Guest workers v. Illegals on worker wages
Here is the puzzle. Democrats say that they are against a guest worker program because it will lower the wages of American workers. OK, fine, that is indeed the effect of letting in more workers. The puzzle is that the Democrats don't have any problem passing other laws that encourage more illegal immigration which would also reduce the wages of those same workers. To put it differently, making it harder for illegals to stay would also increase wages. It is interesting that the arguments regarding wages are only raised for guest workers and not the rest of the issues in the debate.
Labels: Economics
posted by John Lott at 6:02 PM
3 Comments:
"It is interesting that the arguments regarding wages are only raised for guest workers and not the rest of the issues in the debate."
Well, it should be obvious. Illegals, I mean undocumented workers, only do those jobs that no one else is willing to do, i.e., for which the supply is perfectly inelastic at zero. [rolling my eyes and trying unsuccessfully not to snicker]
More workers means more demand for labor too. If it didn't, then we'd become gradually more impoverished every June when a new crop of graduates entered the labor force.
Then there's Capital's reaction to the new labor....
There are different cross-currents, sub-causes, and priorities within the Dem camp. One group of unions is looking to increase its membership, (e.g., SIEU) while another group of unions is attempting to maintain or increase wages/bennies for ITS members, (e.g., UFCW, the trades, etc.)
Over and above all that, the Dem Party honchos figures that new immigrants will vote Democratic.
At the same time, the Pubbies' honchos think that Hispanic immigrants will vote Pubbie.
It's almost a comic opera. Given that Business Week has just come out with an article claiming that BEA's numbers on "productivity" are flawed, potentially artificially pumping GDP by $66Bn over the last 3+ years, it's almost too complicated to augur properly.
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