posted on Jun, 19 2007 @ 07:07 PM
I can't help but be struck by the lack of depth in which hot political issues like this are often discussed. Our membership often proves brilliant in
other areas, but when it comes to politics, I feel like I'm getting the reader's digest version of last week's Fox News broadcast.
I do not say this to chastise or to insult. I'm just curious: can't we do better?
The pro illegal-immigration side of this debate (I could pretty much narrow that down to one member in this thread actually but the numbers have very
little to do with who is actually right) has claimed that we depend on illegal immigrants to keep prices low. I am surprised that none of the
opponents of illegal immigration have attempted to refute this. I'm on it.
A healthy economy does not depend on low prices. The GDP in terms of purchasing power parity is a common and mostly useful measure of an
economy's strength (I do have some bones to pick with the generality of GDP but that's another issue for now).
The relevant factors are consumption, investment, government spending, trade surplus or deficit, and the consumer price index.
If wages go up, corporate profits go down, but consumer spending goes up. The availability of cash in corporate bank accounts might put upward
pressure on interest rates and thus threaten investment, but increased consumer spending can justify the increased risk. If wages and regulations are
well managed, the effects can manipulated to achieve positive economic results.
Mechanization offers and additional answer, replacing several unskilled, low paid workers with a few higher paid technically proficient ones, negating
the need for a "mudsill class" and the necessary equipment can be produced in excess, creating a valuable export commodity as well as an alternative
to unlimited expansion of demand for workers.
We don't need an unlimited, unregulated flow of immigrants, and we certainly don't need them for the purpose of exploiting them. That
argument is incredibly disingenuous. Those who do immigrate should be able to aspire to as much as anyone else, and no one should be permitted to
exploit them (which is not only harmful to those individuals but to other workers who must compete in the job market).
The opponents of illegal immigration do not get off the hook here either.
The quality of housing and other products has nothing to do with the national origin or immigration status of the workers. What would make an illegal
immigrant from Mexico less able to learn the construction trade than any other person? I've known a lot of immigrants in the construction trade. The
union guys are usually top notch, regardless of their origin. Immigrant operators drilled, blasted, fed, crushed, and stockpiled rock just as well as
citizens in the mines I worked. My brothers are union carpenters and the only nationality-related complaints they ever give me are about Cal Trans
inspectors (who are sometimes uncouthe on top of unintelligible, but that's merely culture-shock: the incompetence of Cal Trans knows no
demographics).
To what would I attribute poor production from immigrant staffed companies, if in fact there is such a thing (you have, afterall, presented absolutely
no evidence of such a phenomenon)? If anything I would infer from the hypothetical decision of a given contractor to go with illegal labor that
cutting costs by all means is the paramount concern and that as such skimping on materials, man hours, quality control, etc was to blame. In other
words, wealthy American citizens are at fault.
If I walk around on the second story of a home and the floor moves and creaks with my every step, I don't say, "ah-ha! Mexicans!". I say, "Not
enough nails." So why wouldn't there be enough nails? Mexicans don't like nails? Or was the foreman rushing his guys to turn out lots of crap
instead of a little quality work? One of those two conclusions makes sense. I've got a star for the first person to guess correctly.
Then of course there is the political angle (which is why this belongs in US Politics instead of social issues). Who really gets worked over and who
really gets the benefit from amnesty? Those lucky immigrants, finally granted the legal right to be exploited by an unjust arrangement? Or the
employers, finally granted the legal right to work those people under conditions that American workers would not tollerate for a lower wage?
And do we really suffer as tax payers, or do we suffer as employees? False documents or just plain made up SSNs are the order of the day for most
people who don't have the right to work here, because most major employers (crooked small businesses here and there aside) can't afford the risk of
paying under the table. Tyson, Sunkist, etc are not paying their guys under the table- they're too big to get away with a stunt like that regularly.
That means a paycheck and taxes taken out of it, and no tax refund. They can claim 8, and do this that and the other, but it aint a flat out free
ride, especially where FICA is concerned and the share of the tax base that they shrink is negligible.
We suffer most as employees, particularly young, unskilled Americans who are trying to get their start. As a full time college student who no longer
as time to ply his original trade, I know a thing or two about this. Because many large employers have the leverage over illegals to demand much and
offer little, the labor market is flooded in other sectors with young, low income, unskilled workers who are willing to put up with ridiculous
standards for substandard wages. The employers make the call there, not the immigrants.
A gigantic electric fence and a couple of army divisions will not solve this problem. That "solution" is a red herring put forward by politicians on
both sides of the aisle who can endear themselves to constituents and command healthy financial contributions from offending employers as long as the
issue endures, and are interested in feeding the controversy while preserving the problem. Anyone who is taken in by their grandstanding and strictly
PR bills has no business running for public office General T. If you don't wink and nod when you talk about immigration in D.C. they'll laugh you
right out of town.
We need to refine our labor laws, minimum wage, and tax codes so as to eliminate the demand for illegal labor. In every example, from prohibition, to
communist crackdowns on religion, to the war on drugs, to the immigration problem, it has been shown again and again that at some price, demand will
be met, regardless of attempts to interdict supply. You must curb demand.
If we build a wall, it will probably be built with illegal labor. If we build a demand for legal labor, it will outcompete illegal labor and solve the
problem.
Best of all, it's politically practical. It accomplishes conservative goals through liberal means- everyone gets what they want. The people get good
jobs and conditions, democrats get to wave the banner of progress for their constituents, republicans get to tout a decrease in illegal immigration as
the opportunities begin going to legals only.
Everyone wins. No wonder the current political status quo, which is in the habit of using divisiveness rather than progress as a rallying cry, hasn't
tried it.