Posted on 05/29/2006 2:40:47 PM PDT by Jim_Curtis
Dr. Barry Chiswick, head of and research professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois in Chicago, said this:
What about the impact on low-skilled American workers? How does a large amount of new labor into the country impact American workers of low skill?
He was blunt. He told it like it was. He said:
There is a competition in the labor market, and the large increase in low-skilled immigration that we have seen over the last 20 years has had a substantial negative effect on the employment and earnings opportunities of low-skilled American workers.
He goes on to add:
The large increase in low-skilled immigration has had the effect of decreasing the wages and employment opportunities of low-skilled workers who are currently resident in the United States.
We have some Members on the other side who want to bring in five times as many low-skilled workers as we bring in today. Do they want to dispute the professor from Chicago?
(Excerpt) Read more at sessions.senate.gov ...
The way to survive this -- the way it's done in NYC -- is to go high end. Very high end. This will require a good deal of study and effort on your part, but it can be done.
The guys that bang nails can always been replaced. The guys with specific skill sets can't ever be replaced.
I think that is actually who wrote it.
Construction wages haven't gone up in 20 years and what used to be a good middle class income of mostly whites and blacks with talant and good workmanship has been taken over by the illegals working for cash.
I was drivin out of a 56 year old business by the influx of illegals and cash paying contractors by 1992.
Their production is way below par and so is the workmanship but people put up with it because by not paying wages on a check they are saving over 100% and paying $20-25/hr. which what wages were 20 years ago not including the average fringe benefit of $7-8/hr.
If you consider the benefit package, wages still have a ways to go to catch up with what they were 20 years ago.
"We have 11 -12 million illegal aliens in the U.S. Today. We will likely have an additional 4 - 5 million before the border is secured. When these people become citizens, they will start bringing family members, which will add 20 -30 million more.
"
Not to mention the fact that they breed like rabbits.
Everyone is a potential employer for a job Americans aren't willing to do.
I have a house that needs painting but I can't find anyone who will do it for $20. There are people willing to do it who are starving to death in Africa so why don't we bring 500 million Africans to the US so that we can fill these kinds of jobs?
I would have agreed with you 10 or 20 years ago, but the market for high end is very limited. (California contractor "B" licensee for umpteen years)
I would have agreed with you 10 or 20 years ago, but the market for high end is very limited. (California contractor "B" licensee for umpteen years)
This is the subversion of the natural moral order. Labor is a key activity of human beings who should be served by the political/economical system. Corporations are a construct.
A bunch of friends of mine have made the switch. Some moved from renovation to cabinet work. All are making six figures now. The thing that they've made clear is you have to know the stuff and have the "personality" for it. One guy I know spent six weeks in Italy doing nothing but emailing pictures of marble to a psychotic client.
You can argue all you want but it is clear to anyone with a brain that a large pool of illigal alien labor has driven down wages for citizens in the US - starting with the poorest and now working up into middle class. This is simply a product of natural economic laws of supply and demand.
I am not going to argue with you. I took the trouble to read through your recent posting history and can see that you can become argumenative, so I will go ahead and tell you no - I will not provide links to back up my statement that the pool of illegal alien workers has driven down wages.
In reading some of your previous posts it also appeared to me that you favor a fairly unrestriced flow across the southern border.
Before I go outside and mow my lawn (yes - I still do my own yardwork) I'll go ahead and tell you my main concerns are cultural - not economic. I look at the economic prosperity of the US, and compare it to the poverty of Mexico. Mexico probably has more natural resources per capita that we here in the US, yet Mexico is mired in poverty.
It is clear to me that the reason for this disparity is cultural. We have our culture and Mexico has its culture. Everything about the USA and Mexico, along with El Salvador and Guatemala and the Honduras, are products of our respective cultures. I don't want our national culture blended with these national other cultures. We have enough bad cultural problems of our own without importing more.
I am very sympathetic for the poor in Mexico and Central America (If I were born down there I would probably be trying to move to the USA also). I have no problem with immigrants per se (I was married at one time to a child of immigrants), but I don't want their cultures to take root here. The only way this can be prevented is for immigration to be limited and controlled.
The minute one becomes a naturalized U.S. citizen, she or he can fill out family based visa applications for spouses, fiancees, minor children, and elderly parents (of course, all you need to do is "document" that family relation, wink wink).
I can understand the humane intent of family based resident visas, but I object to handing that awesome privilege over to 12 million poorly-educated, low-skilled lawbreakers.
A "job Americans won't do" would include investment banking - if it only paid $3/hour. These bogus arguments get circulated by companies that would LOVE the creation of a whole sub-citizen class of "guest workers" in this country. What a gift to corporate America - workers that won't complain, collective bargain or sue, will work for sub par wages in sub-par conditions, and can be sent away after a few years for another fresh batch.
"job Americans won't do" would include investment banking - if it only paid $3/hour. These bogus arguments get circulated by companies that would LOVE the creation of a whole sub-citizen class of "guest workers" in this country. What a gift to corporate America - workers that won't complain, collective bargain or sue, will work for sub par wages in sub-par conditions, and can be sent away after a few years for another fresh batch.
And your point?
Trust me, you don't want that job. Someone who spends $250k renovating their bathroom is not well-balanced to begin with -- giving them people to "boss around" doesn't improve their mental health. The punch sheets (I think that's what they're called) are as thick as phone books and lawyer fees are built into the estimates.
On the other hand, the work pays really well. Combat pay...
The only group that wants the flood of these workers are the employers who want a sub-citizen class of cheap labor. Having millions of un-assimulated, un-assimulatable people erodes our culture, our values, our language and our middle class. Not to mention a possible national security disaster.
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