“Higher wage= less workers. How much payroll taxes do the unemployed pay? None.”
To be fair, those workers would have been low-wage workers anyway, so they would be takers themselves. The proper assessment is that they would now be taking MORE from the taxpayers.
I think the opposite logic is at work here; low-wage workers would receive less public assistance in return for higher wages (I understand the scheme doesn’t work because jobs evaporate, but I believe this is the idealistic hope). Basically, employers would be footing the bill for part of the “dole” - and the government, even if it can’t collect income taxes from the braceros, certainly will get its cut of SS and Medicare taxes.
You have to understand that this is the same city that pushed the federal government to allow the big banks to pay bonuses after the bailouts because the city and state were reliant on the INCOME TAXES from those bonuses. The morality of it, and the absurdity of paying those bonuses with taxpayer funds, was never mentioned; it was a cold calculated request due to financial reality.