[Bernard]

Over 100 years ago, didn't somebody write a book about the meat packing business in Chicago? Seems to me that if working conditions are so bad, the government can legislate better working conditions, which would make the cost of low-skill labor so high that business would make capital investments to replace the workers with machinery. Or move their business to another country.

That is what happened with manufacturing in this country.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Teddy Roosevelt read the book and said that Sinclair aimed for the heart but hit the gut.

[ggekko60506]

“..business would make capital investments to replace the workers with machinery...”

Bingo.

We have to ask more of our employers. Employers who have become addicted to a labor force that is tantamount to indentured servitude are doing the Nation a tremendous disservice.

Using a docile, vulnerable labor pool is a 19th century industrial strategy that should be discouraged at every turn by the Federal Government. What is needed is Capital Investment and Process Innovation. These are the factors that sustain a First World Economy.

The employers crying foul about the defeat of the latest Immigration Reform Bill are little more than rent seekers attempting to influence the political process for private gain. They should not accorded any sympathy from the Public.