Why, oh why can't I get someone else to vote for

If the Democrat nominee ends up being someone who’s for staying the course in Iraq and following a similarly activist foreign policy, continuing to be a bully abroad, I may have to vote for them.

This plan to allow illegal immigrants to fill “jobs Americans don’t want” will have been the straw that broke this camel’s back.

Here’s why I don’t like it:

1. It completely ignores the first law of economics, supply and demand. The administration’s assertion “Reform must begin by confronting a basic fact of life and economics — some of the jobs being generated in America’s growing economy are jobs American citizens are not filling” is a load of horse crap (and that’s being light). In this case, the demand is coming from companies with low-paying jobs to fill, and there’s no-one in America willing to fill the positions for the price being offered. The solution? Raise wages for the crappy jobs. In a truly free market, there is a wage at which a qualified American will fill the job.

I’d like to interject here that the idea of raising the minimum wage is just as asinine an idea as allowing illegals to fill the positions. In both cases, the government action distorts the market. There are some jobs that Americans are willing to fill at low wages (High schoolers working at fast food and/or retail springs to mind here), and some items that consumers will do without rather than pay inflated prices for (fast food again springs to mind). With the immigration proposal, this plan panders directly to industries like agribusiness, who will not pay anything close to a living wage, (or invest in equipment to automate, which would generate highly skilled jobs in creating new agricultural techniques or machinery) and construction, which frequently pays extremely low wages. Granted, food prices would go up (But we’re already obese), and more value would be created in existing homes and buildings (potentially becoming an incentive to conserve rather than build on unbuilt land).

2. This, possibly more than anything I’ve heard in my life, smacks of jingoism. “There are jobs that Americans just won’t do.” Yeah, but them Mexicans (and Filipinos, and Asians, etc..), them folks’ll do anything for a buck. I’m far from a believer in political correctness, but this just rubs my belief that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” completely the wrong way. So it’s all right to pay these folks peanuts. Can we also work them 80 hours a week, deny them benefits, and use them as footstools?

3. Hello? Homeland Security? Yeah, I’d like to come over to do a crappy job that an American won’t do for the minimal pay some greedy bastard’s willing to give. Previous experience? Well, I studied under a terrorist mastermind and am planning to kill Americans… No, no, sorry, I was joking. What I meant to say was that I was raised in a muddy shack and have always dreamed of drinking Coke, holding hands with a multi racial crew, and singing in harmony. SURE, I’d LOVE the job working with toxic waste. Does that happen to be near a public water supply?

4. It’s a cheap argument, but I’ve got to pull out the slippery slope. So we bring foreigners over here to do “crappy jobs that Americans won’t”. Sure, that’s great stuff like picking fruit, cleaning buildings (though I’ve noticed up here in the NorthEast, most cleaning is done by Anglos, who seem to be making a decent living, so it can’t be all that bad of a job, and last time I checked there was a ton of money being made up here), picking trash. But what happens when Jake wants to go take a job at the DQ when he hits 16, ‘cept the labor laws have been changed to prevent anyone under 21 from working, and the DQ is staffed with Zambians? Looks like he’s not flipping burgers. Or what happens when someone decides that they want to pay engineers $20K a year, and find the people they need graduating from the University of Chile? Hey, GWB- I can’t find any Americans who want to do this work; guess I need to import me some cheap labor…

5. Possibly the most conservative of my problems: The illegals are already here illegally. Why reward them for having broken the law? That’s like saying “Hey, tax cheats… You beat the IRS. Man, too bad we didn’t catch you. Why don’t you go ahead and keep the people’s money? But don’t do it again, you naughty, naughty cheaters….” Part of the claim is that the program will reduce illegal immigration by letting foreign nationals apply for vacancies. Riiight. Some guy down in Guadalajara needs a job NOW. By this Administration’s estimation, rather than getting on a truck heading straight for the border, he’s going to go to some US job office, fill out an application, wait for the government to process it and match him with a job, and then go through the hassle of getting a passport, etc? Yep. that’ll work like a freakin’ champ.

6. Where do we put all these guest workers? If an American can’t afford to live in the US on the wages being offered, are we going to open tenements, possibly government provided, for the guest workers? If so, that’s another handout to business that won’t pay living wages.

7. Who the hell is left for the Administration to buy votes from? They’ve bought seniors with free drugs, the tax cuts and the rebates were aimed squarely at middle class moms and dads, there hasn’t been a darn thing that’s been even slightly non-pro-big-business, the Patriot Act appealed to (… who, exactly?) this panders to minorities, especially hispanics (Yo quiero cheap labor). Doesn’t anyone care about principles anymore (And I don’t buy that anyone, with the possible exception of Lieberman, Sharpton, and Kucinich in the Democrat primary is standing on principles. OK, I threw Sharpton in there as a joke.)?

Grrah. This has me so steamed I had to get out of bed to put it on the page. My biggest beef is with the economics of it - they’re just bad, bad, bad, and as contrary to free market principles as outright price controls would be.

Posted by jank at January 7, 2004 11:31 PM