reply to post by JRedBeard
Well what's happening is that whether a mexican gets the low-skill job or the american gets the low-skill job, someone is going to lose and there're
going to be a lot of them! What do they do?
Well... mexicans are going to come. Lots of em. We have a surplus of low-skill laborers. And it's not just here. It's all across the world. Many many
people want work and a modern life. There're many times more people in other countries than in the US. Think: globalization.
It boils down to education.
HS is not enough.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say HS + 2 years of college should be payed for by the country just as HS is payed for right now. This will make
low-skill american workers more competitive in high-skill jobs and they won't be left competing with illegal immigrants for jobs. And then they'll be
able to add to the economy instead of taking away from it. You'll see much more job creation out of it.
What happened is that HS used to be all a person needed to really get going and get a decent job. In fact, there was a time you could drop out in 4th
grade and still get a decent job. You didn't even need grade school! But with all of the technological changes, the need for high-skills has
increased. There're just so many things you have to learn to be effective nowadays. So if our goal is to produce a work force as we did 50 years ago,
we will have to pay for more college-level education. This means higher taxes. In theory, the higher taxes will be payed in hte longterm as these
graduates, instead of competing with illegals or 3rd-worlders, get jobs and pump up the economy. (Their higher skills will yield higher wages and in
turn yield more taxes. Do you want somebody making $900/month paying (mostly) zero taxes or somebody making $3500/month contributing 20% to the
taxbase?)
So what does a HS-level student do to find work if he's competing with illegals or 3rd-worldlers in another country that create products that're
imported? And if he needs that work to pay for more education then what's he going to do if he can't find it? This is the dilemma. So, in effect, we
could give "free" loans to HS-level students to go to college or just have the taxbase pay for it.
Remember, if it's cheaper to import from a less developed country then we will. So the low-skill workers in our own country will be out of work.
There're a couple billion low-skill people. In fact, the US takes everytying for granted. Much of the world lives in less developed conditions.
We either become more like less developed countries or we increase our skills. Period.
Look at Finland. They have high education marks. In fact, in math and science they've been ranked at #1, with asian countries following in the lead.
America is somewhere around #20 in the rankings. But even they recognize hte costs of a college-level education. While their tuition is mostly free,
students still pay living expenses. This is not altogether different from the US paying through HS-level since parents pay for the living expenses of
their children. But non-EU citizens have to prove they can support themselves. Not sure how they afford it, but it's something worht looking
at.
edit on 10-6-2012 by jonnywhite because: (no reason given)
