Recession or Depression?

[MsDemeanor]

Originally Posted by SuperFemme

In these types of conversations I often wonder why nobody brings up all the undocumented workers who DO pay taxes, pay into Social Security and Disability but can never file for those tax benefits?

The amount is astronomical.

And that they buy food and gas and clothing and merchandise and services that contribute to the economy and to the tax base.

It's difficult to rant about a group of people sucking the life force out of the US economy if you have to acknowledge that they contribute to that economy. Better to just ignore the facts that are inconvenient.

[apretty]

immigrants: myth vs. facts

http://www.immigrantslist.org/myths_vs_facts

The 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, who comprise nearly one-third of all immigrants in the country, are not eligible for public benefits. According to the New York Times, “Illegal immigrants are pumping the Social Security system with as much as $7 billion a year and contributing to Medicare in payroll taxes, yet they are unable to collect on the benefits…Starting in the late 1980’s, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with fake Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the “earnings suspense file” in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to…$189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990’s…”

lots more condensed information on the site, immigrantslist.org

[Medusa]

It always grosses me out a little (ok, a lot) to hear a Queer person look to illegal immigrants (which almost always seems to be about "those damn Mexicans") as the source of "what they see wrong" with the employment system in this country.

I guess I expect more from us? Or I at least assume Queers will think twice before helping to marginalize another group of people since, well yanno...we have been marginalized so often ourselves, especially when it's due to ignorance, intolerance, or some form of 'ism or 'phobia.

I am getting to where I don't even like the term "illegal immigrant". Human beings are not "illegal". It seems unfair and problematic to me to attach what I perceive to be a negative connotation (the word "illegal") to an Immigrant who may not have the right political pull, thousands of dollars, or years worth of patience for our system to get it's head out of it's giant, smelly, racist, eurocentric ass so that they, too, can live the American dream.

Especially since 90% of the people in this country who point to "The Mexicans" as the "problem" won't do the research on where they, themselves, came from. I suspect a biggo boat full of Irish, Romany, Dutch, or German settlers might be somewhere in their midst.

[Soon]