Surprise: Americans lining up to do “jobs Americans won’t do”

The Swift story solidified a theory that I have been percolating for some time now.

The practical effect of illegal immigration has been to keep wages down THROUGHTOUT all economic sectors, for all “non-professional” workers.

Swift, like agri-business, wants the lowest overhead that they can get away with. Why? To sell more product by being the best bargain. Personnel costs (wages and benefits) are the single most expensive part of doing business, more than insurance, taxes, utilities, real estate, and so on. When possible, American business automate if they can (the automakers and electronics companies), or they go off shore, or they hire from a workforce that is willing underbid everybody else, such as H1 visa holders for high-skilled or illegal aliens for unskilled or low-skilled labor.

This way, they make more profit for the stockholders — mostly pension funds or large investment firms these days — while better competing for additional market share.

Whatever the actual number of illegals in the US is, 12 million or 20 million, they are in direct competition with citizens for jobs. This incident ought to prove that conclusivly. Those willing to work “off the books” or “under the table” evade taxes that the rest of us (including their employer’s share of payroll taxes) pay AND their employers save money on benefits as well as salaries. The laws of supply and demand work and competition, therefore, to keep wages down.

If 5% of the workforce are illegal aliens (and that is at least the case, if not higher today, I believe), that drags down the wages of everybody else who have no choice but to compete with them in order to work at all. This progressively pulls down the wages of everybody who is not a professional or otherwise highly skilled or an entrepreneur.

There are two other forces at work here. Housing costs, despite the “real estate bubble bursting” are continuing to rise. Mortgages payments are immune to land value decreases(unless the price drops so far so fast that the bank forecloses in self-defense to prevent you from defaulting first). Real estate taxes (the rates are ALWAYS going up), do not drop unless the home sells at a price lower than the assessed valuation.

I’ve seen it in Chicago and out in the rural county that I live in now. When developers come in, they are NOT interested in building affordable housing, they are interested in making the biggest buck on each unit that they can. So, areas in Chicago that used to be lower middle class with modest homes and reasonable rents for older appartments get bulldozed and replaced by townhomes, condos, “lofts”, and larger homes that start at $500,000 to $1 million. Entire neighborhoods get replaced, their people displaced to find other affordable housing — only to find that the increased COMPETITION caused by a larger demand for a smaller supply for such, causes those rents and home values to climb too.

The Kelo decision is part of this. It will end up destroying affordable housing for everybody, including those of us in the middle, upper-middle, and ultimately the low end of the so-called “rich” (anybody making over $65,000/year) unless it is overturned. Kelo turns everybody’s home and property into a candy store for develpers.

With the pushing-up of housing values, and the educational unions’ incessent push for higher wages and benefits, which are matched or exceeded by increased salaries for administrators, come ever-higher property taxes at both the assesed level AND with higher tax rates as the schools plead poverty (as they always do) to win referrendums.

So, Joe-sixpack (-less because he had to give up buying beer ’cause the “sin taxes” went up, too) is fighting for a standard of living that is being undermined by illegal aliens driving wages down, while being bludgened by a double whammy of lack of affordable housing AND higher property (and other) taxes. The author of Pursuit of Happiness notes that he himself was homeless even though he had a job.

As I understand it, “affordable housing” is housing that which costs less than 29% of income. I know for a fact, until I paid off my mortgage, my housing costs (mortgage + taxes) was close to 50% of my income when my wife was in law school and not working. So, I know the pinch Joe feels.

That’s my analysis of what the Swift raid really signifies.

Here is my solution — (1) enforce the laws against businesses that hire illegal aliens to dry out the economic incentive to come here illegally. Start sending managers to prison and watch the practice stop. (2) Begin deporting illegal aliens in earnest and build what ever it takes to STOP illegals from crossing the border, (3) overturn Kelo, (4) place a cap on property taxes, specifically, and other taxes in general with an equivalent decrase in local government spending, (5) repeal “prevailing wage” federal guidelines that inflate public sector project costs, (6) remove the influence of lobbyists for “big ticket” items, such as the road building lobby which agitates to design sub-performing roads to insure their continued employment at every higher costs per mile.

And (7) DO NOT increase the minimum wage as the so-called calls for “living wages” is a pallative that looks good but solves nothing as long as there are illegal aliens willing to work and employers willing to hire them. Compared to the general work force, raising the minimum wage will positively effect very few people. But without draining the illegal alien work force, nothing will change except US citizens or legal residents will be fired and replace with illegals willing to work under the table for less than minimum wage — as they are doing right now.

georgej on December 21, 2006 at 5:02 AM