March 3, 2008 - Work, gym, dinner, band practice in Ybor, then back home. It was quite a full day. Ellie and I tried a new Bertolli Mediterranean Style frozen chicken/pasta thing from the grocery store. It was quite good, but maybe too garlicy for Ellie. And at $5 after a coupon, it was a good value meal, working out to $2.50 per person. I've become quite thrify in my eating. I want my meals to average out to $2 per meal. Since I usually eat a cheap breakfast of pop tarts and orange juice, I have money left over to spend on a dinner that is more than $2. I am always entertained when I see people in the media report that it is just as expensive to go out to eat as it is to cook at home. Let's look at a couple going out to Outback Steakhouse and get a coke to drink, salad, bread, 7 ounce filet mignons, and baked potatos. At Outback that will cost just over $52 after a 20% tip. Now rather than going to Outback, I'm going to go down to my meat market, and get two filets for $6.75 each (no tax on food at grocery stores). Then on the way back home I'll stop at the supermarket to get a bag of lettuce ($3), a loaf of bread ($2.50), some butter ($2.50), a bag of potatoes ($5), a 2 liter of coke ($1.25), and some salad dressing ($2.50). I could get that all at my meat market, but those are their high profit items, so it is better to get them at the supermarket. Add it all up, and my total comes to $30.25. Ok, so I have to cook and I have to wash dishes, but I could be spending my time waiting for a table at the restaurant instead. I think it is worth my time to save the $22 by cooking it myself. Getting back to immigration, there is one major area I didn't get into, which is what do we do with the 10-20 million people that are 'illegally' in our country. These are undocumented workers who possibly take more from the government than they give back. These are the people who mostly take the low paying undesirable jobs that American citizens don't want to do. These are the people who risked their lives sneaking across our borders to escape their home country to build a better life in the United States. They're already here, and the chances of them going away is not good. I don't think the answer is deportation. This goes hand in hand with my 'increase the size of the immigration department to allow much greater influx of foreigners into our country' program I advocated yesterday. We should have a mobile immigration unit that goes from business to business conducting random checks to find individuals who are undocumented residents. The next step is to take the people who are found, pull them aside, and explain to them that they are welcome to be here, they just have to play by the same rules as everyone else (taxes, identification, etc). Similar to a parole officer, someone should be assigned to check in on these people and verify that they are going through the proper steps to become documented citizens. Educate these people in English if necessary, provide them with financial planning advice, give them the education they never got in their home country. When we spend the money up front turning the people who 'live in the shadows' into positive contributions to our country, everyone will benefit.