open immigration for unskilled workers, but it’s impossible for it to coexist with a welfare state. (edit - just realized rawraw beat me to it.)
I also support the abolition of the welfare state, but to be realistic, I think it’s here to stay for quite some time.
Ohai is an elitist. But he’s also a badass.
It ain’t braggin’ if you back it up.
US citizens still don’t want to do those jobs because the pay remains lower than what they can collect for doing nothing.
I do agree with science & math majors but I’m against arbitruary rules that are anti-business. If my business needs low-skilled laborers and as a business owner I should have the right to hire who I want.
That opinion is valid but it fails to consider externalities. A foreign worker who becomes legalized will be subject to US laws and will have access to US state benefits that are paid for by US taxes. You are not the only affected party, since all US workers pay taxes.
So, as Greenman says, if there is no state benefit system and thus no state fiscal externality, you should be able to do whatever you want. However, that is not the case in real life.
You could say fine, hire illegal people who do not accept any state benefits. However, then you must keep their kids out of public school, not pay for their emergency hospital treatment, and enforce other policies that are unpalatable or will create future social problems.
@Ohai - I disagree with you when you say “we need more STEM and less ESL”.
A math PhD with a master’s in petroleum engineering is worthless to me if I can’t communicate with him. And even if he had the aptitude for such academics, he would still be limited by his lack of language abilities.
That being said, since you immigrated here, and you are obviously in the “skilled” camp, I’d be interested to hear your opinion on it. It would be a fresh break from all the “speak English or die” assholes that I have to listen to out here in Republicanville.
As you noted, I am an immigrant, and I grew up in a non-English country. I went to school in non-English until college. However, if you plan to immigrate to an English speaking country like the US (and for emphasis, I will break the rule of never using all caps), YOU SHOULD MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO LEARN ENGLISH. Do you think you can move to France and not learn French? Besides reducing the burden to society, it is just better for your future and that of your kids, etc.
Regarding the balance of science and math vs. English, people will have different opinions. I was not referring to science PhDs who speak poor English. In fact, if you know many of these people, they try very hard and are quite successful in overcoming this language barrier. The Chinese quant who sits behind me is learning Spanish, in addition to English, for instance.
I was referring to children of immigrants who grow up in non-English households, and who require special classes in elementary school to help with their language issues. When I was considering buying a house in the San Francisco Peninsula, the quality of schools was a strong consideration for me. Many of the public schools had 35% or so “ESL” students, and this uses school resources while lowering the average quality of the school. I am not blaming the children who enter schools under these circumstances, but it is undeniable that this special accomodation is a burden to the system.
Just merge with Mexico already. Much less border to defend. Then everyone can bitch about the Guatamalans and Belizeans trying to steal our jobs.