Immigration Reform, Why Should We Care?

Why should we care? Here is the lastest scenario I see in the current forms of the proposed changes. The bills do not reflect any solid parameters to guide hiring. It states more or less as I have interpreted it, that if no US citizen will take a job then that job can be offered to a foreigner. Well the word foreigner is a broad market. People think that well it will be lettuce picking jobs or something labor oriented, however are not all jobs more or less viewed as labor by employers? Employers do not see employees as assets but more as a required nuisance they must contend with. Under said law changes here I could hypothetically post a job for let's say an accountant. There is a large shortage of those presently (actually there is no shortage except at the offered pay scale but that is another discussion). I decide to offer it at lets hypothetically say minimum wage. I must be crazy, no accountant will work for that right? WRONG. I can get someone from somewhere else to do it. An industry that really stands to benefit is transportation, trucking if you will. Why should you care? Well another possible problem. Drivers have typically made around 25-28 cents a mile but if can get drivers from South America to come and drive for 6 cents a mile there is an instant savings of 21 cents per mile or so. Now you're saying I still don't care, so what now its cheap to move stuff around. Is it? Well at 100000 miles per year at 6 cents a mile it saves 6000 dollars per truck. 6000 times the single largest fleet that is in operation at 2004 stats of 18500 trucks puts that savings at 111 billion dollars a year. That is only one company. A more accurate forecast would probably top a trillion a year. Even if the savings are passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices guess what, now you have increased unemployment. Now we have only looked small scale, lets say UPS and Fed Ex follow suit uh ya now see where things are leading? The Unions and their well paid salaries can hang it up. Now even further where is the real hidden cost? What about the all the social services that would be sapped at taxpayer expense? If drivers worked for that little companies would have no incentive to provide healthcare letting state programs foot the bill. So your groceries are a few cents cheaper, you may be unemployed or now grossly underpaid because unemployment would climb making the pool bigger driving down wages (no pun intended) as your taxes rise. As I see it the bills are nothing more than a greedy grab for some quick bucks at the expense of hardworking Americans. If you have someone in Congress representing your state that is favor of this lunacy vote them out. ( The above scenario is purely hypothetical in nature and only a reflection of the authors opinions based on insight gained from economic classes taken at a college level. It in no way implies any offer of employment. The author recognizes that opinions may differ and this entry in no way reflects the views of any particular political party.)