19 Billion? It still works out to $5.78 per week for the individual, even though it sounds better your way it's still the same thing. Taxpayer pay far more than the benefit they receive from illegals being here. How much in extra taxes is that individual paying for health care, education and social services?

Do you have even a shred of proof that the $1600 was passed on to the consumer instead of being pocketed by the builder? I'd like to see that please. Ideally, the savings would be passed on to a happy consumer...only in utopia world. Do you have a study that proves that the use of cheap labor domestically correlates to lower consumer prices? And those savings outweigh the overall increase in the cost of the illegal labor being here? I love to read, so feel I'd like you to back up your statements with data. If you have no data to prove the savings are passed on, just say so, don't side step it makes you appear you either don't know what your talking about or being disingenuous which ruins your credibility either way.

Back up your statements or why are you bothering to post them?

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Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

Illegal Immigration and Resource Allocation
Slobodan Djajić
International Economic Review, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Feb., 1997), pp. 97-117
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-...3E2.0.CO%3B2-T

The study found that an increase in the employment of illegal immigrants in the short-run had positive impact on high-skilled workers. However, it might have positive or negative impact on low-skilled workers depending whether they were employed in the industries that the illegal immigrants compete.

In the long-run, with interoccupational mobility of native workers, an increase in the inflow of illegal foreign workers had no effect on the wages of the natives. In addition, all native workers enjoyed an increase in real wages: skilled workers benefited from the reduction of price of intermediate goods employing illegal immigrants, low-skilled workers benefited from the expansion of the economy leading to an increase of demand for unskilled workers.

It's a dead link, but judging by your posting the article doesn't get into specifics so it's useless. Is that the ONLY study?

Do you have even a shred of proof that the $1600 was passed on to the consumer instead of being pocketed by the builder? I'd like to see that please.

Do you have a study that proves that the use of cheap labor domestically actually lowers consumer prices and how much? And do those savings outweigh the overall increase in the taxes due to the illegal labor being here? I love to read, so feel I'd like you to back up your statements with data, numbers, you know. (second time asking)

__________________
Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

I have a study for you. It was given as Testimony before The Subcommittee on Immigration, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, May 17, 2007. I want to see something factual, backed up by data, like this report showing in dollars and cent the benefit you speak of.

http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/rector070517.pdf

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Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

Liveforadream,my Knowall Friend

My People Did Not Come Over Here On A Boat Instead They Met It At Plymouth Rock.that Is Not Hearsay That Is Fact,something That Is Fact We (native Americans) Should Have Sent You All Back Where It Was You Came From And Not Offered Kindness To So Called Imagrants.without The Indians Knowledge The Whites Would Have Starved To Death, What Fools To Come With Not Enough Food,to Leave A So Called Great New World Without Direction Or The Simple Needs It Takes To Live In A Foriegn Land. Just To Think Money And Force Could Not Buy Your People Trust Just As It Does Not Today For All You Imagrants Go Home And Be Great For Your People Where Ever It Is You Come From And Do Not Mistake Kindness For Weakness.for We Are Still Here,we Are Still Srtong ,we Are Still Proud And Will Never Run And Hide Again. By The Way Do You Know What Promises And Facts Are?!!!!.there Is A Difference

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=...r=&btnG=Search

Try that or try google scholar then type in: "Illegal Immigration and Resource Allocation"

I just reported the findings. The methodology and data sources were in the study. You can take a look into it to see the details of it.
The construction industry is a competitive market, which has many sellers selling identical product. Therefore, every firm in the industry is a price-taker not a price-maker.

From that information, I can infer that any reduction in the input costs overall that most firms can get access to (in this case cheap labor source) will lead to the reduction of price.

The reason why someone does not need data to know this is because this is an established principle in microeconomics that has been proven with empirical evidence and has become orthodoxy. I am not to say that someone that is right today will always be right tomorrow, but I am saying that this is a proven fact with our current knowledge - economists are, within the realm of practical possibility of today, pretty certain until new research proves otherwise. It is an implicit assumption. To require data of every case is intellectually paralyzing just like to require the data of the every dimension of the object every time to demonstrate the validity of gravity.

To put it in a different way, showing that why would firm behave that way, we can use the logic Adam Smith succinctly captured:
"It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own neccessities but of their advantages."

Think about this, if you are a firm in the construction industry; you save $1,600 because you get access to this pool of cheap labor. However, the firms next to you get similar access to the same source of cheap labor, meaning he save roughly $1,600 as well. In order to compete for the same pool of consumers, your competitors will charge a lower price, forcing you to charge a lower price until it reach the market equilibrium where no one can charge a lower price and make a profit.

Again, if there is an increase of labor, what will happen is that the supply curve will shift down, lowering wages. As wages are lowered, so is the production cost. As the production cost is lowered, again price will reduce as the result. This is again a principle of macroeconomics, an implicit assumption that economists can infer from without the backing of due to established empirical evidence. It will change until new research proves otherwise.

As for the costs and benefits of illegal labor, you can go back to the study above. Economics is science (even though it is still very young and there are many things economists don't know), a good study is as good as many studies.

The study again only captures the explicit cost of immigration which is the tax revenue vs. social service payment, this is referred as accountant cost. It does not take into account the implicit costs and benefits of illegal immigrants, factors such as reduction in price due to an increase in labor, the reallocation of resources (capital and human capital), an economic cost of illegal immigrants etc

The welfare of a nation is not determined by the positive balance sheet of the government, but by productivity.

In other words you argument is out of gas. I already posted the numerical data of what Illegal immigration costs us. Your claim is the benefit out weighs the cost, do you have any empirical data you can post here or not? A simple yes or no will suffice.

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Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

I don't know how to copy&paste the empirical data from the file. You can read it for yourself. I have shown you how to get access to the file, I hope that suffices.

Your hyperlink yeields: You are not currently authorized to access this article.

There should be dozens of articles out there to prove your point, if not it's one persons opinion. Again do you have any empirical data to prove the benefit to the United States of illegal immigrants outweighs the cost?

__________________
Every week to 10 days, another coal-fired power plant opens somewhere in China.

Yes, but this one is an academic paper, which has been evaluated and approved by other academia

I've saved the file in pdf form, tell me your email address, I'll send it to you.