Unexpectedly! Alabama jobless rate falls amid immigration reform

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

heresy!

[Lee]

14 million Americans out of work, and you have no issues with adding to the workforce, both legally and illegally?

I'm sorry... I believe my whole post was about the issues.

   

[MechAg94]

Interesting that the pro-crime side of the immigration debate seems so pleased with our alleged dependence on illegal alien labor and/or taxes. As if that were not a problem, all by itself. (If we need them as badly as some claim.)

A little voice in the back of my head keeps asking me if the slave owners in 1850 kept saying they couldn't get rid of those slaves or they would be out of business. 

I also keep thinking that if someone was paying $10 or $15 per hour to pick crops when I was a teenager, I think a whole bunch of us would have been out picking crops.  $3.35 per hour working at a pizza place 5 or 6 evenings a week sucked.  I know a few guys who I went to A&M with who had to earn most of their own way through who would have loved to make that kind of money.  It makes me wonder how much effort they put to getting the word out that they need labor.

[Jamisjockey]

The truth of the matter is that labor should be a free market resource, but because of the existance of welfare, it is not.  Available labor in this country is unfairly shelved, paid to sit home and do jack diddle *expletive deleted*ing *expletive deleted*it.  It is then replaced with illegal labor, at a lower rate.  But, that illegal labor also comes with an additional toll against resources (as I've already stated).  People would be beating down the doors of the employers at reduced rates if it weren't for the government tainting the labor pool. 
Driving the illegals out will force the question "why won't americans do this work?" And maybe with that cold hard truth we can begin to really address "entitlements".

[Perd Hapley]

Don't forget the evils of the minimum wage.

[De Selby]

Honest question:  if we believe in free markets, why shouldn't we allow people to choose to hire people from other countries?   Why should the government have the power to license each individual worker?

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market. 

[Monkeyleg]

Honest question:  if we believe in free markets, why shouldn't we allow people to choose to hire people from other countries?   Why should the government have the power to license each individual worker?

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market. 

It's not a question of licensing workers. It's a matter of keeping track of who's here legally. We have all sorts of citizens of other countries here to work.

[Perd Hapley]

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market. 

That sounds like a you problem. "Free market" is constantly misinterpreted to mean some kind of anarchic situation in which laws and rights do not apply to the operations of businesses. In a truly free market, business is not allowed to steal or kill, but neither may it magically grant foreigners a right to cross national borders.

[RocketMan]

Honest question:  if we believe in free markets, why shouldn't we allow people to choose to hire people from other countries?   Why should the government have the power to license each individual worker?

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market. 

Absolutely.  Bringing in workers illegally from outside the market, then paying them below-market wages under the table.  Such a wonderful example of the free market at work.  

[Jamisjockey]

Honest question:  if we believe in free markets, why shouldn't we allow people to choose to hire people from other countries?   Why should the government have the power to license each individual worker?

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market.  

   I actually agree with you.

As I stated, the real problem is that our government places available labor on the dole, at a higher rate than they could be making doing honest work (like picking crops).  This artifically sets the labor rate above "minimum" wage (don't get me started on that travesty as well).  

But....
WE DO NOT HAVE A FREE MARKET.
The government has its dirty little fingers in every step of the process.  Besides placing available labor into the government dole, government taxes the snot out of businesses, places onerous restrictions and regulations on the hiring and employing of labor. 

[AJ Dual]

Honest question:  if we believe in free markets, why shouldn't we allow people to choose to hire people from other countries?   Why should the government have the power to license each individual worker?

I do not see how immigration restrictions for work purposes can ever be compatible with a free market. 

Nice try at a straw-man.