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| Re: INTERVIEW: Why Bad Jobs - or No Jobs - Happen to Good Workers (952444) | |||
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Re: INTERVIEW: Why Bad Jobs - or No Jobs - Happen to Good Workers |
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Posted by JayMan on Fri Jun 22 18:19:56 2012, in response to Re: INTERVIEW: Why Bad Jobs - or No Jobs - Happen to Good Workers, posted by Concourse Express on Fri Jun 22 00:59:02 2012. I have to say, there isn't much like your thoughtful responses on Subchat. :)Indeed, it is true that immigrants (legal/illegal) gained the most from the last decade's worth of job growth, while native-born U.S. citizens continue to struggle. Even if you "shut off the flow," it may not be enough to incentivize employers to offer jobs at higher wages or train new hires. But you see, the reason employers can get away with crap like that is because they have 1,000+ applicants for every position they put out. And the reason that is true is in part because of the availability of immigrants. Employee wages and benefits are determined, in good part, by supply and demand. Right now, the supply of labor is high, so the price of labor is necessarily low. Immigrants serve to increase supply. By choking off supply, the "value" of labor will eventually increase, allowing wages to rise accordingly. And high wages benefits us all by increasing the amount of money consumers have to spend, and consumer spending is what drives the economy. But would employers want there to be "jobs for everyone?" No, and that's the crux of the issue. Employers like the supply of labor to be high, because then workers are cheap; it is in their interests to keep having throngs of applicants for the few positions they put out. That way, the employer has all the bargaining power. Already you have companies who'd rather pay overtime to current staff than hire new staff and who refuse to hire cats out of work despite education/experience. Yes. Laws limiting work hours and closing the loophole of "salaried" positions may be called for, if for no other reason that it would be vastly more productive for businesses to do so. As well (here's that awful word), "socialist" policies such as mandatory ≥5 weeks/year paid vacation would also increase the number of workers firms need to hire; but those workers would be more productive. Would the tight immigration controls you propose in and of themselves incentivize hiring of native-born Americans (and even then, would they be hired at reasonable wages/salaries)? No, it would it take time and would act as market forces come to bear on labor. Businesses would be forced to (eventually) hire American or to automate. However, the productivity gains from automation may serve to increase company profits such that they could afford to hire more workers or pay the ones they have more. Thanks for finding the numbers of unemployment by race. A key problem (that will take time to sort out) is that there are so many people on the bottom in the labor market. Dysgenic fertility among Blacks and the large numbers of Mexican immigrants pouring in means that the U.S. has an over abundance of "low-skilled" (i.e., low-IQ) workers. We have far more of them than the economy could ever need, I'm sure. As your numbers show, the problems of unemployment mostly impacts this group, so even if increased automation were to make this group economically obsolete, the problem will be no worse than it already is. However, if wages could rise for productive workers, tax revenue would also rise, supplying enough for welfare to pay to support those who are economically useless (covert or overt eugenic policies could weed them out of the gene pool for future generations). To recap, it seems that immigration—low- and high-IQ—may be a problem for native-born Americans, and discouraging employers from sharing their profits with the workers who make it possible. As always, if we do shut down the immigration train, I would advocate that all existing legal immigrants would be grandfathered in, and that efforts be made to eventually deport the illegal immigrants. For more on my solutions, see my blog. |
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