Thread: Do We Need More Seasonal Workers During A Recession?

Does Our Country Need More Non-Immigrant Seasonal Workers During A Recession?
Paul M. Weyrich

Sometimes congressional Republicans amaze me with their short-sightedness. In the mid-term elections in 2006 the Republican Party lost control of both Houses of Congress. There were many factors which contributed to the loss. One of the most prominent was their failure to enact legislation that would curb the flow of illegal immigrants into this country and begin enforcing America’s borders. It seems the electoral loss did little to correct their oversight.

Last week Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-FL) signed a discharge petition to bring H.R. 1843, sponsored by Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI), with the misleading title of the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act, to the House Floor for a vote. The bill would “amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt certain returning H-2B aliens [temporary non-agricultural worker] from annual numerical limitationsâ€

Nope, don't need them. Don't need so many landscape companies either, after all, in a recession, how many of us can afford landscaping?

Don't need so many "restaurants" in a recession, who can afford to eat out?

Don't need more houses built in a recession, who can afford them?

We definitely don't need any more unskilled workers either, we are tapped out!

The truth is that we don't need any of those things even when we're not in a recession.

When I was a kid nobody had a lawn service. The Dads cut the grass on the weekends.

As for restaurants, paying low wages reduces the incentives to invest in technology and innovative cost cutting measures. It leads to market saturation, which is why we often have 8 or 9 fast food places within a 3 block radius.

None of that would be possible if there was not an unlimited supply of labor.

If the labor market dried up, half the fast food joints wold close. Those people who are actually citizens here could go pick lettuce, while the rest of the restaurants would charge more money for sandwiches, but would also eventually offer health insurance and better salaries to attract workers.

Of course we have managed to postpone this stuff for so long it is an avalanche in proportion to what it would be in the market had been allowed to self-correct over the duration of the past 50 years.