THE JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO

Responding in comments to my post yesterday on illegal immigration, my buddy Mike, who blogs over at This is not a compliment, had this to say:

the solution could be as simple as enforcement of current labor laws...

if firms hiring illegal immigrants were charged with not only hiring illegals but with a host of other labor violation s (minimum wage, reporting, tax, etc.) and we really made this a priority it wouldn't be long before the economic advantages of hiring illegal workers would disappear...

and it wouldn't be hard...

anyone who knows their own city even fairly well could point you to a few places to start looking for violations...

of course if the companies are forced to make good with back pay for violations of minimum wage laws, that $$$ should go to the worker, legal or not.

Mike's entirely right of course. The problem is entirely manufactured. The reason there is a demand for cheap labor is because employers are allowed to get away with ripping off a vulnerable population. And this is extraordinarily illegal. But why should I fumble through this when Greg Saunders over at This Modern World has already explained it much better than I can:

The key to unraveling this bullshit is that the anonymous laborer quoted above likely ended his gripe with “unless you pay me more”. The President wants you to think this is because American workers are shiftless elitists, but it’s the employers and their shills who are the assholes here.

What people like the George W. Bush don’t understand is that capitalism is not a one-way street. When the demand for workers is high and the supply of laborers is low, the rational solution would be for employers to raise wages, increase benefits, or both to ensure that supply catches up to demand. But that would mean actually spending more money, and we can’t have that.

Instead, employers have found a way to get around their obligations by employing “undocumented” workers (and thus creating a demand for illegal labor). Why are these men and women willing to do the same job that Americans are unwilling to do for less money? Well, they’re here illegally, for one. They probably don’t speak English well and have little familiarity with existing labor laws. They’re doing a job that’s unskilled while under the constant threat of deportation. Sounds like the new face of indentured servitude to me, but the President and his allies are trying to figure out ways to make it acceptable.

Click here for the rest.

This is a big rip off, of both foreign and American workers. You can put up walls, throw people in jail, and on and on, but the flow of illegals into the US will not end until American businesses are forced to obey the law like everyone else. But given the mainstream rhetoric on this issue, I don't see that happening anytime soon.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$