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Journal pudge's Journal: Happy 'Day Without Immigrants' Day 34

Journal by pudge

How's your day going? Has it been helped or hindered by the lack of immigrants?

Since I never leave my house, it's had no effect on me, and I don't believe it will.

What about you?

This discussion was created by pudge (3605) for no Foes, but now has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Happy 'Day Without Immigrants' Day More

Happy 'Day Without Immigrants' Day

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  • Since you ask, LNUX and PZZA are up, none of my students have been absent (other than those who have a stomach virus - a real one), and the sun is shining. So it's been okay so far for me.
  • it would be more interesting to me if they not only abstained from work and shopping, and included not using emergency medical services, schools, and welfare programs. obviously there are some economic upsides to illegal aliens being in the u.s. but there are also some undeniable costs. it would be cool to have an opportunity to figure out which is actually larger.
    • It costs the state of California ~$10k per student per year for public education. This doesn't take in to account ANY of the additional costs to society -- such as medical care or welfare in general...

      Do you know how much INCOME/PROPERTY must be taxed to generate that kind of money? If the immigrant has a SINGLE child in school, that eats up ANY taxes they are paying in to the system plus. This assumes they are not working under the table, but are committing fraud by using forged/fake SS data.

      What really
      • i've discussed the racism label with others. people who lump this under the banner of a race issue are just not familiar with the scope or nature of the problem. it gives them an easy explanation to not have to take on the difficult task of really looking at what is going on and what be done to help make the situation better.

        when those actually involved in it, from the pro-illegal-immigration side, bring in race. then i think it is just merely a handy tool to try and give more weight to their pos
      • It would cost more than $10k/student if the meat in the school lunches weren't processed by people making minimum wage. And don't forget the fruit. The grains and dairy are likely produced by non-immigrant workers, but that's because it's highly automated/mechanized work. Costs would go up if the janitorial services were not staffed with unskilled low paid immigrant workers.

        Let's say that there are 16 million documented immigrant workers. All working a single full time job at the federal minimum wage

        • Let's say that there are 16 million documented immigrant workers. All working a single full time job at the federal minimum wage ($5.15/hr) or $206/wk. Withold 10% of that for federal tax ($20

          I've got a better idea... Lets pull numbers out of our butts and try to sound authoritative.

          Seriously, either they are working under the table (illegal) or they are committing fraud by providing false SSN information/documentation for work (also illegal). It would be interesting to see the IRSs "earnings suspense fi

          • Our immigration policy sucks in every possible way. The borders are pourous and people overstay their visas. And the educated people stay in their own countries because we provide them no viable path to citizenship. The smart people that do end up here are all refugees from shit holes like Somalia -- but of course they don't get jobs in their profession, instead the end up driving taxis. Most of the cab drivers in Minneapolis/St Paul are Somalian, many (claim) to have been in one professional career or
            • And the educated people stay in their own countries because we provide them no viable path to citizenship.

              Since when? I know a lot of educated people who come here and either get permanent resident alien status, or work toward citizenship. Most prefer the former, and while the process is cumbersome, there's nothing non-viable about it. And from what I am told by someone who went through the process of getting a Green Card recently, that process has actually improved since 9/11. And he was from Western E
              • And from what I am told by someone who went through the process of getting a Green Card recently, that process has actually improved since 9/11. And he was from Western Europe, not a "shit hole like Somalia." ... This just isn't true. Our immigration and naturlization process is geared toward favoring entrance and retention of such people.

                Your friend is in the minority -- even if you were to factor out hispanics. If we were really trying to get people in the door, we'd do a better job. The number of pe

                • And by servitude I mean that the poor people are working in low wage service or hospitality industry jobs.

                  By calling it servitude you make it sound like there's something wrong with it.

                  • Jhon used the term first, I'm using it in response to that. Of course there is nothing wrong with it -- that's just life -- and that's what I'm arguing. Immigrants come here for a better life, but not at our expense. Importing low wage workers is better than exporting entire industries and importing the products. Management level jobs stay in this country and the low wage workers still have a better quality of life than they would in their origin country. Wages of immigrant workers turns into economic

            • Our immigration policy sucks in every possible way. The borders are pourous and people overstay their visas. And the educated people stay in their own countries because we provide them no viable path to citizenship.

              You are either repeating something you've heard and believed or you are deliberately and maliciously lying -- assuming I've no idea how the system works. I'll assume the latter and give you the benefit of the doubt.

              Two of my grandparents were immigrants. The remainder of my great-grand paren

              • You are either repeating something you've heard and believed or you are deliberately and maliciously lying -- assuming I've no idea how the system works. I'll assume the latter and give you the benefit of the doubt.

                I'm neither lying nor repeating -- it's just collected information that I've used to form opinions -- I certainly could be misinformed, but I'm not convinced that's the case.

