Undocumented workers are not here competing with China. They overwhelmingly work in agriculture, food services, landscaping, construction. They are not working in manufacturing industries

And it is perfectly legal to pay employees in cash, as long you comply with all the reporting, withholding etc requirements.

Wouldn’t that defeat purpose of paying in cash?

Only low precentage of ILLEGALs work. Government has system for non residents working it call green cards. No green card illegal entry.

Gracie, I think I see that you really believe one person, even doing something seemingly minor, can have an impact on the world. When you reuse a grocery bag I say thank you instead of saying "what about all the billions of other people that aren't reusing" But you don't seem to see how every little step to decrease greenhouse gases is also helpful, even if India or China doesn't take every measure we can afford to take.

And... I am certain that the no environmental controls "is" was written the way it should have been as there is a presumed antecedent phrase...

(A policy of ) no environmental controls is coming.

And who allowed labor move to foreign soil? Federal Government ——- influences by 1%er’s. And who got shut out the blue collar worker. No matter it’s UNFAIR trade.

Illegals first, then we can argue over constitutional rights. Women have that option.

My point is that the U.S. has minimum wage laws, tax laws, and other employment laws. China has lower wages and other employment standards designed to produce lower priced products. So, if you want lower priced products, why not just import them from China? But, violating your own laws to make cheaper products is being hypocritical because you are admitting that you cannot compete with China without breaking your own laws.

A little help please. Google has failed to tell me what USCC = 9 might mean

Thank you, that was a typo. Should read USSC=9. The United States Supreme Court should be codified to be made up of 9 members. No stacking of the court by increasing the number of justices so one side or the other can appoint a new majority by stacking it with new justices of their preference. I will attempt to go back and fix the original post.

I was responding to the post that said it was illegal to pay workers in cash. It is not illegal.
Now to your other sentence. I notice you didn't have a link for "only a low % of illegals work" because that is nonsense.

OK, the majority of employers who pay their employees in cash are violating the tax laws.

Let me say how I avoid buying Chinese-made products. I buy almost ALL of my clothes from thrift stores or garage sales. I can also find hardware and sports equipment that way. For example, I have found almost new softball gloves at Goodwill that are worth $80 for under 10 dollars. I even buy shoes there. I COULD afford to buy new clothes, but they would likely be made in China or another country that does NOT like the US. It is true that items sitting in thrift stores may have been ORIGINALLY made in China, but China does NOT profit when I buy 2nd hand.
........Obviously China and many other countries, are NOT friends of the US. WE have basically, for about 60 years, FUNDED their industrial and military EXPANSION. Today, they threaten the US and align with Russia. They have greater influence in Africa than the US. And are outmaneuvering us in other areas of the world (and SPACE). We should NEVER have funded them and built them up. So, what to do now? I would suggest bringing back SOME manufacturing jobs. And buying products from countries that LIKE the US. Those may be dwindling, but we still have England, Canada, Australia, Finland, and Sweden on our side. Germany and France are having their own problems. So overall, I would be ANTI outsourcing to unfriendly countries and PRO IN-sourcing within the US.

I agree with everything written there. I would like to add to the list one of my personal peeves. At the time of WW2 the US school system included VOCATIONAL schools which meant that the GIs had the mechanical and other skills needed to fight a war. We stopped INVESTING in VOCATIONAL schools because supposedly they were too expensive to operate. i see that as a MAJOR historic mistake.

Germany has more Unionization than the US does today. And they somehow manage to make cars that are sold and prized worldwide.

You and I seem to be talking past each other. I don't understand what you are saying. People hiring and underpaying undocumented workers has no impact on China. China is not competing to update my landscaping or cook my food or clean the hotel room.

Chinese labor, and Vietnam, and Cambodia, and almost any other nation is cheaper than US labor. We all know that and understand why a US manufacturer would use foreign factories to make products. The question becomes what if anything should be our policy.

Should the US accept that we are happy to have others do the work as it saves us money or should we insist that we need to have stuff made here even if it costs a whole lot more to do it that way. Don't forget that other nations will watch what we do and react.

We could tell Maytag that our government will subsidize the building of a nice new washing machine factory. Tax abatements, new roads, even use Army labor to build the facility if you want to go all out. But next, where does Maytag get the metal to make the machine? Buy it only from US Steel? What if it is cheaper to buy Steel from outside the US and ship it here (only cheaper because the cost of labor and materials to make that steel was cheaper abroad). Do you now say all the raw materials must be from the US? Only use natural gas that was drilled here, only use iron ore that was mined here, it gets very complex.

But now you have a washing machine that costs 4,000 dollars where the same machine from China was 1000. So you slap an import tax of 3000 on the Chinese machine and we all happily buy made in America. Or do we? No we make our old machine last longer which makes Maytag less profitable than projected, so we have to prop it up to keep it in business.

Meanwhile China is not happy they are not selling us washing machines because we slapped a tax on it.. So they retaliate and refuse to buy our products.. and we sell a lot of stuff to China. In 2023 China bought 165 Billion dollars of US products. Keep in mind what China buys from us they can get elsewhere.

