Carlos & Maria never worked for me, but their children have. They're legal tender now as are all subsequent generations. Most have blue collar jobs but some spring into sales, etcetera - the biggest determining factor being education and lingual development. I've known enough to see even competition develop in the blue collar spectrum. I watched as several counties in CA became completely inundated by both the new flow of illegal aliens and the 'baby boom' that follows in their wake. I watched the job market dry up in those regions too. When 500 gardeners/handymen/laborers serve an area where only 300 folks can afford to pay them - how do you make a living? You have to move to another area where there are customers for your labor. And so the nationwide spread continues unabated. At some point even the eastern seaboard will become saturated and finally the US will become just another Mexico, with an only slightly less corrupt government. Social Security, Medicare benefits, etcetera will be entirely out of the question as our productivity and GNP will not be able to support such a huge human burden, just as it can't in Mexico.

I have nothing against any of them personally, but they are a symbol of a failed immigration system - and a failed nation - Mexico. And unfortunately the demographic game plays out and as I mentioned the labor pool is so flooded that the blue collar portion is completely diluted, and the other portions are equally flooded by folks who can't earn enough in the lower portion and so go back to school or go further than they planned to get a better job.

Only the very skilled, or specialized portion has high paying job openings and even these are starting to feel the supply side crunch - because there is now always someone desperate enough to do your job for less money.

But the bottom line, which PC folks are apparently too paralyzed by social repercussions to mention, is that our nation becomes a service nation of mostly blue collar skilled folks of lesser average intelligence.

That hurts our GNP in a big way.

It's creativity and smarts that produce the big bucks and CREATE wealth. Capitalism works best when you have enough smart people in the system. When you don't it collapses into a socialistic, needy mess without enough money or jobs to go around. Capitalism, in theory, can support the entire world - so long as you have enough job creators in the mix to support and employ everyone. Entrepreneurs, small businessmen and inventors are all crucial to the mix.

That's the problem with the economy. Playing games with interest rates, mortgages, stock prices etcetera, mostly just use Peter to pay Paul, but don't create NEW, lasting wealth. New industries and new technologies are key to sustained wealth creation. And that has not kept up, and the average American's massively unhappy, overworked, underpaid job life is the living proof of this failing.