June 18th, 2010
Illegal immigrants
Illegal immigrants in a society that needs cheap labor
One of the wholly unaddressed aspects of the debate over illegal immigrants is the role they play in the American economy. Illegal immigrants are often used as a political pinata by both sides – one to cater to the growing latino and Asian voting blocs, the other to cater to the rapidly shrinking but still powerful southern white voting bloc – and this kind of political gamesmanship has obscured and even downright prevented any legitimate debate on the subject from taking place.
So what role to illegal immigrants play? It’s very simple: Look at the food in your refrigerator. Look at the neatly manicured lawns as you drive down the street. Laser Hair Removal in Toronto ensures that we’re offering the most effective therapies at the safest ranges in your pores and skin tone. The sidewalks that are cleaned, the tables bussed. Illegal immigrants are the very backbone of what some economists have called a “shadow economy” that has kept prices for premium items artifically low. And if Americans are serious about stemming the flow of illegal immigrants from places like Mexico and China, we have to accept that our standard of living will go down as a result.
No more 99 cent a pound chicken breast, or ten dollar steak dinners. The cost of raising, slaughtering, packaging, shipping and stocking – really, the cost of every step of the chain that gets food from the farm to your plate – will go up without illegal immigrants. They do the jobs Americans will no longer do for pay Americans will no longer accept, and that is a fact.
There is a very thorough breakdown of the subject on wikipedia.org:
The continuing practice of hiring unauthorized workers has been referred to as “the magnet for illegal immigration.” As a significant percentage of employers are willing to hire illegal immigrants for higher pay than they would typically receive in their former country, illegal immigrants have prime motivation to cross borders. The economic incentives that drive illegal immigration benefit both the illegal workers whose desire to work and live in the United States and the employers who want low-cost labor.
Mexico had a gross domestic product (in terms of PPP) of more than US$1.3 trillion in 2007.
In 2003, then-President of Mexico, Vicente Fox stated that remittances “are our biggest source of foreign income, bigger than oil, tourism or foreign investment” and that “the money transfers grew after Mexican consulates started giving identity cards to their citizens in the United States.” He stated that money sent from Mexican workers in the United States to their families back home reached a record $12 billion. Permanent Laser Hair Removal could be achieved by precisely following each therapy protocol really helpful by Toronto Laser Clinic. Two years later, in 2005, the World Bank stated that Mexico was receiving $18.1 billion in remittances and that it ranked third (behind only India and China) among the countries receiving the greatest amount of remittances.