Would you rather have an Illegal Immigrant working and contributing,or a US citizen sat on their ass all day claiming welfare?

I personally opt for the illegal as a contributor.

Illegal.Many illegals just have fake papers so they actually do pay taxes and never receive tax returns. That was how it was on the farm at worked at. Some local called the cops and the farm was raided and all of the Mexicans had fake papers and were deported after sitting in jail for eight months. We ended up having to hire a bunch of white guys that wouldn’t work and did drugs and never showed up. We finally did get the Mexican guys back because there is a program where you can pick specific people to come over on work visas.

however, the other side of the coin is that the illegal immigrant does not pay taxes, can go to the hospital and get free medical services and has other advantages that cost other taxpayers but he does not contribute to.

illegal contributor. people are people, and if i’m choosing between someone taking advantage of their job opportunity vs someone who doesn’t care either way, i’ll definitely choose the person who appreciates it.

@jca,do illegals not spend in the stores and taxed at the checkout?

@jca
They should just give them work permits. 99% of illegal immigrants would happily pay taxes to not have to worry about getting caught.

The vast majority of undocumented workers do pay the same array of taxes the rest of us do. They still have payroll deductions for income tax and Social Security if they get a paycheck (which most do), the difference being that they’ll never actually collect on that Social Security. A good bit of of what retired “real” Americans get in their SS checks was paid into the system by undocumented workers.

As for people on welfare “sitting on their asses”, I would submit that there are good reasons and bad reasons someone might end up on their ass. Personally, I have met far more people on their asses for good reasons than bad.

Unless you are physically incapable of work then you are sat on your ASS drawing welfare,Period.

Gee, when you frame the question that way…..it is so hard to choose…..?

Neither.

It’s true that as long as there’s a public assistance program, some people will take advantage of it. However, sometimes people genuinely are looking for work and cannot find anything suitable, or sometimes anything at all. Programs like Unemployment and “welfare” are meant for these people.

Agreed with Snoopy. The question is a bit of a set up. But I’ll play along.

Hard working Illegal any day of the week. As johnpowell said, it should be easier for them to obtain work permits (with a clear track for citizenship down the road). As it stands, the process of legalization is a rhinoceros crowd fuck.

Also, laureth hit the nail on the head about “welfare”.

Unsuitable!!!I would pick up litter to put a meal on the table.

litter…really?

For me, it’s a matter of personal ethics. I think sitting on your ass collecting a check from the government because you’re lazy and don’t want to work is really shameful. Either way, I would prefer to see someone working than sucking on the teat of public funds.

@random.what i mean is,the dead legs seem to want to pick and choose what they will and wont do,they feel that the menial jobs available are too low for them.

There has always been this vision in the popular conservative mythos of some parasitic population of sloths draining away the hard won money of all us hard working Americans. That infuriating image has been used for as long as I can remember to justify putting the clamps on social spending. But I don’t see any evidence at all that this actually exists on any appreciable scale.

@goober: When I say “unsuitable,” I mean something like this:

Say there was a pretty good computer programmer out of work. She has placed her resumé on all the good job sites and looks for jobs online and in person for ten hours daily. After a few months, she’s still coming up dry. With unemployment pay kicking in, she still has a little breathing room to find another job that fits her skills and pays enough to feed her family.

On the other hand, what if she takes the first minimum wage job offered to her, like frying burgers or picking litter. Those are exhausting jobs, and on top of an 8–10 hour day, she still has to come home and do housework and cook. Then she collapses from the day, too tired to look for programming jobs for more than an hour or two. Or, she finds a few leads but can’t go to interviews, because she has to go fry burgers. Taking the unsuitable job instead of continuing to search for the job she’s actually qualified for has essentially cut off her hopes of getting another good job.

@goober, sorry I misread, I thought you meant serve litter as food…I’m still a bit groggy from waking up =P

@jca- Millions of legal Americans are going to emergency rooms and not paying their bills. Most hospitals will work with you if you can’t pay. Almost everyone I know is in some kind of debt to a hospital. It’s not the government that is saying they will treat immigrants if they come into the emergency room, it is the doctors and the hospitals. Most illegals won’t even go to the hospital for fear of being busted. @laureth- That programmer can get unemployment but it comes from her old job she lost. Unless that programmer has children they aren’t going to be able to get welfare. Unemployment and welfare are two totally different things. Unemployment is typically not paid from taxes.

@Jessturtle: I agree, and it’s a good point. What if she does have children, though? Lots of people do.

goober: paying tax in a store is just a tiny portion of the taxes we pay (payroll taxes, real estate taxes, gasoline taxes, school tax, town tax, county tax, federal tax)

@random,yeah i suppose it did read like that.Sorry.@laureth,i take your point however,flipping burgers on the face of it is a menial job and not suitable for a University graduate,however,pride should be swallowed and any position offered should be taken.Regards a potential employer and not being able to attend interviews etc,if i were an employer and you came to me as an ideal candidate via your cv,the fact that you explained your situation on the cv(you have taken a burger flipping job to make ends meet)so you may not be able to attend a 9–5 interview,however you are willing to attend out of hours.This would tell me quite alot about the person i’m about to employ.
If there’s a job,TAKE IT!!!

