Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
With all due respect, have you ever tried to talk to any of the workers who clear the land, pour the concrete, build the houses, install the landscaping and irrigation systems or maintain any of The Villages-owned property? My experience has been that you would have a tough time finding even one such worker who spoke any English at all. I had my driveway resurfaced with pavers a few months ago. The job was done by five Brazilians who bent over to install the pavers and never straightened up until the job was done. I never saw five guys work as hard. Not a single one of them spoke even a single word of English.
Does anyone think that all of these people have green cards, or better yet U.S. citizenship? Get real. There are many small business men in The Villages who employ illegals. All of us who live here benefit and willingly enjoy the fruits of their labor.
But should I be expected to also pay for their health insurance, albeit indirectly? I think not. The proposed bill that places at least some responsibility on small business owners to insure these types of workers is OK with me.
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VK, Your observations are correct, but we need to ask 'Why?' My son, now in his thirties, has been in the home construction business for years. A few months ago, we were playing some old home movies that included a few shots of our lawn having new sod laid down after the chinch bugs killed the old lawn. He broke out laughing - "White men laying sod!!!" That could never happen today. We have bought into the nonsense that the illegal immigrants are doing jobs that American citizens won't do. This is pure BS. What is true is that American citizens will not do the jobs for a sub-minimum wage.
My son observed that his drywall crews in particular were all Mexican citizens, here illegally. A number of them would share a shack, drive together to work in an overcrowded, uninsured car and send as much money to Mexico as they could. They are great workers, but they are filling jobs that Americans can and have done up until about twenty years ago.
As I noted, the car is uninsured, so when they are in an accident, the American citizens have to pay, they have no health coverage and when they get sick, once again we get to pay, they compromise 30% of the Federal prison population, and I can go on and on. Costs to house, costs to educate, costs attempting to control the Mexican Narco Gangs, etc. Costs to American citizens for having these criminals, and yes they are criminals, is conservatively estimated to be in excess of $300 billion per year. If you want to know where we can find the money to fund health care for American citizens, I suggest we start here. We would also go a long way towards reducing the unemployment of American citizens and balancing our state budgets. Our President has already committed to providing health care for children here illegally. Does anyone think it will stop there?