Get back to work!

Business owners claim that besides the obvious pros to this strategy, the newly emerging orphan labor force is highly beneficial to them because, as our country slowly climbs out of the depths of a recession, it is important to maintain an inexpensive employee base to stay competitive with foreign labor pools that will perform back-breaking tasks for close to no money; expanding profits and further energizing America’s economic recovery.  This not only allows corporations to benefit financially, but also gives them the opportunity to invoke patriotic duty as their orphan workforce paints a picture of quasi-philanthropy, taking in these less fortunate and forgotten youths and lending them a hand in their pursuit of the American Dream.  Legally these ‘lil Punky Brewsters are a CEO’s fantasy come true as there are no strings attached…no guardians to worry about and no concerns about the heart sickening baggage that can come along with an illegal employee, i.e. stories of their trying passage to America whether by inner -tube or hoofing it across a hot and dangerous desert, the sad tales of the family they left behind and the poor treatment they received in their home country; orphans let the modern businessman remain completely un-invested in the lives of his workforce, a crucial element in the cut-throat atmosphere of today’s fast paced corporate world.

While this may seem all well and good, the victims of this entrepreneurial coup are the numerous illegal immigrants who weren’t given the advantage of being born in America like the lucky orphans who, many of the illegals who have been hurt by these new developments, claim “don’t know how fortunate they are”.  These hard working risk takers say that they now understand how many Americans felt when legislation like NAFTA was put into place and a panic shot through the spine of the nation as many citizens worried that they would lose their jobs to immigrants and “foreigners” alike.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle have taken up the cause of the illegal immigrant workers who have been displaced by this newly exploited labor pool because in several states across the country, non-citizens can now vote, and this is an election year, one of the most hotly contested in recent memory; the fate of the nation, and perhaps the world could be riding on the outcome of this ongoing struggle.