Lazy Americans

My initial reaction to the "Day Without Immigrants" is that the organizers could have chosen a less inadvertently comical title. It sounds like more of a celebration than something to be feared or to rouse the masses. I can easily picture a scenario where you have your [insert your own stereotype of elitist] in some room smoking [insert prefered tobacco of said 'villain'] while sipping [insert desired drink], cackling and toasting to a "Day Without Immigrants!"

Of course, we are talking about illegal immigrants here, not the kind that most of us are descended from and went about the process legally. The kind that don't have social security cards or green cards or GAP cards (well, maybe), and don't have to pay taxes. One way or another, they are willing to do the jobs that others are not, apparently:

Illegal immigrants made their point Monday: Without them, Americans would pay higher prices and a lot of work wouldn't get done.

As nationwide demonstrations thinned the work force in businesses from meat-packing plants to construction sites to behind the counter at McDonald's, economists said there can be no dispute within the context of the contentious immigration issue that the group wields significant clout in the U.S. economy.

"If illegal immigration came to a standstill, it would disrupt the economy," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "It would lead to higher prices for many goods and services, and some things literally would not get done. It would be a major adjustment for our economy, for sure."

...Mike Collins, who owns 500 acres of Vidalia onions in southeastern Georgia, was forced to shut down his packing shed and postpone his harvest when none of his 175 seasonal workers showed up.

So, these jobs are either underpaid or undesirable for your average American, and since these illegals can't get better paying work because of their status, they are 'forced' to work in the ditches? What would happen if they didn't do our 'dirty work'?

Well, we probably would be in trouble, at least for a day or two. A day or two because I don't think many of these illegals can afford to take a vacation, and the trouble part because our welfare system pays Americans more money to not work than to be productive in a crap job.

In short, this situation says two things to me. First, while illegal immigrants constitute a significant portion of the lowest-income work force, their political power is impaired by (1) lack of voting status,(2) lack of funds to afford a real strike, (3) their inherent criminal status. By granting them status as citizens, we'll suddenly lose a lot of said workers and contribute to the second issue, that welfare makes Americans lazy. Why would you have a job, working in uncomfortable conditions or long hours when the government will hand you a larger check every week for sitting on your ass? In fact, once you are a new citizen, wouldn't you take advantage of the free cash? The quick fix of making all these illegals citizens won't do anything more than create a whole new instant generation of lazy tax-dollar suckers, which was greatly contributed to by our system of welfare.

Or, to put it as Judge Shmales once said, "Well, the world needs ditch-diggers, too." Granting citizenship to our current ditch-diggers only means we'll have to find a whole 'nother batch of ditch-diggers to take their place. Thanks, welfare. Call me cynical.