Ad by Google

The Cost of “Cheap” Labor

I have always wondered how anybody can justify the PROCESS of illegalimmigration. I understand that there will always be a significant portion ofpeople who, living in poverty, decide moving to another country is the best wayto provide for themselves and their families. That’s understandable. What I’mconfused about is how people can justify the repetition of this act as thoughit is good for the country.

I’ve been doing a bit of research, and I cannot find anything that wouldpoint to their presence being beneficial to the country. They are more likelyto send their economic earnings out of the country (net loss for United Stateseconomy). They are more likely to rely on government welfare. And they are morelikely to be criminals (which adds costs to the legal system as well). This isin addition to the costs of the legal children of illegal aliens, anchorbabies, which includes government funded maternity care and public education,amongst others. This is all in addition to other, less-noticeable costs such aslocal governments having to print signs and ballots in multiple languages andless-skilled persons being hired for jobs before better qualified persons b/cthey are fluent in another language.

In contrast to this, many on the left like to argue that illegals providecheap labor (making businesses more profitable), work jobs that nobody elsewill do, and (sometimes) even that these persons have a right to be here. Iwill not address the question of whether illegal aliens have an intrinsic rightto enter the United States…I consider that premise entirely stupid. I would,however, like to look at some of the other talking points.

(Note: I have tried to shy away from statistics in this article since mostillegal immigration discussions take that route. I utilized Immigration Counters, the Pew Hispanic Research Center, and the HeritageFoundation in my research, all of which can be accessed to back up myclaims. Next week, I’ll discuss Oklahoma’s HB1804 and how that has affected theflow of illegal aliens into the state.)

Cheap Labor: Illegal aliens definitely supply cheap labor. Is cheap laborimportant and, if so, is it important enough that the United States shouldtolerate illegal immigration? Cheap labor wouldn’t be important if the UnitedStates had a closed economic system. If it did, the price of all goods wouldalways adjust to meet the wages of the United States workers. Cheap laborbegins to matter only when competition with other countries comes into play.These countries often have economic systems which take advantage of the workersand often have a natural advantage in producing a certain good (i.e. Cuba andsugarcane). They are, thus, able to produce and sell goods for a lower price.Since a significant portion of United States economic activity centers aroundforeign products and since the United States also seeks to export its productsand goods, anything that lowers the cost of production, including cheap labor,can rightfully be considered a boon.

There is only one problem I see with the cheap labor argument (besides thewhole “illegal” thing). That is that the labor is not cheap enough to justifyother, associated costs. How much do you think illegal aliens are getting paid?Bear in mind that the costs of goods in our society are largely set by theeconomic conditions of legal citizens—meaning that housing and food and othernecessities are all going to have costs relevant to what the traditionalAmerican income earner makes. The labor provided by illegal immigrants cannever be so cheap that those illegals are incapable of sustaining themselvesand their families. It will be, at most, a few bucks an hour. (Note also thatmany of the jobs these cheap-laborers do are unnecessary and not beneficial tothe American economy at all, i.e. mowing lawns for well-to-dosuburbanites.)

Now look at the costs of having illegals here: The cost to local hospitalswhich have to provide medical care but do not have to get paid (except,partially, by the State and Federal government). The cost to the prison systemof having to house an inordinately-high number of criminals. The cost to thewelfare system of having to provide food and basic amenities to these families.And the cost to American businesses of having a portion of these incomes sentto another country rather than spent on American-made products andservices.

An illegal alien, working for $3.00 less a week than a citizen or legalresident and for 52 weeks out of the year (which many illegals do not do), cansave a business $6,240.00. This number is miniscule compared to the potentialand likely costs of that person. Additionally, if the illegal is being paidthis low of an amount, he is likely not officially on a payroll and, thus, notpaying taxes.

As I said, I’ll go into this more next week…I’m just wondering if anybodyactually has an argument against what I’ve said so far?