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Originally Posted by Paul Markham
You put a great case for legal migrants and said nothing about illegal migration. Keep up the good work.  |
I'm not sure what you mean here. I am simply pointing out why little has been done about illegals for a long time. They provide cheap labor. That is why.
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Of course you did put a great case for the real reason for illegal migration. Keeping wages in all low skilled jobs low. Of course that argument doesn't hold water. Raising wages will produce more taxes, a better standard of living, reduce debt, ease housing. In crop harvesting a better solution is automation, in building this was a job that Americans were eager to do as it paid well, now not so. Farming is the strangest sector, without access to very cheap labour the option is to automate. Making human labour unnecessary. Australia has a very strict migration policy and does well farming.
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At some point autmation will take over. there are fewer and fewer individually owned farms every year as big companies buy them up. That said, farmers (or those in the other areas) have no interest in raising wages. They don't care if it will help in other ways, it hurts their bottom line. They could pay a lot more and hire Americans to do the job, but the amount they would have to pay would either destroy their profit or force them to raise their prices to a point where they can't compete.
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Food processing, did you mean working in a slaughter house? That can be done by legal migrants, which can be turned on and off to suit needs. Also it can stipulate who is allowed in. Workers only on a short term visa so any children born to those workers can return with their parents.
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Legal immigrants don't want these jobs. I am talking about working in canneries, chicken farms, food processing plants. These are crappy jobs that pay very little. If you are here legally there are many better options. Which would you rather do, work your ass off in a food processing plant where you get filthy and at the end of the day are exhausted and for this you get minimum wage or you can work the fry machine at McDonalds and make the same amount?
Illegals provide cheap labor. You don't have to pay them any benefits or unemployment. You don't have to follow the rules and laws because they will never report you and in some cases you can even pay less than minimum wage if you wanted. Legal immigrants have more options and, like most Americans, would only do these jobs as a last resort.