EXPORTING JOBS IMPORTING POVERTY

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 17:09:02 GMT, "C Kingsbury"
wrote:


"Wdtabor" wrote in message
...

They find jobs because they're willing to work at very low wages. The
result
of this is to depress wages in this segment of the labor market. Without
illegal immigrants, lots of employers would have to offer higher wages to
get lazy American citizens to come work for them.


And then the price of whatever they make will go up high enough to become
noncompetitive in the world market, the factory will close, and those
durned
foriegners will get the same jobs in shiny new factories in their own
country.

We're not talking about factory jobs here. Those have already migrated
offshore because of labor/environmental regulations and basic cost issues
that can't be worked around. We're talking about things like busboys,
gardeners, ditch diggers, etc. These things can't be offshored.

Back quite some time ago, when I was farming I needed help to hoe
beans. True it was a minimum wage job, but many of the high school
students I knew were looking for work. I could not get one to
consider a hoe handle. So, I spent most of the Summer on a hoe handle
when not on a tractor and when I considered the hours it was a lot
less than I had offered to pay them.. Hoeing beans was not hard work,
but it was tedious and tiresome.

I have found that although there are many unskilled jobs in some areas
the only ones who will take them are the immigrants. So when it comes
to the farm labor I seriously doubt they are taking jobs away from
many locals.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Of course, this does mean prices for the goods and services involved will go
up. Without cheap Guatemalan nannies more yuppie mothers may choose to stay
at home with the kids rather than hire a more expensive citizen. Her husband
may choose to mow the lawn himself instead of paying a landscaper to do it.

-cwk.