Immigration Reform in a "Free" Market
Just because Lou Dobbs and most of the yakradio loudmouths are against the "immigration reform" bill doesn't mean it's a good idea for the rest of us to be for it. Unless the bill has the H-2B provision of the current visa program (WHICH IT DOES NOT), this reform is a GREAT DEAL for business and a horrible deal for American workers and the "guest workers" who would TAKE THEIR JOBS. Currently, if prevailing wage for an electrician in Louisville is $25 an hour and an employer legally hires a worker from another country under h-2b, the worker must receive $25 an hour. If that employer is free to pay $9 an hour, then the next thing we'll hear from the business community is that American electricians just don't want to work. The truth is that Americans do want to work if the wage is fair. If the "free market" is allowed by business and government to function, then wages will adjust so that there are enough American workers to fill jobs.
My example is french fries: If you are buying potatoes and can't find any for a dime a pound, you may have to offer fifteen cents or twenty or a quarter, but when you offer enough, you get all the potatoes you need. That's the way the free market functions for potatoes. If you want a fry cook and there is none available at $5.25 an hour, it makes sense that you offer a higher salary instead of whining, "These American Kids just don't want to fry potatoes these days." Is the idea of a kid getting paid $17.50 a hour to fry your potatoes more outrageous than ExxonMobil making a 40 billion net profit this year by increasing the price of gasoline from $1.69 to $3.29? If Home Depot can dump their CEO and give him $260,000,000 to go away, shouldn't MacDonalds have to buy health insurance for their fry cooks?
A new law allowing foreign nationals to be "guest workers" without the ability to become American systems is a win-lose-lose proposition. The rich will win (for a while), but the "guest worker" will lose because he cannot be a citizen, and the American workers will see their wage market, which is based on supply and demand, collapse. Some categories of workers are already experiencing a wage market collapse.
This immigration reform sounds a great deal like the Clear Skies Act, banking reform, and the Medicare Drug Benefit, helping the haves out of the hides of the have nots. Let's see an Immigration Reform bill that holds employers accountable, that provides foreign nationals a path to citizenship, and that does not further stack the deck against American workers. I can assure you that the Republicans and Bill Orally are not looking out for you, but are the Democrats doing much better?
My example is french fries: If you are buying potatoes and can't find any for a dime a pound, you may have to offer fifteen cents or twenty or a quarter, but when you offer enough, you get all the potatoes you need. That's the way the free market functions for potatoes. If you want a fry cook and there is none available at $5.25 an hour, it makes sense that you offer a higher salary instead of whining, "These American Kids just don't want to fry potatoes these days." Is the idea of a kid getting paid $17.50 a hour to fry your potatoes more outrageous than ExxonMobil making a 40 billion net profit this year by increasing the price of gasoline from $1.69 to $3.29? If Home Depot can dump their CEO and give him $260,000,000 to go away, shouldn't MacDonalds have to buy health insurance for their fry cooks?
A new law allowing foreign nationals to be "guest workers" without the ability to become American systems is a win-lose-lose proposition. The rich will win (for a while), but the "guest worker" will lose because he cannot be a citizen, and the American workers will see their wage market, which is based on supply and demand, collapse. Some categories of workers are already experiencing a wage market collapse.
This immigration reform sounds a great deal like the Clear Skies Act, banking reform, and the Medicare Drug Benefit, helping the haves out of the hides of the have nots. Let's see an Immigration Reform bill that holds employers accountable, that provides foreign nationals a path to citizenship, and that does not further stack the deck against American workers. I can assure you that the Republicans and Bill Orally are not looking out for you, but are the Democrats doing much better?
posted by Ed at
9:24 PM
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