Only a Racist Would Care

Only a Racist Would Care
“Failed” Government Wars, Part 3

From Mexico’s point of view:
Supply of laborers: huge
Demand for laborers: zero

From the United States’ point of view:
Supply of cheap labor jobs: huge
Demand for cheap labor jobs by Americans: close to zero

In the end, regardless of government attempts at manipulation, market forces will prevail. Mexican labor will continue to migrate across the border to satisfy the United States’ abundant supply of menial jobs. In fact, so many Mexicans will migrate to the United States that an over-supply situation in the U.S. job market will develop, as it already has, and Mexicans will be forced to compete among themselves for the available jobs. In the process, most Americans will be displaced from menial labor trades, e.g., construction, hotel and restaurant industries, and landscape maintenance.

Over time, the over-supply of willing workers will cause the costs (hourly price) for cheap labor to decrease, not only for Mexicans but for Americans as well. Eventually equilibrium will develop, but not as long as employment opportunities exist in the Entitlement Industry, and not as long as the over-supply of cheap legal and illegal labor can find refuge in the welfare lines. It is a certainty that the over-supply of Mexican menial labor will cause more and more low-wage Americans to be driven into the waiting arms of the Democratic Party. Soon, the few remaining Americans willing to work at menial labor jobs will be made irrevocably dependent on government (i.e., taxpayers). The next liberalism agenda will be the dependency of the Mexicans.

The border wall does nothing to reduce the supply of cheap labor jobs in the United States and nothing to alleviate the scarcity of Americans willing to fill cheap labor jobs. The border wall is another understandable and desperate effort to manipulate the free market rather than deal with the dislocations that government alone, in both countries, has caused.

If Congress were to “declare war” on illegal migration, as most citizens want them to do, the outcome will be no different than every other failed government attempt at market intervention. But listen carefully! Build the wall. By all means, build the border wall and do it now! Just understand while we are building the wall, nothing will change except the volume of the flow of illegal alien migrants and drugs. If they can’t come in across the southern border, they will find their way through Canada. Supply and demand forces will not have changed. Illegal alien migrants can and will eventually find another route into the United States.

The need for menial laborers in the United States creates the supply of jobs waiting for willing workers. People from Mexico and other nations who are willing to risk it all provide the demand. In other words, what are our choices? If we don’t want Mexican migrants to enter the United States seeking jobs, we must increase the number of Americans willing to fill the “cheap labor” market demand. The alternative is to watch as companies and entire industries leave the United States in a desperate effort to avail themselves of cheap labor that is willing to work.

Without the labor of the illegal alien, we would be without whatever this person is producing. That’s not much you say … but understand that “not much” is enough to keep 20+ million illegal aliens employed daily full- or part-time, and enough to encourage still more citizens of other countries to migrate to the United States. That’s a lot more than “not much.”

The United States has more than an adequate labor pool. The problem is that our labor pool is not “willing labor,” because most of the would-be candidates are employed in the “Entitlement Industry,” and have been for their entire life. Multiple generations have found comfort there. Why should they leave the sofa and god-forbid, work to earn their place on this planet and become deserving of their citizenship? In fact, research into the psychological impact of entitlement programs shows that the most difficult aspect of unemployment for any recipient over an extended period of time is adjusting to the hours.

While it is definitely possible for government to make it painful to Americans who employ illegal migrants, those efforts at market manipulation will come at some cost to national prosperity. What if you were to reduce the number of jobs available to illegal aliens (restrict the supply – punish the employers)? Economically, that doesn’t make sense and harms the United States economy. We shouldn’t want to do that, except that it appeals to our patriotic impulses, improves national security and protects United States sovereignty. So what are we to do?

What we need to do is twofold, (1) increase the supply of “cheap labor” from citizen sources inside the United States (and in the process give some relief to taxpayers whose income is being redistributed to services dedicated to welfare recipients), and (2) drastically reduce or eliminate taxpayer-funded social services available to illegal aliens. Only then will human trafficking across the border begin to diminish. Over 50% of illegal aliens come to the United States just to avail themselves of free social services and health care.

Some have suggested the problem of illegal alien migration could be fixed easily . . . with the stroke of a pen. They’re convinced that all we have to do is put an armed guardsman every four feet along the southern border and this will stop the flow. Unfortunately, it will do no such thing. It will slow the flow, proportional to the density of the deterrent, but as we have already discussed, the market will simply devise ways to get around any obstacle that government can create. Worse, the guardsman alternative is the most expensive of all alternatives by many orders of magnitude. The costs to taxpayers will be incredible.

Just as you put a lock on your residence door to deter a burglar, the United States should build a wall on the border to deter migrants. The lock on the residence door will not prevent a burglary. It will only cause predators to seek an easier target, an open door. If the burglar is truly determined, they will seek an alternate path of entry, finding a way to circumvent the lock on the door. Illegal alien migrants are, after all, nothing more than burglars, unlawfully entering your house (your nation) and then committing additional felony crimes once inside. But hey, it’s only a crime whose victim is a United States citizen. Only a racist would care.

Red State Patriot

Posted March 19, 2007 06:51 PM
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