Google Soybean exports to China to read about how this works in the real world. We put a tariff on Chinese materials and they retaliated against our soybeans and other items . This caused us to lose export income to such a degree that the US taxpayers ended up bailing out soybean and other farmers over 27 Billion Dollars through Feb 2020


You say, but look how the cost of soybeans dropped as the farmers had to sell them and didn't have the Chinese market. You're forgetting that you are also paying the taxes to the government they are passing on to the farmers. You are losing money here, not saving.

So obviously we should therefore cancel our tariffs on Chinese steel so they cancel the soybean retaliation. Not so simple. We don't want to depend on Chinese steel and deem it, correctly, as a vital industry. And no politician wants to see those TV ads about how he is soft on China because it is too complex to expect the public to follow all the reasoning. China bashing is a favorite tactic even in this thread.

The less that we buy from China, the less they would need electricity produced from COAL. Less Chinese coal usage means cleaner air worldwide.

I believe that in Europe they build their new houses on a factory assembly line. On site home building in the US could be a big reason that homes are so expensive.

I agree completely ! And if the lower and middle classes are penalized that would make America WEAKER. It was the OPPOSITE in the 50s and 60s which are decades that people rave about because of the STRENGTH of the middle class. Starting about 1975 the US tax system began to penalize America and the GREAT American middle class. Today couples must work 2 jobs and save until they are in their 40s before they can afford a house. There are lots of problems today and FEW solutions.

Thanks for the clarification. I am not a supporter of having an open option to add new Supreme Court Justices. But 9 is much too few. Nine was selected in 1869 when the population was 31 million. We now have 10 times that many. And we have more laws to adjudicate. So we need more on SCOTUS. I think the proposal to have at least 1 justice for each district (13) is a minimum. And I think we need a mandatory retirement age say 80.

There is an interesting suggestion that all justices get an 18 year appointment which means one new justice every 2 years which balances it so no one President gets to pack the court. This would happen the 1st and 3rd year of a term so not in an election year. And we need a code of ethics. At least the code that applies to every other Federal Judge should apply to a Justice.

What the Heritage Foundation has determined or not determined is irrelevant; they don't make the laws or enforce the laws. Your suggestion that they are running the country as of January 2025 is more nonsensical thinking on your part. Suggesting that US citizens can be put on a plane to nowhere specific is also nonsensical. It doesn't work that way regardless of what you think, thank God, as reaffirmed by the recent election. Get a grip.

We shall see

We shall see what?

Those workers were Scrooged !

Not at all, as long as you follow tax, FICA and workers comp laws. There is no law detailing how employees are paid their wages. It only takes 28 keystrokes to get the facts.

Only by people who have more money than brains:loco:

Kind of hard when there no incentive for CEOs to manufacture anything in US when the can just make it china and import here for at least 70% of costs. Plus and big plus! they don’t have deal with EPA or unions.

A.I. could be both good and bad just like social media is. I worry that it takes so much energy to function.

But, there only trusting accountability in paying cash. Come we know why they pay in cash. Contractor’s love cash payments. Why? Trusting accountability.

The question is,"why was the US middle class better off in 1950 through 1975 than we are today. And that is historic and economical and not political?"

Legal Americans WOULD do any job where they thought that they were paid enough. Look at the salaries of upper management for any large company. I would rather allow high school students to work 3 or 4 hours per week than have illegal aliens (and armed drug gangs) operating in my town.
.........Also, there are machines designed to pick fruit and tomatoes that have a long shape. And Quaker and Mennonite farmers have no problems picking and selling their produce.

The world was less complex in 1800 than today. They did not have to worry about having a FCC or a Space Program. The US was insulated against world problems by 2 oceans. We did not get involved with Iran or Israel then.

The machinists may be getting those raises NOW, but at SOME point in the future A.I. will eliminate many of their jobs. That is why legal and illegal immigration should have been cut off years ago. In the future there could be as many as 100 thousand people NOT workingin the US. They will then do what........cause trouble and consume drugs?

Wall street industrial owners and upper managers went to China to INCREASE their profits. It devastated the middle and lower US classes. And turned China into a potential enemy of equal power. America is so proud of you !

Factories are no longer worker-intensive. They are made up mainly of robotics. So we won't need tons of workers. Just a few well trained technical workers.

I am suggesting that employers are not paying the TRUE COSTS to society. There are additional social and government costs when adding more legal and illegal workers that the EMPLOYERS do NOT pay.

As to the 1st sentence.......I believe that we have too many citizens. I would put all repeat offenders in jail. And for illegal offenders, after the jail term, I would deport them. That way it would discourage people from entering the county illegally. People that want to come to the US are hurt by the illegals as well as the long time US residents. As to the 2nd paragraph, I DEFINITELY believe in a woman's right to CHOOSE. When we do otherwise we are losing a GREAT resource. That of 55% of the US population.....women.

i wrote that we are at "PRACTICALLY" full employment. Economists consider, at least 3% of unemployment to be people just looking for a better job. And I agree with showing the list of countries by "quality of life". Total agreement.

That is nonsensical. If an illegal alien is arrested, he/she should be deported on the spot. Why would you waste the costs of a trial and incarceration on anyone who has been found to be in the country illegally.

Where is Judge Dredd when we need him? 😱

Dunking donuts! 😖🫤