America is booming!

I just got up and looked at NBC TV and saw somethings that I'm still trying to get my head around.

America is booming. An item of a town in North Dekota where they can't find enough workers. They say they fill one job and another 1.5 jobs open up. How bad is the shortage of workers? Fast food workers start at $15 an hour. Truck drivers $80K a year! Why all the opportunities? Oil and lots of it.

Another opportunity is the baby industry. If anyone is having a baby and live outside the US, they fly into the US and give birth here and get the birth certificate and passport for the baby and then go back home. This is done big time with mothers from China and it is well organised and perfectly legal.

The reason why North Dakota and in particular Fargo, is booming and there's always loads of jobs there and they are crying out for workers up there is purely because no-one wants to move up there!!! I am not sure if you have ever been to that neck of the woods, but I have and its flat, cold, very exposed to the elements, very harsh in the winter!! In fact, it gets colder there than it does in Alaska!!!

In fact, it has such a "cold" reputation that a whole lot of Katrina evacuees refused to be shipped up there BECAUSE of the freezing temps!!!

There is money to be made, but housing is very expensive because people can charge what they want to those who want to strike it lucky. It's also hard to find housing. Some workers live in their trucks. If you're single with no ties and want to make big bucks I say go for it and dress warmly.

The "automatic birthright citizenship" thing is something that I've always thought needed changing (after learning about the "anchor baby" phenomenon), although I understand it would require a constitutional amendment and had its purpose at the time of the post-ACW emancipation to ensure that former slaves became citizens.

IMO I think the fairest rule for someone born in the country would be: The child gets the same status as the parents; if their statuses are different the kid gets the better one. For example, if either parent is a citizen the child is a citizen. If both parents are permanent residents the child gets the same. If both parents are on a temporary visa the child can stay as long as the parents can. If a USC brought over a foreign partner and had a kid between them a US-born child would still be a USC. If the parent's status were to change while the child is a minor, the child's status would as well (e.g. a temporary visa to permanent resident or a permanent resident to a citizen).