Well, yeah I think so. At least with regards to some. It's only some in the middle class you say?
Nevermind the question, Do we really need another law that government and business can ignore whenever it suits their needs? Business seems to be doing okay getting "guest workers" and more.
A recent study showed that recent immigrants are filling huge numbers of jobs including payroll jobs.
a Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, report (Summer of 2004) covered 2000 thru the first quarter of 2004. It stated that
"The number of employed native born workers falls by 958,000, employment among established immigrants declines by 352,000, and the number of new immigrant employed rises by 2.064 million (Table 12). Thus, all of the net growth in the nation's employed population between 2000 and 2004 (January-April averages) takes place among new immigrants while the number of native born and established immigrant workers combined declines by more than 1.3 million. This remarkable shift in the nativity status of the employed population has received very little attention from the nation's political leaders or the national media." [End quote]
There's more
"While these new immigrant workers can be found in every industrial sector, they are highly concentrated in three sectors: construction and manufacturing, leisure/hospitality/other service industries, and health/education/professional/ business services."
Nearly 320,000 new immigrants obtained employment in the nation's manufacturing industries at a time when total wage and salary employment in these industries declined by more than 2.7 million positions" [End quote]
More
"In a period of higher unemployment and little net job growth, increased employment of immigrants appears to be displacing some native born workers, including teens, young adults without college degrees, and Black men in the nation's central cities."
[End quotes]
Sure, it's only a few million out of near a 140 million. But why is it good for America? (Please spare me any feeeeeelings that Americans are stupid and lazy and need to be replaced for the sake of the free market OK, "free trader" internationalists? There are some problems but is it really that bad?)
Respectfully, I think it has gotten that bad. Some Amerians have decided that the work is beneath them. Others want more of a salary than the business owner is willing to pay. Others have decided they'd rather collect welfare checks.
Until America's attitude in those areas adjust, why should business owners suffer? They're the ones creating the jobs, providing the products and services we buy. I'd say they warrant a lot more consideration than they have been getting over the past 70 years.
I think this whole "culture" claptrap is an excuse to avoid the economic realities of the situation and to avoid discussing what is, quite bluntly, an attitude problem among certain Americans.
I would urge those who argue the cost would be much greater -- I think Limbaugh puts it at four or five dollars a head -- to provide something besides your feeeeeeeeeelings.
Mr. Mehlman is pretty close to the truth according to some ag experts. To wit,
"Phil Martin, an economist at UC Davis and one of the nation’s leading agricultural economists, suggests that, even if wages were to double for people who picked lettuce, it could only have an impact of pennies – one, two cents – on the price of a head of lettuce."