Those boatloads of studies must have ignored health care.

That is true.

They also do a LOT of manual labor and menial jobs that citizens don't WANT to do.

How about the grocery stores and restaurants they use. They pay those, are those not part of our economic system? How about the rent they pay (which goes to pay the property owners' property taxes)? How about the sales tax they pay whenever they buy anything in 45 or so states? The gas they buy that pays taxes.

Those menial jobs would be a lot more enticing if they paid just a hair more. The job has to get done one way or another.

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And the percentage of those taxes compared to the taxes that are lost from their income is huge. Honestly, implement fair tax and I won't give a fuck about immigrants any more.

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Furthermore, if most immigrants did pay income tax, it would be a minimal amount since most often they'd be working in very low-paying jobs.

We're pushing 14% unemployment around these parts.
I call bullshit on that tired line.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

That's a whole other issue for another day (prideful citizens thinking jobs are beneath them, even when they might be jobless).

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mechaphil

It's minimal, until you multiply it by the estimated 10-12 MILLION illegal immigrants...

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How much manual labor is in "your parts" though?

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You're right.

However, these employers are more than content to keep hiring illegals and pay them shit because they can. They have a vested interest in having illegals available; it saves them money that they'd have to pay a citizen to do the same job.

I was a fan of the parts of the Arizona law that went after people who hired illegals. That's the way to go about it. They're not going to come here for work if they can't get work.

+1

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Uh...a whole hell of a lot.

Here, let me stir the pot a little.

From the 2010 census

http://www.latimes.com/sns-ap-us-census ... 8342.story

Interesting angle to the birthright citizenship issue.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

And a huge red flag for anyone familiar with the term "sustainability". As a world, we can't afford that shit. Economically, environmentally, geographically, it's just not going to work.

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Sure, it would be a lot of $. But why not direct that anger toward major corporations that find ways to avoid income taxes too? I bet one corporation's maneuvering and finding tax loopholes would account for the same money as thousands of illegal immigrants' unpaid income taxes. But you don't hear the average citizen complaining about that anywhere near as much as complaining about immigrants. The public has been duped and brainwashed on this issue IMO.

We're just as powerless, either way. Huge corporations piss me off. Elected officials piss me off. There's no winning.

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i dont give a shit either way. people are people. they are not above me or below because of where they are born. except ohio. people from ohio are below me. geographically and culturally.

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That's because illegal immigrants don't have powerful lobbyists on the Capitol directing how legislation goes. It has nothing to do with being brainwashed, but rather because the shadowy dealings of corporate attorneys going to work to find tax loopholes isn't nearly as easy to analyze from the layman perspective as illegal immigrants finding their way into the country through various means.

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mechaphil

Ahh, but most major corporations don't have to weasel around to find loopholes and tax shelters, they're flat out handed exemptions, tax breaks and even subsidies by our elected officials in exchange for campaign contributions

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Or by grovelling local officials who don't want a business to pack up and split (like CliffStar in Dunkirk)

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mechaphil