DEY TOOK AR SOSHUL SEKERRATY~!!!1!

[Guest Cerebus]

Interesting editorial in the IDB today:

 

America: Mexico's ATM

 

Immigration: That "giant sucking sound" you hear isn't the jobs that Ross Perot warned we'd lose to Mexico due to NAFTA. It's from all the cash Mexico is collecting from illegals working on this side of the border.

 

Funds sent home from Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, now outstrip revenues from foreign investors and tourism in Mexico (see chart). And "migradollars" are on course to surpass even revenues from Pemex, the state oil company, making them the country's largest source of income.

 

Revenues from Mexican workers in the U.S. are critical to Mexico's economy, accounting for nearly one-fifth of its GDP. They've grown at a 17.6% annual clip over the past decade — thanks to an explosion of illegal immigration encouraged by the Mexican government and winked at by ours — and are expected to grow by more than 20% a year over the next decade.

 

U.S. banks are aiding the shakedown by offering Mexican workers ATM cards — such as Wachovia's Dinero Directo card — that make it easier for them to transfer money home to relatives. This year they'll wire as much as $20 billion in cash.

 

For lucky recipients south of the border, where the average wage is below $2 an hour, remittances account for 80% of household income.

 

No wonder Mexican President Vicente Fox calls illegal aliens "heroes." They're no less than his economic plan. So long as his frustrated poor have the escape valve of America, he can postpone much-needed reforms at home, such as privatizing Pemex and other state industries. Why change Mexico's corrupt feudal system when there's a giant ATM open next door?

 

Fox, who's as dumb as his name, is channeling the migradollar withdrawals to rural sectors mired in poverty through a "padrino," or sponsorship, program. Last month, he also set up a mortgage plan to let Mexican workers here buy homes in Mexico.

 

Both point up the inadequacy of his government to provide for the needs of its people.

 

But Fox isn't fazed. He's hoping to get us to pay for their retirement, too, by pushing a totalization deal with President Bush to permit even Mexicans who have worked in this country illegally to draw U.S. Social Security benefits.

 

Right now, 5 million illegal aliens from Mexico work in the U.S. Letting them take Social Security would create a huge drain on a system that's already careening toward bankruptcy.

 

No matter. Bush signed the deal last June and is expected to present it to Congress for final approval.

 

House Immigration Reform Caucus Chairman Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., strongly opposes the idea. He says the administration has already moved ahead with plans to set up an office at the embassy in Mexico City to process benefit claims. The Social Security Administration denies it, but allows that its sole benefits officer down there will need help handling the crush of new claims from Mexicans if the deal goes through. The agreement is now with the SSA's general counsel, who's preparing it for Congress.

 

Mexico's own social security system pales next to ours. Mexicans have to work more than twice as long to become fully vested, and benefits aren't nearly as generous.

 

So Fox prefers U.S. taxpayers pick up the tab, as if paying for the retiring baby boomers weren't enough in our pay-as-you-go system.

 

The best way to reform the kleptocracy south of us (to say nothing of Social Security) is to secure our borders — remember 9-11? — and pressure it to fix its own economy.

 

Honestly, I had no idea that Worker Remittences were so damn high in Mexico as to constiute nearly 18 BILLION. Any non "DEY TOOK AR JABS!" comments would be appreciated.

 

By the way, this thread is a milestone. The first thread in a MikeSC-less CE board. A new page has turned...

[2GOLD 0]

Let me make sure I have this right. By offering illegals jobs, America is in effect making life worse on the people who remain in Mexico because their President sees it as a good enough reason not to do anything to improve the quality of life in his own country.

 

Or did I get it all wrong from reading it?

[SuperJerk 0]

I'd say your assessment its pretty accurate.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

What do you figure would happen to Mexico if the number one source of income was suddenly removed?

[Carnival 0]

Great Title for this thread.

 

We might as well just adopt mexico as a state. But keep the borders up!

[2GOLD 0]

Great Title for this thread.

 

We might as well just adopt mexico as a state. But keep the borders up!

 

If we added Mexico, the national poverty rate of the US would more than triple I'd imagine. And this all just sounds like the President of Mexico is on easy street but if we tried to cut off the illegals and forced him to improve his country, we'd be painted as the bad guys.