What about all the people who are getting fucked out of a job because of the economy? Are those the people you claim are “sitting on their ass, collecting checks”?

@laureth: I feel the welfare system should be for people with kids.

@goober, if you think it’s about pride, you’re missing my point entirely.

@laureth,the point i make is,if you are phsically able to work and contribute to society the there is no excuse for not working no matter what the position.
Immigrants take nothing for granted,some of them work for a pittance,yet still work.

Illegals do pay lots of taxes that they never see the benefit of. Most do collect a payroll check, with all applicable taxes withheld. They’ll never see a dime from a tax refund, Social Security or Medicare. They do use the public infastructure (schools, roads, hospitals etc.) but they have paid taxes into the system, including sales taxes. Give them work permits, streamline the path to citizenship. As far as someone actively ‘gaming the system’ by collecting welfare when they don’t need to, I’d say that’s a minority of welfare recepients.

I have a good friend who owns his own business and collects unemployment because his business is not doing so well. I have a girlfriend who is an illegal immigrant but works hard and pays taxes What do I do lol?

This question was not very well thought out, it assumes that everyone on welfare is simply sitting on their ass, and that every illegal immigrant is a hard working person, and that is not always the case.
Many people are on welfare because they are single mothers or fathers who have jobs but barely make enough money to pay rent. Now add 2 or 3 kids and all of the things kids need (food, clothes, medical) and where are those single parents supposed to get the money for all of that, when they can hardly pay their rent?
Sure they could get a 2nd or 3rd job, but then they never get to see their kids, and now have to pay, on top of everything else, for child care!

Nothing is black & white about this issue, so don’t try to force everyone to choose between your twisted assumptions.

That’s better.

haha this is so true cheebdragon. I know a lot of lazy bums who chill out and take handouts from the governmet while people who deserve it go without. I also know a lot of lazy scum bag illegal immigrant who make babies so they can get money from the government. There is 2 sides to everything. People are people, some are good and some are bad but no one is completely one or the other.

I prefer a working person no matter their status to a lazy one anyday.

Whichever one of them does not have this type of thinking as if it reflected reality accurately.

@QC: “lazy scum bag illegal immigrant who make babies”

Some people call this “having a family.”

@ Laureth, if you don’t understand what I’m talking about then why comment on it?

I think I understand what you’re saying – I just see it a little differently.

If I’m wrong, I’m sure you’ll correct me. Thank you in advance.

@quality-What do you or where do you live that you see illegals all the time?

Well, first of all, I’m illegal in usa, I had a baby and my first reason wasn’t to get money from the government, do you actually think that people have babies to do so quality??? Some we have them because we really want a family… We pay taxes, we pay the Baby’s bills and doctor appointments and all his needs, we don’t ask a penny to your government, I try to learn your language the best I can so you don’t have any complaint about me, I know that there are A LOT of illegals who don’t, but as you said, no one is completely one or the other, there are some citizens that can work and they don’t because they prefer to be at home laying in the couch and get money from government, as there are some hard workers… I consider ourselves the ones who likes to work and be out if trouble.

@2late2be: Just from your typing, I’d say you speak better English than many Americans do. :) And certainly better English than the second languages spoken by people who complain about illegals.

I think it would be fair to say that there are an probably an equal amount of illegals and citizens that delight in taking from the government. It’s certainly not entirely indicative of either group. The fact is simply that some are here legally and some not – leading to all kinds of stereotypes. Illegals and those that live off “the system” are a huge drain on resources just by virtue of the efforts exerted in policing and monitoring them.

tengo mas amigos immigrantes que los americanos porque son trabajadores como yo y buenas personas. Tambien mi amorcito es un immigrante y no tiene papeles pero no me importa. Aqui en trabajo hay noventa por ciento hispanos y diez por ciento Americanos. Soy Americano pero aprendi la idioma de los hispanos porque de verdad es muy bonita. Cuando estava nino, solo ver immigrantes en mi ciudad. Hay gente buena y gente mala. Yo no puedo decir la razon porque una persona tiene un bebe pero yo lo vi las razones malos con mis ojos. Piensas que yo soy hablando malo de los immigrantes pero no es asi. Por favor abre tus ojos. I agree with you bythebay.

Todos debemos hacer lo mejor que podemos.

Que sera sera

Honey!! They’re speaking Spanish on Fluther. Help – come translate!!

@cprevite: quality control obviously speaks spanish, I merely make a very lame attempt.

Speaking? or Typing? I can type Swahilli but i can’t speak it.

I have to speak it…if I don’t it’s impossible to communicate at work.

If i were an employer and you came to me as an ideal candidate via your cv,the fact that you explained your situation on the cv(you have taken a burger flipping job to make ends meet)so you may not be able to attend a 9–5 interview,however you are willing to attend out of hours.

Most employers won’t hire someone like that. Why go to all the trouble training someone for a job, if they’re only going to leave when their choice of jobs becomes available?