Thread: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: A RICH AMERICAN'S GAME

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cf ... nsName=fha

by Froma Harrop

RELEASE: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2006, AND THEREAFTER

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: A RICH AMERICAN'S GAME

There's a popular game in America that goes, I'll cut your wages, but you don't cut mine. And the outsourcing of your factory job to China is a good thing, because it makes my paycheck go further at Wal-Mart. We hear this theme a lot in the debate over illegal immigration.

Consider the recent raids on Swift meat-processing plants. Federal agents arrested 1,187 illegal immigrants at facilities in six states. Mere hours later, economists warned that depriving the industry of illegal labor could raise hamburger prices.

Illegal immigration is usually presented as a win-win situation: Undocumented foreigners earn far more than they could back home. Consumers get a bargain.

Nowhere to be seen are America's working poor who get stomped on 13 different ways. They have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs and housing. Low-skilled natives and legal immigrants also end up subsidizing the undocumented because they tend to live in the same communities, which must provide hospitals, police, schools and garbage pickup.

Who doesn't suffer from illegal immigration? For starters, the people who write about it. I speak of the journalism profession, which has the habit of covering the issue by anecdotes. Reporters thrive on sympathetic stories about illegal immigrants who work hard and go to church.

But, were a busload of illegals from Australia to turn up at their newspaper and offer reportage at 10 percent below the going rate, the writers would call the authorities so fast that your head would spin. And the publisher's argument that thanks to the cheap Australians, he's able to trim a few cents off the newsstand price would make no impression.

As it turns out, the meat-processing companies that employ so many illegal immigrants have been enjoying a nearly 50-percent discount on what was the going rate. In 1980, the average meat-processing job paid $19 an hour. The companies then moved their plants to rural areas, far from the Midwest cities and their unions. The industry's wages now average about $9 an hour.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce likes to wail about the "labor shortage." It says there aren't enough chambermaids, dishwashers, etc. to work for its members at lousy wages. Odd, but when there's a shortage of labor -- or anything else -- doesn't the price of it go up? The price of unskilled labor in the United States hasn't gone up. It's gone down. Because of immigration, American-born high-school dropouts experienced a 5-percent loss in wages during the '80s and '90s, according to a study by Harvard economist George Borjas.

For some reason, the job of keeping prices low has fallen entirely on the shoulders of the most vulnerable Americans. If we banged down CEO compensation and sliced lawyers' pay by a third, the same thing would happen. Everyone's prices would drop. The corporation could sell its products for less, and the cost of legal services would fall.

No vocation keeps a tighter lid on immigration than the medical profession. "If we let in 100,000 immigrant doctors," Richard Freeman, another Harvard economist, recently told a group of journalists, "everyone in this room would benefit." Except the American doctors.

Suggest a U.S. labor policy that depresses professional pay as a means of keeping prices in check, and you get laughed out of the room. But say that sitting on the wages of unskilled factory workers stems inflationary pressure -- a frequently made argument -- and the PhDs quietly nod in agreement.

And that's how the game is played. High pay for me. Low pay for you. The folks at the economic bottom are obviously not making the rules.

To find out more about Froma Harrop, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2006 THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL CO.

DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.

I agree, it is all about games......time for them to stop playing them. Time for them to be aware that they CANNOT play them anymore.

Are the economists controlled by the government as well? They claim these raids are going to destroy the meat packing industry, raise prices, blah blah blah.
How about this as a suggestion for everyone.
Find a local farmer or anyone who raises cattle and buy a 1/4, 1/2, or even larger sizes of meat from the cow.
My family does this every year, and you get a much better quality meat, no stereoids or "blood" feed and its cheaper than buying it from your local grocery stores in the long run.
The Tyson plants didn't seem to suffer too much after their raids, and I don't recall the price of chicken going up that much, and furthermore Tyson is back to full production!
Obviously the raids on Tyson didn't affect the "chicken market" too drastically, least of all destroy the chicken market.
IMO, these raids had about as much affect on the market as the day w/o an illegal alien worker day did. The illegals doing their stupid day w/o a worker didn't affect the economy at all.
And they convienently keep leaving out the stories of how Americans and legal citizens literally lined up out the door at every Swift plant to apply for the jobs supposidly that Americans aren't doing.