                Two of my grandparents were immigrants. The remainder of my great-grand parents. That aside, and much more recent, my

                • My wife's mom's family immigrated from Lebanon ...

                  Not for nothing, but you emigrate from, and immigrate to.

                  I didn't say we had a caste system - of course you can move up (or down) through the lower, middle and upper classes. I would think that most lower class immigrants do so because they want their children to have a better life than they did -- to live the American Dream.

                  But then any system that does not have full equality of possessions is class-based, and the term "class-based" doesn't have very much m
                  • Not for nothing, but you emigrate from, and immigrate to.

                    Hah - yes - and I almost used it but it looked funny and I was in a hurry.

                    But then any system that does not have full equality of possessions is class-based, and the term "class-based" doesn't have very much meaning.

                    Fair enough.. it's not much more meaningful than saying there are poor people, rich people and everyone else.

        • I used to be on the Finance Committee for my town. A middle class family with children, that owned a house and paid taxes on that as well as on their income, was a net loss to the town. Since we were a small town looking at a significant housing boom, this was a big problem for us.

          Sure, costs are a little bit lower because they are here, but not in regards to what costs the most: health care, education, and other social services. Apart from the food services for those, their costs are independent of the
          • I used to be on the Finance Committee for my town. A middle class family with children, that owned a house and paid taxes on that as well as on their income, was a net loss to the town. Since we were a small town looking at a significant housing boom, this was a big problem for us.

            Not addressing immigration issue, here... but something strikes me:

            If you income comming in is not matching your outlay, get smarter about how you use your money, cut spending, find better deals, and... if necessary, raise fri

            • If you income comming in is not matching your outlay, get smarter about how you use your money, cut spending, find better deals

              It was a small town, only about 15K people, with very little business base. You can only cut so much.

              and... if necessary, raise frickin taxes and cut the loopholes so that everyone pays their share.

              State law restricts how much taxes can be raised, and they were already pretty high. I should also note that most people in town were not very rich, and didn't have very expensive house
              • When I left, property values were skyrocketing, so it may well be that their money problems are not as severe as they used to be (the state law restricts the dollar-per-thousand assessment rate changes, but if your house doubles in value, your taxes double too, without any change in the assessment rate).

                Actually, if you're still referring to CA, you're wrong. This is due to Prop 13. Prop 13 will not allow taxes to be raised on a home you own by more then something like 2% a year.

                What you say is true if the
                • Actually, if you're still referring to CA

                  Nope, MA. Proposition 2 1/2 has two basic features: you cannot tax more than 2.5 percent of the assessed value of the entire community (levy ceiling), and the total tax you are allowed to collect in a given year (levy limit) increases by 2.5 percent every year automatically, as long as it does not go over the levy ceiling.

                  So if the assessed value of the town's property doubles in a year (not including new growth), the levy ceiling will also double, but the levy limi
  • So it is not having much of an effect. Clearly the planners did not think this one through very well.

    The big marches on weekends, which attracted hundreds of thousands because people could actually attend them, were a lot more impressive.

    • Well, it has to be on May 1st, because of the communist/labor ties to that day.

      And presumably it would have more impact -- if successful -- on a weekday. But if unsuccessful, obviously, it would have the reverse effect ...

      I predicted last week this would have no economic impact except on public schools, which will lose millions in funding for the absences, and it would in turn convince people even more than ever that illegal immigrants are not needed for the economy, and that they have a negative impact on
      • Closer to the 'action' in DC, its been a little helpful to me. The few places that are closed today, I know I can safely never go to again. Any place that supports those sorts of practices can be boycotted by me.
        • Oh man... I am just praying taco bell is open today. I'd hate to have to stop going there.

          Reminds me of the "buy blue" website last election cycle. I knew which companies to stop using/buying products. And to think some enterprising lib put all that information together for me. I really ought to thank them.

          Granted from my side, the issue is more complex. The free market side of me insists on buying from places I like the product they generate. But the conservative side of me says I ought to forego bu
    • At least in Los Angeles this is pretty big. I still think it is more effective on the weekend.
  • Seriously, I am. And everybody here appears to be working. Though the taxi driver asked me what I think about the strike.
  • Especially on the evening commute, so much less traffic it was wonderful.

    Otherwise no affect.

    On the radio this morning the DJ's were asking how it impacted people. Several people called up saying they were planning to have dinner at mexican restaurants to show their support for the LEGAL immigrants. Apparently all the mexican restaurants were closed yesterday, at least here in the Atlanta. And the callers said they would never again eat at whichever restaurant it was they were trying to go to.

    Oops.
  • A friend works at a local dairy. All the illegals showed up for work.

    Seriously, if they didn't, they'd be fired. And it isn't like they could sue for wrongful termination, now is it?

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