War Liberal

American companies have repeatedly proven how affronted they are by the notion of paying fair wages, and they’ve resorted to every imaginable tactic to avoid doing so: outright slavery, company town/commissary systems, union-busting, and now off-shore outsourcing and on-shore hiring of illegal workers (it's no coincidence Lou Dobbs rails about both of them at the same time; it's just a question of geography).

Hiring illegal immigrants/guest workers is no different than outsourcing: a soulless company revolts at the idea of abiding by its country’s wage and employment regulations, so it pays a man in India as little as it can to answer customer service calls and, through a contractor, pays an illegal immigrant as little as it can to clean the office at night. It’s the same end run around decency; only hiring immigrants is less cosmetic because these second-class workers inconvenience middle-class America with their presence.

If American businesses’ supply of illegal workers is cut off, they’ll push for wage and safety rollbacks. They'll come up with ways to outsource dishwashing. They’ll resort to human trafficking if things get bad enough. They’ll do something, but it won’t be paying unskilled workers what they deserve.

"Hiring illegal immigrants/guest workers is no different than outsourcing"

Hiring illegals (or guest workers) is much better than outsourcing. Although illegals send some money home, they spend most of their paycheck in the United States. That's far preferable to the outflow of currency that occurs when a U.S. firm sets up shop in a country with less expensive labor.

I am all about a guest worker program like Bush wants. The left's fears of a two-tiered labor market are well-founded, that's what we have now. If we institute a guest worker program (and actually prosecute employeers who hire undocumented workers), then we can regulate the bottom tier and ensure they are making a living wage, paying taxes and obeying the law.

It's no different in terms of the employers' shirking their responsibility. They don't choose hiring illegal immigrants over outsourcing jobs because they want to ensure the tax proceeds their workers will put back into the community. They do it because certain jobs must be done on-site.

Bottom tier? making a living wage? When did that happen?

Look, pigs flying...!

Employers are going to pony up and pay the bottom tier living wages? Don't hold your breath.

In the short term, having Mexicans do jobs here instead of Mexico but for the same wages is probably better for the US. In the long term, not so much, because it will destabilize Mexico.

I will probably write another long (for me) post outlining my preferred plan, which has something to anger everyone.

Employers are going to pony up and pay the bottom tier living wages? Don't hold your breath.

Employeers do what is profitable. That seems to be what no one understands. They aren't motivate by public shame or concern for fellow human beings, they are motivated by profits. This is the way it should be. If we took the profitability out of hiring undocumented, illegal workers, it would stop.

Get rid of these ideas of pansy fines of a few thousand dollars per incident. Do a three-strikes-and-your out policy like they do with the rest of us. If you are caught with three infractions, you forfeit all profits for year, plus you are fined all compensation for the owners/shareholders and executives that year. Or even better, if you are a corporation, revoke their corporate chater and sieze their assets.

If that were made law, it would never have to be used.