Senate bill gives Americans preference for tech jobs

TalkBack 13 of 49:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

too many flaws

Your presentation is as narrow minded as you accuse the protectionists. Jeez, where to start.

The biggest factor you are missing is the constant drive for increased productivity at cheaper rates will never be satisfied by immigration into a developed nation with a relatively high standard of living without either lowering that standard or moving the business to were the standard of living is viable for the pay ranges.
Except for the last quarter, productivity in the US has increased every quarter since early 2000. Wages in the US of the lowest 98% have remain constant since late 2000. Since inflation has not remained flat, effective wages have decreased.
That means as productivity increased, real waged decreased. This comes from the CBO, the OMB and the DoL.

"the fact that the model
incorrectly assumes immigrant and U.S.-born workers are
perfectly interchangeable; that is, that they substitute for
each other rather than complement each other in the labor
force. Common sense alone suggests that this is not always the
case."
While it is not common sense, it is reality. All too often a business owner will see that the unskilled worker is not an exact replacement for the skilled one, but is a cheaper alternative and he is betting that his customers will not notice the difference in quality. This is especially the case in residential construction. Why hire 4 very skilled carpenters at $25/hour each when you can have one very skilled carpenter for $30/hour and have him direct 7 unskilled $10/hour workers.
Things get done faster and you have more people working!
Thats the very short term view of it.
While twice as many people are now employed the overall return into the system is actually less. Less because those 7 lower paid workers have less discretionary income.They are limited to the very basics of existing. Worse than that, being paid less, they pay a lower tax rate and probably have enough low income qualifications to pay no income tax. Add to that they cannot afford health care for themselves and their families and now you have an increased burden on the state for health care costs where before you had none.

When you allowing elements from markets beyond your own without restriction, the whole will seek equilibrium. That equalization is arrived at by either bringing up the world as a whole or bringing up the low while lowing the high. The first one can happen for a short term, but the second one is where it has to go. The current push to remove all regulations will make the later happen sooner while increased regulations will at least make the former possible.

Interestingly enough, an uncanny parallel = is what happened in forestry. Areas that allowed timber companies to harvest timber whenever, where-ever and however, now have no trees and have lost business to foreign competitors. While areas that restricted timbering are still harvesting. It comes down to whether you want sustainability or do you want to get rich quick and go out of business.

Posted by: Outside T. Box   Posted on: 04/04/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now
• Reducing Server Total Cost of Ownership with VMware Virtualization Software VMware VMware virtualization enables customers to reduce their server TCO and ... Download Now
• Three Steps You Need to Know to Stop Data Loss Varonis Sensitive data exposed to misuse or loss... it is the stuff of nightmares ... Download Now