So listening to NPR this morning....funny\sad admission (wages, Mexican, illegal)

[Mathguy]

They had a guy on from the Trump admin and of course he's spinning the new immigration enforcement thing, the host is trying to push back at the other angle, overall a pretty fair exchange.

Call ends and the host gets this expert on the line that had listened in to get their concerns, which would be roughly "equal time" so fair enough but you'd think they'd get an equal chance to rebut each other but yeah, that wasn't the plan.

Up until this point, I'm fine with it but then it happens....

The caller complains that several companies that provide home service are upset because THEY PAY THESE IMMIGRANTS SUPER LOW WAGES SO THEY RELY ON FOODSTAMPS ETC. THEY'RE CONCERNED THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO FIND ENOUGH WORKERS. (Hey, wasn't that the complaint for years against Walmart? Now it's ok I guess. )

I'm hearing this and thinking well gee, with supply and demand won't that mean they would have to pay more to fill those jobs? Whatever happened to the push for higher min wage?

In short, the complaint was that companies wouldn't have as much exploitable cheap labor.

That's it in a nutshell folks. Corporate America exploits illegal and legal immigrants for cheap labor that suppresses wages not only for them but throughout blue collar labor in the USA.

They've waged a great campaign by funding both the left and the right, any complaints about the system are deemed "racist" (talk about flipping complaints about exploitation huh? That's like a masters class in evil right there).

[Frank DeForrest]

How is it exploitable when someone voluntarily takes the job?

[somebodynew]

This is news? I am going with no ****.

[2mares]

Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest

How is it exploitable when someone voluntarily takes the job?

Someone who has no other choice than to work for below average wages because they are in the country illegally thus illegal to work so they can not ask for higher wages, time off, benefits, etc. and the employer benefits from paying lower wages.

[DRob4JC]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

They had a guy on from the Trump admin and of course he's spinning the new immigration enforcement thing, the host is trying to push back at the other angle, overall a pretty fair exchange.

Call ends and the host gets this expert on the line that had listened in to get their concerns, which would be roughly "equal time" so fair enough but you'd think they'd get an equal chance to rebut each other but yeah, that wasn't the plan.

Up until this point, I'm fine with it but then it happens....

The caller complains that several companies that provide home service are upset because THEY PAY THESE IMMIGRANTS SUPER LOW WAGES SO THEY RELY ON FOODSTAMPS ETC. THEY'RE CONCERNED THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO FIND ENOUGH WORKERS. (Hey, wasn't that the complaint for years against Walmart? Now it's ok I guess. )

I'm hearing this and thinking well gee, with supply and demand won't that mean they would have to pay more to fill those jobs? Whatever happened to the push for higher min wage?

In short, the complaint was that companies wouldn't have as much exploitable cheap labor.

That's it in a nutshell folks. Corporate America exploits illegal and legal immigrants for cheap labor that suppresses wages not only for them but throughout blue collar labor in the USA.

They've waged a great campaign by funding both the left and the right, any complaints about the system are deemed "racist" (talk about flipping complaints about exploitation huh? That's like a masters class in evil right there).

Supply and demand works for a level playing field. But if you bring in an element that's illegal which cheats the playing field, then we no longer have a true supply and demand situation.

Actually - I take that back - it is still supply and demand, but a new element got thrown into the equation which lowered the base cost of the services. So that instead of $15/hr, now it's $8/hr. And if they needed more people, maybe they would move the wage to $10/hr to attract more "undocumented immigrants".

[TimAZ]

Originally Posted by Frank DeForrest

How is it exploitable when someone voluntarily takes the job?

Voluntarily? In my former home of Colorado, large orchard owners built rows of shacks and bussed in seasonal Mexican workers. Yes the workers were there “voluntarily”, and it was all perfectly legal and sanctioned, but they had little or no freedom. They were the 21st Century version of black slaves working the fields 150 years ago.

Both the left and right try to politicize this ugly situation, and both are wrong. Add to that the reality that many Latino families in the southwestern states can trace their family heritage to long before the first “white” settlers arrived. And now they’re being told by some flabby pol they don’t belong there?

[Hesychios]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

They had a guy on from the Trump admin and of course he's spinning the new immigration enforcement thing, the host is trying to push back at the other angle, overall a pretty fair exchange.

Call ends and the host gets this expert on the line that had listened in to get their concerns, which would be roughly "equal time" so fair enough but you'd think they'd get an equal chance to rebut each other but yeah, that wasn't the plan.

Up until this point, I'm fine with it but then it happens....

The caller complains that several companies that provide home service are upset because THEY PAY THESE IMMIGRANTS SUPER LOW WAGES SO THEY RELY ON FOODSTAMPS ETC. THEY'RE CONCERNED THEY WON'T BE ABLE TO FIND ENOUGH WORKERS. (Hey, wasn't that the complaint for years against Walmart? Now it's ok I guess. )

I'm hearing this and thinking well gee, with supply and demand won't that mean they would have to pay more to fill those jobs? Whatever happened to the push for higher min wage?

In short, the complaint was that companies wouldn't have as much exploitable cheap labor.

That's it in a nutshell folks. Corporate America exploits illegal and legal immigrants for cheap labor that suppresses wages not only for them but throughout blue collar labor in the USA.

They've waged a great campaign by funding both the left and the right, any complaints about the system are deemed "racist" (talk about flipping complaints about exploitation huh? That's like a masters class in evil right there).

I agree with you.

We are seeing this all over the country.

There aren't enough people to shuck oysters at the Chesapeake bay. Short of help on mushroom farms in Pennsylvania. Orchards in Michigan need help.

Agricultural labor doesn't pay very well and the owners need exploitable human beings to fill those jobs.

These would always be low paying jobs, even if we had enough native born people to fill them those native descendants of ours would become a (more or less) permanent or semi-permanent underclass (especially with the more common attacks on free public education). We are contracepting enough to keep that from happening. So we need to import exploitable people.

Business owners lament the loss of cheap imported labor, they will have to pay more, and we will have to pay more for their products and we will lament too. We are headed for fundamental shifts in our collective lifestyles.

I am tearing up more of my back yard for the garden this year and next year. I recently planted winter vegetables that will mature in the fall.

[mountainrose]

What most people don’t realize is that we taxpayers subsidize the cheap labor for these businesses.
We pay for the free schooling and extra teachers for their children, we pay for any welfare benefits they use, we pay for all the immigration lawyers and beaurocrats to deal with them, plus any jail or prison time.
Immigrants send $35 billion a year out of this country as remittances to their families.
Imagine if that money stayed here and was taxed.....

[Drewjdeg]

The logical solution is an EU-esque guest worker program that allows low skill Mexican immigrants to work in the economy legally. Why not?

[saltine]

admitting in no uncertain terms that its always been BS. Color me suprised