I don't claim to know the answer but I'm curious about what could happen. Surely agriculture would suffer. What else?
I don't claim to know the answer but I'm curious about what could happen. Surely agriculture would suffer. What else?
All the basement dwellers would have to do their jobs. Which would mean less trolling on Letsrun.
The wages for manual labor would go up a lot and the profits of business owners would go down a lot.
That would be great. Those immigrants are taking all our jobs. I would move to Florida and pick oranges. My wife will clean toilets in a hotel.
800babe wrote:
Surely agriculture would suffer.
Mostly just West Coast agriculture. That isn't an insignificant part of the economy, but just pointing out the grain belt crops have pretty much removed all manual labor decades ago. A single person can harvest thousands of acres of corn/soybeans/wheat now, which is why commodity prices are so low and production cost is very sensitive to oil prices.
Anyway, yes, agriculture, landscaping, housecleaning, construction are the big four of undocumented immigrant labor.
On one hand, the argument is that we need "these people" to do the jobs that "we" refuse to do. On the other hand, why is she these markets set up to where these jobs dont pay a reasonable wage that attracts "us" to do them? That isn't a reasonable economic system, you're basically creating a caste system that artificially boosts the economy while subjugating certain workers.
If companies were truly forced to hire only legal workers for these jobs and the companies (not the illegal workers) were harshly penalized for hiring illegal workers, these wages would rise.
Food prices might increase, but only to their actual market value. Some foods may just end up being used less and less labor intensive foods would replace them to balance the market. Hotel prices would rise slightly (taxes, insurance, and maintenance dwarf cleaning costs in that industry), a few more middle class people may do their own landscaping, massive mcmansions would increase in price and middle class people seeking a brand new home may need to buy a 2000 square foot house instead of 3000 square feet of hideous architecture.
But the flip side is you would have a more equitable society with less desperation and very expensive health problems at the bottom economic rung. Healthcare costs would decrease, etc.
As a self professed liberal, I dont understand why the democratic party doesn't lead a push for labor law enforcement. Force businesses to adapt over time to pay real wages to the workers doing their menial tasks rather than be able to take advantage of desperate impoverished people.
Drainthefecesswamp wrote:
... If companies were truly forced to hire only legal workers for these jobs and the companies (not the illegal workers) were harshly penalized for hiring illegal workers, these wages would rise. ...
Not really, it would just usher in more automation of these jobs. More work will be done with less and less people. This trend will just be accelerated.
Public school enrollment would drop by quite a bit, prolly. Also emergency room visits and such.
800babe wrote:
On one hand, the argument is that we need "these people" to do the jobs that "we" refuse to do.
An argument ironically pushed mostly by those who call themselves stalwart anti-racists.
There would not be enough taxpayers to pay off pensions of retirees.
The limousine libs in Malibu would lose their supply of cheap house cleaners and gardeners
We’d slowly grind to a standstill. Oops, that’s already happening.
People will always leave failing countries.