[lit-ideas] Re: Illegal Immigration
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 17:26:00 -0400
I had written:
"... there are poorer people in other countries willing to do the work for
less pay."
to which Mike Geary replied:
"But they can't. The employer can't legally pay less than the minimum
wage. Don't you get it?"
Um, yes? I am talking about employers and employees in other countries.
I had written:
"It seems to me that Mike's solution is merely an extension of the problem,
namely that having more money can solve whatever problems one is facing."
to which Mike replied:
"That seems a bizarre reading of what I said. I merely proposed that if
you're worried about migrant workers keeping wages down, then set a minimum
wage by law. Don't blame the workers."
It isn't bizarre. As long as there are competent workers who will do the
work for less, nothing is solved by raising the minimum wage. The minimum
wage is only one part of raising the living standards of the poor. If you
raise the wage too high, jobs will be filled by illegals or leave the
country. One could try to keep out illegals but that only encourages the
Amago's amongst us. One could try to legislate that jobs stay in country
but that is, as Andreas pointed out, to massively misunderstand the world we
live in. In both cases, the goal is to force money into the hands of
'legitimate' workers. This fails because money will go into the hands of
those who are most willing or able to take it. My suggestion is not to
blame the worker but that the issue is the worker not the flow of money.
Perhaps the issue is that a trained/educated, healthy pool of workers
attracts well-paying work. One can't legislate a good living-standard.
I wrote:
"The wealthy already shoulder a great deal of the tax burden."
to which Mike replied:
"Poor dears."
You misunderstand my point. I have no sympathy for the rich since they can
and do take care of themselves. Rather, I was pointing out that things can
only get worse by giving government more money to squander. It seems to me
that when one has alot of money, it is easy to overlook waste. However,
when one has little money, one has to be careful with every shekel. Why not
force government to do more with less by giving them less to work with? It
seems ludicrous to complain about how government squanders its tax revenue
and then insist that this revenue ought to be increased.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Toronto, ON
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