How Convenient

For the last several years, the construction industry has been going nuts. At the moment we in Houston anyway, have a glut of both office space and living space. There are too many apartments, and enough houses to go round. There is too much office space. I have no idea how the industrial space end of things is doing.

That said, Something else clicked in my head last night. I heard on the news that one third (I say closer to two thirds) of construction workers in Texas are illegal workers. Next month all businesses will have to report all social security numbers and any that do not match will eventually require that the employee be fired. There are some hefty teeth in this bill too.

Funny how that works out. Good timing. If I were the conspiracy kind, I would start spouting how The Man did something right for a change. Think about it. This took years to happen, coordination between several government agencies and industry leaders. All of the keeping their mouths shut. ... You know, the conspiracy sounds less and less likely the more I think about it.

I've got an idea about outsourced jobs too. Make companies pay the displaced income tax (the company's side any way) for displaced jobs now outsourced to other companies. Not based on what they are paying some upstanding graduate in a foreign land, but what an American would make doing the same job in the states. That is only fair. It douse sound like protectionism. That will never fly.

Please don't get me wrong. I have no interest in people getting put out of a job. That royally sucks. What I'm interested in is an even playing field. The Unions (from a previous post) want their members to have a leg up over every one else. Illegals rarely pay all their proper income taxes. Both of these are unfair competition in my book.