first off, i didn't write the chain letter and i said that i didn't agree with some of the numbers in it. but thanks for being a prick about it anyways!
Yeah almost all numbers in those things are garbage, that guy should have just assumed that. But he was right in pointing out it was garbage.
Second, i know an illegal immigrant right here in the town i live in, his name is louis and he works for 15 dollars an hour cash under the table doing janitorial work and busing tables for a restaurant. He also works for 12 dollars an hour under the table painting houses. He's currently driving a brand new full size f150 with 24" lexanis on it. So you can speak in all the generalizations you want about illegal immigrants working for whatever wage, but i know some of them that are making a killing and are having no problem paying bills without an id. I have a bachelors degree in business from a good university and make over 20 dollars an hour but in the end of the day when it's all said and done, louis and i make about the same amount of money before i pay taxes. He makes more than i do once the government gets their chunk of the money. So i don't know where you are getting your 11 dollar an hour figures from for someone with a bachelors degree... maybe someone with a useless liberal arts degree or an associate's degree makes that right out of school, but i made over 11 an hour working a part time job while i was in school.... The fact of the matter is that they are undercutting wages no matter where it is, here a normal painter would get paid close to 15 an hour and pay taxes on that and the employer would have to pay the 15 plus taxes... so instead he just pays someone 12 dollars an hour cash and saves a good 20+% on labor.
I will use your example about how stupid it is to think that these people are hurting anything.
1. Anyone can do what he is doing, working under the table is something that is not just left to illegal immigrants, any kid can do those jobs in high school and totally get away with it, as well as any adult that is on hard times.
2. Assuming that with two jobs and those wages he works about 40 hours at the busing job, and what maybe 20? for the other, meaning about 31k a year from busing (Not a chance in hell but we roll with it) and 12k a year from construction work, adding up to 43k a year. Meaning if that was someones take home pay it would have to have been 55k a year and ten taken out for taxes (43k * 1.25 = (about 53k) for federal (53k * 1.0336(AZ state tax) = $55k (just under).
3. You say he bought a new ford truck, so either he paid in cash for it, or he took out a loan, with no real documents (DL or otherwise) unless he is using a stolen id, which doesn't matter, the money still has to get to the dealership before he gets it right? So right there is about 30k back into our economy. Take it he needs to eat right? So lets go real cheap at about $200 a month in food, with a truck that big about $100 a month easy in gas right? Rent figure about $400 for the cheapest places. So assuming that he only spends an additional $150 for everything else (which with the truck he drives is highly doubtful that all these numbers are even close to what he spends(like insurance for that truck)) that would mean that at least $10k a year goes directly into the hands of different businesses in your area.
Add to that the $30k truck purchase (Dealerships are large contributors to local economies), and since you mentioned that you are a college educated person with a good job, and he lives nearby he most likely spends far more than that.
So by removing him, your community is losing out on that buying power. And maybe someone decides to be a bus boy and someone else becomes a part time laborer, but yeah that doesn't mean that they are going to hire a worker for those jobs. If the business owner is shady, or crappy at paper work, or just doesn't want to take on the added costs of a documented worker, they will likely just pass on them.
Especially because most busboys just work off tips (and am willing to be that almost every waiter and busboy in the us doesn't pay the taxes they should on the money they collect, so is this even really an illegal thing?)from the waiters that they clear tables for, it is just easier for them not to hire and leave it up to the waiters to clear more. But even there, you can see how if the tables are not cleared as fast they will not be cleared as fast, and that means less revenue for the business due to longer wait times and people choosing to go somewhere else.
4. And lets look at how 'good' behavior that this bill is supposed to do affects the contractor. The contractor that uses his labor may find that with having to pay $20-$30 (total costs) with documented labor that he can no longer charge the same low prices, and dramatically loses business until he is forced to close shop. This allows other businesses to now be able to charge a bit more, and eventually as several of the smaller companies that work under the table go out of business due to increased costs of workers, those business owners are forced to work in larger companies for the minimums what $15-$20 an hourish (still costs the company about $30-$40ish to hold them though with insurances, taxes, ect).
So that sounds good right? Until you look at the fact the prices for that work will sky rocket as competition gets choked out. Less work will be performed, and the many people that would like to have that work done will not be able to afford it and decide now is not the right time.
All those businesses that rely on them, like paint shops for painters, landscaping for (you get the idea) all are hit hard and have to shut down, and again with less competition the remaining companies can increase the prices to the level they need to be to survive. And again there will be an increase in all those services.
So yeah Arizona is looking at a huge multiple contraction in their economy if they are able to actually do what this bill is trying to do.
All in hopes of pushing a hard working bunch of people out of the region that in reality they are most indigenist to because of fear.
But hey really doesn't matter much. The reality of trying to drive out millions of people that so many Americans truly rely on to make their lives better is so daunting of a task that it will not go very far before stuttering out.
