Friday, October 27, 2006

Illegal Hiring, Prices, Fences - Marquez

Marquez' questions were intelligent and reasonable, you can see "Comments" in "Smoke & Mirrors if you like, so they deserved a thoughtful response. A comment blew up into an essay, so I'll share it.

Marquez, (and others)

Until a little while ago, one of my employee's surname was Hispanic, his father was a Reagan amnesty. He's a good guy, did good work, and made more than he ever had, see, I don't care as long as the hire is legal. And we're friends still, because I do give a damn.

What I care about, and if you read back through this Blog's history, what I've written is about flooding the labor market and depressing wages. There is labor avaliable, legally, now. What isn't available is wages and it's not available because the cheating forces the market down.

In actual reality, a real wage impact on prices is small, the effect on farmers, ranchers, construction contractors, and anyone else in competition with illegal hiring is catastrophic. If the criminal hiring were ended, orchardists (for ex) would be playing on a level field, everyone's wage costs would increase as would the price of the end product - but there's the catch - the effect on the end product's price at the store is small, the catastrophy occurs on the production end if the field is not level. I am in the business of providing labor - framing, roofing, siding, finish carpentry and I am paid per square foot, I get what is left over after everybody is paid wages, insurance is paid, etc. I have no place to go with my prices, my company is replacable with one that is cheaper. My guy's wages are impacted and so am I.

GWB's plan is to "legally" flood the labor market to keep wages down. This is why minimum wage increases at the Federal level haven't happened. If we have an actual labor shortage, it's no trick to raise the limits for immigration. That's why this is BS. It's legally addressable already.

The fence is nonsense. The fence that will work is serious sanctions on illegal hiring - with a verification system - and serious action regarding document fraud - real jail time followed by immediate deportation.If "I" believed that I could get out of the corruption, racism, and feudal plutocracy that's Mexico into the US I'd find a way around that 700 mile fence. The cure for what ails Mexico (and other states) is for those people to have to change that place not run away to our place. I really don't care if they find 1776 a good example, either. GWB&CO are despicable, but those guys make them look good. It needs changed and it won't be as long as the US is the safety valve. That would certainly be hard on those who would come here instead, but the responsibility does not lie with the blue collar workers they replace or whose wages are depressed. It's one of those choices between two ills.

Do the 12-20 million illegal aliens here need to leave? Yes. I prefer a voluntary exit with some form of inducement and the alternative of immediate deportation and confiscation of all assets, a second offense carrying jail time. It is easier to induce people to leave when their employment has evaporated and other avenues are closed.

An argument is made that they've earned or deserve something, they deserve to be treated humanely, they've earned the money they've gotten. Humane means allowing them time to wind up their affairs and go, with a chance to sign up for a "first up" for work visas or something like that.It is not a simple thing, nor is it an easy thing, but the alternative is throwing up our hands and saying, "oh well" and thus demonstrating that all you have to do is get here to all those who aren't already here. As long as this is a better alternative, they will come, until parity is achieved - not good for the US.

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