 

Damned if we do, damned if we don't once again. America really cannot win for trying.

[Guest BDC]

I suppose the question is whether it's possible to get a President of Mexico that will try to change this at all. For some reason, I'm a little bit doubtful.

[2GOLD 0]

Why is it everytime I think of the President of Mexico, I always think of one of those corrupt villians from the ZORRO shows? I guess because most of them ARE like the corrupt villians in the Zorro shows.

 

That's what Mexico needs! ZORRO!

[LessonInMachismo 0]

People at work live ten to an apartment and eat rice and beans so they can send every last cent back to Mexico/El Salvador/Honduras/etc.

 

There is a lot of money being plucked from our economy to begin with, and if SS funds start funneling south, too, well...that's not good.

[Guest CronoT]

I knew about this, but I had no idea it was this bad.

 

My company even makes it easier for them to do it, since they've removed the extra tarriff on the price of international money orders.

[MrRant 0]

This is why we should just start shooting at those who try and cross the border illegally.

 

God forbid I ever work for the INS because anyone I find that is here illegally would be going home via catapult, but I can't be held responsible if they accidently hit a brick wall.

 

 

 

 

 

Twice.

[razazteca 0]

This is why we should just start shooting at those who try and cross the border illegally.

 

God forbid I ever work for the INS because anyone I find that is here illegally would be going home via catapult, but I can't be held responsible if they accidently hit a brick wall.

 

 

 

 

 

Twice.

Damn, Canadian drug dealers must pay for stealing the innocence from the youth of America....Snowbirds must pay~

 

Cheap labor comes from the South but the real evil doers are from from the North.

[SuperJerk 0]

This is why we should just start shooting at those who try and cross the border illegally.

 

God forbid I ever work for the INS because anyone I find that is here illegally would be going home via catapult, but I can't be held responsible if they accidently hit a brick wall.

I'm not in favor of shooting illegal immigrants...but your catapult idea is intriguing.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Why is it everytime I think of the President of Mexico, I always think of one of those corrupt villians from the ZORRO shows? I guess because most of them ARE like the corrupt villians in the Zorro shows.

 

That's what Mexico needs! ZORRO!

Lookit that. That guy's one pair of aviator sunglasses away from declaring himself Generalissimo.

[Guest CronoT]

God forbid I ever work for the INS because anyone I find that is here illegally would be going home via catapult....

Someone's been watching Simpsons reruns.

 

So who's going to bring up the Coneheads/Psycho INS guy plan?

[SuperJerk 0]

 

Someone just won the "Mr. Mexico" Pageant.

 

Grand prize: You get to leave Mexico.

[Guest CronoT]

 

Someone just won the "Mr. Mexico" Pageant.

 

Grand prize: You get to leave Mexico.

You just know Fox and Bush have been planning this since Bush was Gov. of Texas. Frankly, I'm not surprised. The corporations in Texas love cheap labor, legal or not.

[SuperJerk 0]

Its not just the corporations in Texas that love cheap labor, you know.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Fox looks like that guy that does those cracker commercials that cant do the commercial right.

[Guest Vitamin X]

I have no idea how to feel about this issue. On one hand, I'm very much opposed to Social Security being provided to illegals, for obvious reasons, but I could care less about where the money that they make goes to.

 

The thing that I don't understand is why don't they try to get into the country legally and then send money/aid back home? That's what most Cubans do here, up until recently when Bush pushed for the law that you can only visit once every three years and carry a certain amount of things with you, which wasn't too much to begin with. But if they're providing labor at cheap prices and long hours to American companies which certainly helps the American economy infinitely more than wiring money back home..when the standard national wage is about $2/hour, making minimum wage here and sending even half of a paycheck back would obviously inflate how much of the GDP it represents, while American companies still profit off their human resource. I say, if you don't want to be protected by US Labor laws, only to support your families back home by working your asses off, the only thing this affects is the American workers that can't get a job over an illegal who's willing to work twice as much for half as less.

 

In which case, with the opportunities available to a great deal many Americans here, if all they can aspire to is the shit labor that illegals are doing (i.e. picking fruit), then they deserve to be unemployed.