For places that have lost population, paying for the public services that attract people is difficult because of the overhead costs of doing so. Economists call this “economies of scale” and this is an especially challenging problem in rural communities.
As an example, today about 1 in 5 Hoosier school corporations cannot afford to offer a single Advanced Placement course in the big three STEM courses — calculus, chemistry or biology. Thus, their graduates are unprepared for rigorous college work at a typical state university. All of these are small schools that have been losing enrollment for decades. They are shortchanging students.
These places are unlikely to recover on their own. Funding schools sufficiently well to attract new families would mean large property tax referendums. But, it is primarily urban and suburban communities that pass school operating referendums to improve schools. Those places will grow, making the funding challenge in rural places even worse over the decades to come.
Legal immigration is good.
Illegal immigration and open borders is bad. Terrible.
Americans are smart and know the difference.
Some do.
The Captain
The wish for cheap labor and no taxes will pervert a lot of press reports.
Meanwhile, immigration causes a lot of problems.
A restaurant owner I know was talking about illegals the other evening. Two of his staff, who have 5 children on state insurance. The other problem, well a wink is as good as a nod to a blind man.
My problem is the best and brightest leaving their nation and their mothers to ruthless dictators. Why? Why not stand up for yourself in your own nation and make it better. Coming here is wrong.
Are dying towns where the jobs are?
I suppose for some work from home folks.
One of Ford’s EV battery plants is being built near Marshall, MI. The population of Marshall peaked out, twenty years ago, at 7,459. According to the 2020 census, population has fallen to 6,822.
A few miles east of Marshall, is Albion, MI. The population of Albion peaked out at 12,749, in 1960. The 2020 census showed a population of 7,700. A few years ago, the High School in Albion was closed, due to low enrollment, and the kids started commuting to Marshall.
But depressed areas like Marshall and Albion make for cheap land to buy for a new factory. But once the factory is there, they need to find people to work in it. The Ford battery plant is on the west side of town, on Michigan Ave, near I-96. I suspect the traffic jams on Michigan and the I-96 off ramp will be epic, because most of the workers will probably commute from Battle Creek, the “big city” with a population that has been stable at 52-53,000 for the last 40 years.
Recall, another small town was recruiting immigrants to work locally, because they needed the labor. But then “thought leaders” started spreading malicious rumors about the town, because the immigrants are not white.
This is the site of the Ford plant near Marshall. The plant itself can be seen under construction on the left. Pols have been getting their noses in the project, because Ford’s partner in the JV is Chinese.
The small towns have been losing population for decades. Would the newcomers be much more likely to stick around?
DB2
How do they tell the difference between illegal and legal immigrants?
We don’t require ‘papers’ for most activities.
The Illegal ones are always working in the same people’s yards , that are yelling the loudest about illegal immigration. Just drive around and you will see them on almost every day of the week.
Surely you’re not suggesting hypocrisy?
Fact, not a suggestion.
The problem seems to be that employers want to give jobs. to undocumented workers to take advantage of them. If employers were severely penalized with both fines and jail time, don’t you imagine that flow of immigration would drop off?
Engage Shiny mode:
“if all the intrusive, burdensome, big gummit wage and hour laws were repealed, USians could take those jobs”.
/Shiny mode
Steve
An I9 form is required to be completed when you hire somebody. At the bottom where the employer signs it says this:
“Certification: I attest, under penalty of perjury, that (1) I have examined the documentation presented by the above-named
employee, (2) the above-listed documentation appears to be genuine and to relate to the employee named, and (3) to the
best of my knowledge, the employee is authorized to work in the United States.”
I hired hundreds of people as a production manager. I swear that line use to say that there was a $10,000 fine for knowingly hiring an undocumented person. And I was led to believe by the HR department that the fine would be mine, not the companies. Needless to say, I made sure I looked at the required documentation and had copies made for the files.
And that is a big part of the problem.
Translation: you can be as oblivious as you need to be to hire the person, because no verification by an independent authority is required.
Steve
CEO pay cut to $3k/yr. No bonus or other pay. Other C-level get $1k/yr.
We spent the 1990s hearing how great it was for cheap vegetables from American farmers. We were proud of underpaying people and not paying taxes.
The hypocrisy and lack of knowledge is astounding.