Quote Originally Posted by JohnP View Post
Many of the jobs formerly occupied by Americans (high school students, laborers, even more skilled trades) are now filled instead by illegal, off the books employees, who do not "live" here, but share an apartment with 20 other men. So, the effect is compound. Rental prices in such areas are artificially high, because even a high rent divided by 30 is cheap-therefore regular families can afford less and less; teens who would have been working a summer job putting shingles on houses or mowing lawns-are now called lazy and unwilling to work, when in reality, they cannot compete with an illegal alien with 30 years experience willing to do it cheaper than the employer is allowed to hire them(the legal citizen) at. I'm not proposing the minimum wage be dropped, but that the employers be taken to task. I also say illegal alien, because, in many cases they have no intent of living here, which is why they split apartments 30 ways. The money goes back to (Mexico/Guatemala/wherever).
Sounds like you're starting to understand where the "living wage" arguments are coming from.