Other 'P' words I like very much....

PRO-CRASTINATION

Not Con-crastination. I don't even know what you're against if you like Con-crastination. Suffice it to say, it's not me.

So, one of the funnest things about school is Political Forum class, where we have spent the whole semester arguing a different topic each week. One week we yelled about warrantless wiretapping, on my week we cried, screamed, and pondered what it's gonna take to get Democrats organized and effective in government again. This week, we're talking about illegal immigration. Here's what I posted on our message board. What do you think?

There are so many factors that have gotten us in this mess besides the simple state of our borders and how many people are coming across them every day.

-Consider the irony, that under NAFTA, American companies were able to transfer manufacturing, i.e. American jobs, south of the border where wages are even lower than minimum wage in the US.
-Consider that the more stringent immigration measures we have today would have still allowed the 9/11 hijackers into this country.

What should be done?
-We should have a higher minimum wage. We should have a guest worker program. We should fine employers who hire undocumented workers. We should have greater cooperation and information sharing between the Intelligence and Immigration arms of the federal government. We should not reward American companies for choosing profit as their # 1 priority, with executive compensation following right behind.

But shoulds aside, we’ll still have unskilled and poorly educated immigrants coming across the border. With no education and little to no grasp of English, where can we expect them to work? The options are limited.

The average lifetime fiscal impact of a Mexican immigrant is more than a negative $55,000. This means with taxes paid minus services used, they command services in excess of taxes by $55,000. This is chump change when compared to say, what we’re spending in Iraq. But, the figure goes into the black for immigrants with education. We need job training, literacy training, and English classes for immigrants in the US. With a more educated work force, we will have a more prosperous economy….or something like that.

P.S. The PRO-crastination part is that I'm supposed to be doing other homework right now. Homework, blech! Arguing, yum!