Attention in the class

Norma, who I am now dead to because of my mother's day tribute left the following comment on my post about immigration yesterday:

Well, trickle down this. Using a family with 6 children calculate the education costs in your community, and the medical costs, and figure they're not paying taxes except on consumer items. Add to that the prison costs for the gangs, the uninsured motorists, the cost of returning a couple million a year to Mexico, the cost of infectious diseases spreading that many of our doctors have never even seen. Now multiply that by about 4 or 5 million families. Yes, they cost us much more than we benefit from low wages. But even if we did benefit, why would you want a permanent underclass?

I won't bore y'all with the calculations she mentioned, the Center for Immigration Studies says immigration (note legal and illegal were combined) costs $11 billion to $22 billion per year. Close enough for government work. Pretty expensive, until you start to consider the benefits they bring our economy.

I won't go into the reduced labor rates immigrant workers are providing for construction and agricultural businesses.

How much of their pay is being poured back into the US Economy? I can't find the numbers, granted I haven't looked very hard, but I'll bet you a dollar it's more than the costs of immigration CIS mentions. Hell lets say of the eleven million illegals half of them are spending ten thousand dollars a year in our stores. Maybe I'm wrong, but I calculate it out to be $55 Billion dollars, more than double the high estimates for the costs of immigration.

Next topic. Why would I want a permanent subclass? Me, I'd personally love a utopian society, were everybody is equal and we all gather around the camp fire every night hold hands and sing kum-ba-ya, but it ain't gonna happen. Each and every society has had and will continue to have upper, middle and lower classes, you're only fooling yourself if you don't believe so. The difference is in America you don't have to stay in one class or another, check out Paris Hilton, she's as low class as they come and she has money.

To think we don't already have a "subclass" is pure idiocy. Don't believe me, go back and watch the footage flowing out of New Orleans after Katrina struck, or take a nice leisurely stroll through Compton or one of the other LA 'burbs.

Funny how the compassionate conservatives are concerned for the well being of immigrants while they aren't pushing ways to get rid of those abusing the welfare system isn't it? I'm all for bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't. At least they're willing to work, sure I'm paying to subsidize their health care and education, but at least I'm seeing some return on my investment through affordable housing and cheaper groceries and at least I'm not afraid to admit it.