Here's the conundrum.

We want products at the lowest possible prices. In order to serve us those products, corporations move jobs to where the leabor is cheaper. Now, this is clouded by the fact that the corporations first loyalty is to the *shareholder* and maximing THEIR returns.

Illegal immigrants are not taking our jobs since nobody is out there picking lettuce who just came off the unemployment line.

Legal nationals of other countries ARE providing a labor source cheap enough so that the companies are willing to go through the expense of moving operations in order to exploit that labor pool.

In a sense, you could say that it is OUR desire for $3 Happy Meals that drives jobs down to Mexico.

And to comment on one aspect of the unemployment thing, let me give you the perspective of someone who's been on it in the past.

I will never forget back in the 1980s when I was on unemployment and desperately looking for work in my field. One week, I went into the unemployment office and fileld out the form that, back then, you had to fill out to show you were looking for work. they noticed one company listed three times (I'd had three contacts with them and I was supposed to list all contacts). They argued with me that I wasn't looking hard enough so they were going to suspend my benefits. I appealed and they continued my benefits, threatening me that, if my appeal failed, I would have to pay them back. Two days later I was offered a job by that company. I never heard from unemployment about that matter again.

By staying in my field, I have paid back FAR more than I ever took out and 'the system' has profited from me NOT flipping burgers.

By the same token, my cousin has skills in IT. She lost her job due to mergers and offshoring. As she had a mother with Alzheimer's she was forced into taking a job with a supermarket some 6 years ago. She's now trapped in that 'world' as no tech company will touch her, regardless of the fact that she has the same basic skills. Every time I see her, I have thoughts along the lines of "there but for the grace of god...."