Comments | stevec: Politics and Controversy

stevec

Politics and Controversy

Jun 05, 2006 19:09

I'll go ahead and do this stupid bulletin.

What is your stand on...?

Abortion?: As a man, I'm not 100% sure how much my opinion should matter since it's not my life and my body being affected. As a reasonably intelligent person, I am 1000% sure a woman should be able to choose for herself what happens to her body. To say that life begins at ( Read more... )

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kender256 June 6 2006, 14:46:27 UTC

Illegal Immigrants?: The majority of illegal immigrants ARE paying taxes through paycheck deductions. Not only that, but they're paying IN to a Social Security system that won't pay them back (because they're using ungenuine social security cards).

stevec June 6 2006, 19:07:53 UTC

Why do I think a lot of illegals probably check the option not to have taxes automatically deducted from their checks when they sign up for employment initially? Regardless there's no way to keep track of who is and who isn't doing this, and I think it's a serious enough issue that they should still not get any social benefits with the potential education caveat.

If they're going to pay taxes they should go through the process to become legal citizens, which I'll go ahead and agree right now desperately needs reformed.

While we're on the subject, I historically have always thought that Hispanics coming to live and work in the US should be required to learn English. My Spanish class threw a lot of propaganda at me about how great biculturalism and bilingualism is. While I do agree it's a pretty cool thing to do, after some friends of mine slapped me I started to realize again that it seems strange to force bilingualism on the vast majority of the US rather than force English on the immigrants.

Any thoughts on that?

kender256 June 14 2006, 22:48:00 UTC

I did not know that it was possible to NOT have taxes witheld from your check (unless you´re self-emplyed, of course), I was under the impression that it was a legal requirement that employers deduct estimated taxes from the paychecks they issue. I only remember being asked to fill out forms to help estimate HOW MUCH gets deducted ( ... )

stevec June 17 2006, 18:55:39 UTC

I seem to remember there being an option to withhold federal taxes from being auto-deducted whenever you fill out the tax information for a new job--then you just have to pay it all at tax-time instead of getting a return. I could be mistaken though; it's been a while since I've gotten a new job.

But yes, if they're paying taxes they should have access to tax-funded services. That said I'm still not 100% convinced that all or even most illegal immigrants pay taxes. If they're hired "legally" it's with a fake social security number (which opens up problems with fraud, etc). That also makes it difficult for them to keep the job. For example, some illegals that work with Heather at Red Lobster have been discovered because Red Lobster got a notice from the IRS that their employees don't exist in the system; I'd personally be surprised if INS doesn't show up sometime just because of that. I find it hard to believe that most immigrants are jeopardizing their jobs and their life in the US like this.

Which leads to when they're hired ( ... )

kender256 June 20 2006, 01:14:56 UTC

Re: Hired Ilegal Immigrants. Of course, there is no such thing as a legally hired ilegal immigrant. I don't know what the statistics are, but I know a very large number, and perhaps a majority, of ilegal immigrants are working "over the table" (in the sense that taxes are taken out of their paychecks).

As to the "benefits" of working "under the table", you have to realize that they're balanced and usually outweighed by the fact that "under the table" jobs are outside the realm of things like minimum wage, OSHA, regular paychecks, human decency, etc. Not always, but often, "under the table" jobs are little different than slavery or indentured servitude, with noone to complain to if you're being treated inhumanely, the fear of being reported to Immigration (rather than being paid) always hanging over your head, etc.

Increased INS funding does not hurt our economy in any way, it circulates money in the economy, thus stimulating it.Ilegal immigration may be a problem, but more importantly it's a symptom of a problem. They're only here ( ... )

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