Posted on 06/03/2005 6:12:35 AM PDT by shortstop
Can we just put this lie to rest once and for all?
I'm talking about that nonsense you hear whenever anybody discusses illegal immigration.
The one about how we need illegal aliens because they do the jobs that Americans won't. The variation on it is the racist tripe from the Mexican president that illegal aliens do jobs that not even black Americans will do.
It's all nonsense.
Americans would gladly do those jobs -- if the bosses weren't crooks.
And anybody who employs an illegal alien is a crook. And a traitor and a backstabber.
The illegals are one type of problem, the people who employ them are another. One group should be sent back to Mexico, the other should be sent to jail.
I'm not kidding. The damage done to American strength and American prosperity by the combination of illegal workers and illegal bosses is incalculable. The love of money and the putting of profit over patriotism is a glaring moral indictment of the people who hire illegal aliens.
But back to the jobs Americans won't do.
That theory ignores the realities of the free market. It denies the fundamental nature of supply and demand.
Here's an example. Let's say I've got a pile of dog crap I want cleaned up. Let's say I'm willing to pay somebody to clean that pile of dog crap up for me.
Now, cleaning up dog crap is not a particularly pleasant thing. It tends to stink, and you have to bend over, and it's gross and revolting.
People don't like doing it.
But you want to hire it done. So let's say you stand there with a dollar in your hand and say that you'll pay somebody a dollar to clean up the dog crap.
Well, in all likelihood, people are going to walk right on by. You can wave your buck until the cows come home and nobody's going to bite.
That's because the free market is at work. The market is determing the worth of a product or service -- picking up dog crap -- and weighing it against the available wage. Simply put, it's not worth it to people to mess with stinky crap for a dollar.
So how do you respond to it?
Well, in the free-market world, you up the ante. You offer two dollars for the job. And if that doesn't get any takers you raise it to $3, or $5 or $10. At some point, somebody will agree to your terms and you will give them the money and they will clean up your dog crap.
That's the free market. That's the capitalism beneath all economic freedom. People will do anything, you just have to pay them enough. That's how the price of labor is set, just as the price of any other commodity or product is set. It all comes down to what the market will bear.
And the reason that illegal aliens flock to jobs Americans seem to ignore is because the employers are violating not just the laws of our land, but the laws and morality of the free market. Through a willingness to work below legal and prevailing wages, and because many employers pay them under the table, avoiding taxes and insurance, the cost of illegal labor is substantially below what the free market would price it at.
It becomes an odd shell game in which the real costs of employing illegal aliens is borne not by the employer, but by society.The jobs pay below the market level, and are below what is necessary to support a family. Welfare and free services and unpaid-for health care make up the difference -- with every dollar coming out of the taxpayer or the consumer's pocket.
The reason Americans don't take those jobs is because the employers won't let them. The employers do better hiring illegals, ending up with less expensive labor and less obligation to employees.
Unfortunately, it also guts our country, our security and our economy.
But people will take those jobs. They will gladly take them.
But they will have to pay what the market demands. They will have to pay legally. They will have to pay honestly.
They will have to give up the crutch of illegal labor. They will have to be capitalists, not crooks.
Americans will pick lettuce and fry fries and clean toilets and pave roads and milk cows.
You just have to pay them what the work is truly worth.
Also, what I actually meant with my original illustration is that any wage is set by two indifferences not by one. It doesn't matter if the result is a lettuce price or a price for removal of steaming piles. The consumer as well as the worker states what the service is worth and costs, and the productivity of said worker either means there is a deal possible between them or not. When there is, there is profitable work and it gets done. When there isn't, there is no work at that demanded wage. If everyone wants a million dollars to touch a shovel, they don't become millionaires - everyone just walks around with dog crap on their shoes.
Trying to convince that 15 cents hour difference is going to entice that employer to let you work 13 more hours is pure hyperbole.
You think it would not have any appreciable impact on the end price, so it should be easy.
I still don't think it would. But, since there are people willing to do it so cheaply we will never really find out.
I agree that the market will mostly correct the prices for labor and goods but when the market is flooded with cheap labor the market is cheated out of its corrective ability. That's not capitalism that is manipulation.
Why not? What is stopping you? Nothing on earth prevents you from paying more than the going rate for any form of labor. Go to California, borrow at a bank, get yourself a ranch, hire Americans at nice fat salaries to work in the pleasant sun, and since it won't raise your end prices appreciably, you will still be able to sell your produce. After all, the employers are just rolling in gravy exploiting the workers, so if you give a little of it to the workers you will still do just fine. So go do it.
If you don't recognize the principle, it is "you cut, I choose". Also known as willingness to "make a market". If you tell me the price of something ought to be X, then if you are honest you are willing to take either side of a trade at that price. If you honestly think employers should be willing to pay fruit pickers $10 an hour, then you should honestly be willing to pay them $10 an hour yourself. If you aren't, then you don't believe it yourself. You are "just jawing" - talking up a price when you intend to be a seller but not a buyer of the thing talked up.
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