New York Magazine (May 16, 2005 ) just published an article by Debbie Nathan called "David and his 26 Roommates" about the life of illegals (sorry, undocumented workers) in NYC. It is predictably sympathetic but pretty interesting nonetheless. It's rare to be able to go into the illegals' world and learn little details like how totally fearless they are about being caught.
At one point in the interview, it slips out that David likes to watch telenovelas. (Mexican soap operas). He regrets being recorded and says, "I'm not worried about immigration, but I don't want my family in Mexico to know about me and the telenovelas." Being teased for being a "maricon" is scarier than the INS, nice.
Nathan goes on to whine about how hard illegals work for "a wage still only slightly more than minimum" and how they only take one day off etc. David tells us he just works and sleeps and, after rent and giving half his money to his family in Mexico, he only has $80 a week "pocket money."
Wait, you said the rent is $1,200 a month. And there's 27 of them. Do they work at fancy restaurants or are they broke? You can't have it both ways.
Let's do the math…
That's $400 a week.
So after paying rent and sending half his money home he's looking at more like $189 spending money/week (the article also says he eats at the restaurant he works at so that money should remain intact). This makes a little more sense because he mentions spending up to $150 a night to dance with "taxi dancers" (girls who charge for a dance). Oh, and he also says these dancers make $700 a week which is "more than twice my wages."
So, yeah, he was lying to the bourgeois reporter who was so out of touch and eager to believe his sob story she didn't pull out her calculator.
I'm not surprised, though. I'm sure the ponces at New York Magazine can barely handle calculating the tip when the check comes at Balthazar. New York lefties hate math because they don't get to express themselves creatively. They also hate it because you can be wrong.
The problem is not the math. The problem is, as usual, an article about immigration refused to step back from the heartwarming human interest angle and look at the big picture.
There are allegedly about 10 million illegals in America. If New York Magazine's numbers were right that would mean $800 million American dollars leave the country every week (42 billion a year). If my numbers are right that means well over twice that vanishes. And, as the article accidentally points out, this money isn't making Mexico any richer. It's killing BOTH our economies. Mexicans have actually gotten poorer since this scam began.
AND!!! sending money out is just one small cost of illegal immigration. I'm sure the actual numbers (after factoring in healthcare, crime, education, etc.) dwarf the war on terror.
Now that's what I'm talkin' about!
Gavin Miles McInnes [email him] is one of the founders of Vice Magazine, [not work-safe] which will certainly be too diverse for some VDARE.COM readers. The opinions expressed here are solely those of Gavin Miles McInnes. They do not represent the views of his employer, Vice Magazine, its editorial board or any of its affiliates or subsidiaries. Read about him the New York Times!
