Tuesday, April 11, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.
The "immigration problem" is really a wages problem. The political solutions to date have suggested we are all in the same boat alone. That comes from our Puritan notion that if someone is poor, he is evil and belongs in jail.
Instead of spending billions on walls, moats and prisons, we should do something that works and is beneficial for most Americans.
First, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and then unionize the entire workforce . American citizens get the first choice of jobs and documented workers get the second choice. The workers' unions police the labor force. There may be other measures needed, but as long as there is an uncontrolled supply of labor, all workers will be exploited.
Immigration is a wedge issue meant to divert attention from the real issues. American workers are suffering as well. A guy has his $40-an-hour job shipped to India and he's told it's his fault for not retraining. While he's retraining and looking for a new job, he and his wife get $15 an hour jobs and pay $8 an hour for child care.
The politicians call this "job creation." The fact is that the private sector does not create enough good-paying jobs for all Americans regardless of their education.
I suggest we divert a few trillion tax dollars from corporate offshore banks and from government empire building to create public-sector jobs to rebuild the infrastructure of this country. There should be good-paying jobs for all, and just think of the money the workers would put back into the economy. It's time our politicians began to represent the needs of the majority of Americans instead of the interests of a few corporate lobbyists.
Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas
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