Regional Talk > Southern California > Antonovich: LA's Tab For Illegal Immigration > $1Billion

Antonovich: LA's Tab For Illegal Immigration > $1Billion

Notably absent from the press release is the economic benefit the city enjoys. I'm not defending illegal immigration, but shouldn't any fair and balanced conversation tally both sides of the ledger?

I am going to take a semi unpopular stand...
So what if we go into the negative population growth for a little while. Less people means less welfare. Less need for big brother. Better health of the flora and fauna.
More food for less
Less crowds
Less pollution
More resources in general
More jobs for blue collar workers
the dollar will go up. Because we will not need to have so many bills floating around to put in pockets.

Do not replace the baby boomers when they go, and decrease the population. It would be better in the long run.
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»So the holidays are on us again...

Your argument is valid to a point, but you're leaving out the other side of the equation.

Fewer people means less demand for good and services, lower wages, fewer jobs, less tax revenue, etc.

The value of the dollar would, in fact decline.

I agree with the fewer jobs, but less people looking for those jobs, so I submit that the jobless rate (percentage) would significantly decline.
Less tax revenue, yes, but less demand for the taxes. What now takes 3 police, may only take 2. The Health and human services/welfare no longer need such large staff. As well as the payouts are no longer as many.
Lower Wages also will mean lower prices, as those who wish to do business will need to drop their prices, so the car that now costs 15k will cost 7k.
The need to import will drop,

The dollar goes up in value.
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»So the holidays are on us again...

reply to No_Strings

reply to TheRul

I once thought about the feesability of forcibly annexing Mexico...
Then I thought about the cost of cleaning up the place so it is "legal" as far as Federal goes. The cost greatly out ways the benefit. You know, I thought if the Colorado River went through there, it might have had some nice areas... oh wait, it did. Hover Dam stopped it. Maybe we should just annex them, as an apology.
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»So the holidays are on us again...

reply to sholling
Easy, Sparky. As I said, I'm not condoning illegal immigration. I'm also not advocating waves of legal immigration to add demand for products and services.

I'm saying two distinct things:

1. Businesses derive huge benefits from illegal labor. For that reason, it has been largely ignored by our Federal government for many years, both by the Executive and Legislative branches and by both parties.

Talking about either the economic benefit or the costs out of context is not fair. You have to look at the issue in the aggregate. Most conversations conveniently eliminate one side of the equation to support a political position.

2. Simply reducing the population isn't a fix for anything other than resource consumption. Again, I was pointing out that fewer people, without regard to citizenship, has a more complex effect than "the dollar gets stronger." That's oversimplifying.

I didn't say our economy would collapse if we send "them" all back home.

reply to sholling
I was blown away when I heard how they get away with this in Houston.
They knowingly give illegals welfare money and do not deport them because their kids are anchor baby citizens.
The kids are citizens of both countries. They just need to deport the parents with the kids and when the kids are 18 they can leave their parents and go the US if they want to.

They could also voluntary let the parents give their kids up for adoption to US families that want a child if the parents do not want to take the kids back with them when they are being deported.

The only benefit from illegals is for corrupt companies to exploit them for cheap labor. Sure there is extra tax dollars and the companies owners get rich, but that is just wrong to allow exploitation like this in the US.
Any so called benefit anyways is so small it does not have any impact on the economy beyond just a few shady company owners.

Any benefit claimed that says illegals spend money which helps legal businesses is BS. If any business out there would lose enough customers to go out of business because they deported all illegals then it should not have existed in the first place. Again its just more exploitation of illegals to get rich.
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Your behavior is inconsistent with your desire to be treated like everyone else.

reply to TheRul

reply to sholling

And with them would go the demand for the cars, food, housing, TVs (sorry, dogma), financial services and other goods they consume.

Bad time to shrink the economy, isn't it?

reply to No_Strings

reply to r81984
I understand your frustration. I ask this to everyone that feels as strongly as you do: Are your hands clean?

Consider this:
Have you ever price shopped? i.e., chose a less costly product (or service) such as a cut of chicken, eggs or a gallon of milk at the grocery store? Do you always purchase the most expensive staples?

Patronized a restaurant where you had a reasonable suspicion that the bus boy or water server couldn't understand your request for a clean fork?

Shopped at any Walmart, ordered from Pizza hut, Home Depot, Target Stores at any time ... ever? (all of these companies ...plus thousands more...have been convicted of hiring illegal aliens)

At your work, who cleans the bathrooms, does the landscaping and takes out the trash? Have you confirmed these individuals can at least speak English?

Who do you use to mow lawns, paint, remove rubbish and the like? Are they, or their workers legal?

I have yet to encounter a person that can honestly say they have never, ever, under any circumstances, spent their money in the above fashion.

Do you believe that people who come to the U.S. are primarily coming to get on welfare and have babies that too will be on welfare as their primary motivation?

Or do you believe these illegal immigrants were implicitly invited to the U.S. to work by employers who had to be price competitive in a culture of consumers that are primarily price conscious?

The fact of the matter is if you, or anyone else has ever been price sensitive (answered in the affirmative to any of the above questions), then you are just as culpable as Walmart for attracting and hiring illegals. when you look at a pound of chicken in the meat isle of your supermarket, and Zackys is 10% less than Foster Farms for the same exact cut, and you choose Zackys, you directly incentivise Foster Farms to lower their internal cost as to be competitive ... or simply shut its doors and go out of business.

None of our hands are clean.