If we banged down CEO compensation and sliced lawyers' pay by a third, the same thing would happen. Everyone's prices would drop. The corporation could sell its products for less, and the cost of legal services would fall.

Unfortunately this view is incorrect. Reducing CEO, lawyer, or employee pay only results in increased profits. This in turn only benefits shareholders, who reward (through bonuses) the CEO's and lawyers associated with the corporation through proxy votes to continue the status quo.

The entire corporate rewards scheme thus creates the Wall Street fantasy known as the stock market. Based on deflated consumer prices, and depressed wages, the only benefit is to those who own corporations, serve on their boards, or represent them in the courts!

Originally Posted by ThomasMoore

Unfortunately this view is incorrect. Reducing CEO, lawyer, or employee pay only results in increased profits. This in turn only benefits shareholders, who reward (through bonuses) the CEO's and lawyers associated with the corporation through proxy votes to continue the status quo.

The entire corporate rewards scheme thus creates the Wall Street fantasy known as the stock market. Based on deflated consumer prices, and depressed wages, the only benefit is to those who own corporations, serve on their boards, or represent them in the courts!

Yes sad, but unfortunately true.

Unfortunately this view is incorrect. Reducing CEO, lawyer, or employee pay only results in increased profits. This in turn only benefits shareholders, who reward (through bonuses) the CEO's and lawyers associated with the corporation through proxy votes to continue the status quo.

The entire corporate rewards scheme thus creates the Wall Street fantasy known as the stock market. Based on deflated consumer prices, and depressed wages, the only benefit is to those who own corporations, serve on their boards, or represent them in the courts!

That sadly is the truth. It's all about keeping the stockholders happy. If they made a 5% increase this year....they are supposed to do more next year with less. Increase anything whether it be wages, electricity, shipment...whatever....you're prices go up. If those go down....it still never makes the price go down because it always pays them more to show better profits. Never have I ever been stuck in a line for a half an hour unless it was Christmas. Places have 15-20 registers and maybe 2 are open and 2 self-serve. You used to have people right there to help you.......now you have to find someone. Everything from customer service to quality of goods has gone down. Unfortunatly alot of us don't own stocks so it's harder to find the bright side of this deal.

Find a local farmer or anyone who raises cattle and buy a 1/4, 1/2, or even larger sizes of meat from the cow.

Sippy you got that right....hurt their pockets...Buy local and not Walmart

I hear the 99 cent illegal alien burger argument all the time at work. And I don't buy the illegal alien labor is good for the economy argument either. Do illegals keep labor expenses down for business? Of course they do. And our GDP can actually increase because of it. But you have to look at the flip side. Illegals steal entry level american jobs from our most needy, they consume huge amounts of social services that the american people have to pay for. They also commit violent crimes and destroy communities. But with Kennedy now chairman of the immigration subcommittee things are only going to get worse, especially with Bush supporting these illegals and their criminal activity.

Originally Posted by redbadger

Find a local farmer or anyone who raises cattle and buy a 1/4, 1/2, or even larger sizes of meat from the cow.

Sippy you got that right....hurt their pockets...Buy local and not Walmart

My thoughts exactly RedBadger!
If people knew how many preservatives and other garbage stores like wal fart, target, and other places like this use in their meat, they probably wouldn't buy it.

Sippy,,,,,wal fartLOLOLOL
I going to make a t-shirt and wear it up to walfart
of course it will need to be communist red with a big yellow star but I won't buy anything ...I'll just walk around and stand close to their cameras...smiling