a day without a mexican

so, apparently may 1 has been proposed as a day that no illegal immigrants will work, shop, or participate in our economy in any way. i think that jay tea over at wizbang has a fairly good take on that. but i want to take it a step further. what would happen if, instead of just a day, we made the absence of illegals permanent, sending them home to either get in line and try things legally or to stay there for good? here's my opinion: wages would rise, and overall unemployment would go down. things would definitely be uncomfortable for awhile, especially for the agriculture industry, but i think we'd get over it. i'll use orchards for an example, since there are quite a few of them in my area. orchardists would have to offer higher wages to attract legal workers, which would probably force the smaller family operations out of business. their land would either be sold off for residential lots, fueling the housing market and creating construction jobs, or bought up by larger orchards or conglomerates who have the capital to offer higher wages, and who will still need workers for their newly acquired lands. many of the smaller orchardists are also dependent on government handouts in the form of subsidies to continue their jobs (subsidies which would no longer be necessary without the smaller orchardists in the picture, allowing the government to spend the money elsewhere, or, ideally [but unlikely], to give it back to the tax payers--because why should i be paying for someone to continue a job that another person or group could do for less or for free?).

it could also have the added benefits of reducing expenditures on public services, reducing crime, reducing insurance costs (at least for auto insurance; since most if not all illegal aliens do not have insurance, the costs of any accident they're involved in is passed on to those who are paying for insurance), and probably some other benefits i haven't thought of.

as i've mentioned at least once before, i'm no economist, and all of that was pure conjecture. but to me at least, it makes sense. so i'm with jay tea... to the illegals who want to "strike", i say bring it on. and once you've done that, keep it on.