It is not just the USA that is experiencing this, the same holds true in Europe.
Yet the Barack Obama is working on his own unilateral action on immigration and other issues, just in time for Labor Day. What could go wrong? Chuck Schumer admits illegal immigrants are driving down wages in the U.S.
The solution to decline is growth. We are restricting growth and depressing wages. It is a recipe for disaster.How Republicans should talk about poverty in America.
Update:
They don't, but, then (Godwin Alert) thought the German people had failed him and was going to take them down with him, so Choomie may not care.
ReplyDeleteWhat might get his attention would be 9/11 II. Wasn't the plane that crashed in PA headed for the White House?
Your first reax to any zerohedge post should be that the numbers are being cherry-picked. Esp. when the comparison year is 2007. This one is a classic of the genre. IOW, totally misleading.
ReplyDeleteFinding simple tables on this isn't easy, but here's a lefty blog that's uncharacteristically fact-laden. Note that the change in the distribution of wealth from 2007 to 2010 is by far the biggest 3-year change in recent history. There isn't much of a general trend here.
Construction is a hugely important sector; complete economic recovery isn't really possible until that revs up again. So this is good news. When housing prices rebound, middle-class wealth will, too, bc for middle-class people their house is their single biggest asset.
Illegal immigration has a lot of downside--largely bc it's illegal--but ordinary immigration of skilled workers doesn't share those problems. Highly productive people don't generally "take away" jobs from citizens, bc they demand stuff produced by other highly productive people.
Illegal immigration is increasingly taking construction related jobs, not so much in public works (where they are often union and require prevailing wage) but residential. So the starter jobs that would employ carpenters, laborers, etc. are increasingly going to non legal immigrants.
DeleteA lot of these Central American guys are great workers. I can see why a guy putting up homes would want to use them. Plus they rarely bitch about benefits, disability, etc. because they don't qualify.
The problem is the erosion of middle class jobs has been going on since the Clinton years, through Bush and accelerated under Obama. I welcome the short term improvement, but we need to figure out how to we promote growth to increase good jobs (I think it is through greater opportunity and less government burdens on small business development). We create burdens are difficult for even the smallest business.
DeleteAs the article you linked notes: But don't break out the bubbly quite yet. While hiring in construction and manufacturing is improving, job losses in these and other middle-class sectors were so deep that it will take a long time to rebuild, said Mike Evangalista, policy analyst for the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for quality employment.
"We've got a long way to go," he said.
I also absolutely agree that legal vs. illegal immigration are two very different things. Legal immigration brings in new blood and expands the pie for all, providing you are bringing in people who are young and unlikely to draw entitlements anytime immediately. Illegal immigrants mostly do not qualify for entitlements, but they tend to be uninsured and thus tax emergency rooms and local school districts (without paying in taxes through legal employment). Making them legal by fiat, only encourages them to then claim entitlement benefits. And it rewards those who jumped the line to get here.
DeleteI am all for legal immigration being expanded, with the goals of assimilation.