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When I was a kid, we only had one parent working - my dad - and we always seemed to have enough. Not plenty, but enough. This is particularly amazing in view of the fact that my dad was a preacher - you know how they overpay those guys - and had five children. Today it seems both parents have to work full time, and even then lots of families barely scrape by.
The latest issue of Time magazine has a book review about this subject. The book was written by David Shipler and reviewed by Richard Lacayo. It is titled "The Working Poor." Since I have not had a chance to read the book, I will refer to what Time magazine has to say about it. The author states that "low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty." He states that a lot of people are living on the edge of household financial disaster and cannot escape their poverty because there are a lot of things that keep them there - a low minimum wage, convenience stores that advance them cash at 20 percent interest on a two-week loan, unscrupulous bosses who falsify time sheets so they work longer hours for the same pay, garment workers paid by the piece, exorbitant housing costs just to mention a few. These are the working poor, and "they spend everything and save nothing." Shipler had solutions such as a higher minimum wage, better job training and medical coverage. But he predicts nothing will be done as these folks carry no weight in the political process. It's not a bright outlook for the working poor.
But what Shipler did not mention and I will is that things are going to get worse, and it is all because of illegal immigration. The government admits there are 10 million illegals in this country and knowledgeable people put that figure at closer to 20 million. Now at a time of abundant cheap labor and a 6 percent unemployment rate on its way to 7.9 percent, President Bush and many members of Congress want to bring in more cheap labor, albeit legally and for a period of three years. But the result will be the same. An overabundance of labor will only drive down wages making the poor poorer.
In Los Angeles, there are documented cases of illegals willing to work for $2 an hour. In another case, one of our own people, a Mexican-American asked her boss for a pay raise and health insurance and was told to be quiet or he would hire an illegal to take her place. The hiring halls in Phoenix are jammed with illegals looking for work and unscrupulous employers hire them because they don't have to pay taxes or health insurance and there are plenty more to take their place if they don't like what's going on.
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Bill O'Reilly of Fox News is correct when he predicts that the new legal immigration proposals will bring in another 50 million people, this at a time when hundreds of thousands of Americans are unemployed, and the jobs we do have are being outsourced to India, Mexico and a host of other cheap labor countries. Bringing in more cheap labor will only acerbate our problems and will be a recipe for disaster for these United States not too mention the impact 50 million people will have on our hospitals, schools and police services. (According to the Border Patrol, 7 percent who enter our country illegally now have prior criminal records).
And finally, remember, low wages mean little or no taxes paid with resultant low revenues for our state budgets. California has learned that the hard way and the whole country will learn it next.
In the meantime, the poor will get poorer and poorer.
JIM BEHNKE is a Sierra Vista resident who retired as an Army lieutenant colonel. He can be contacted by e-mail at wethepeople33@juno.com. His column runs every other Thursday.
