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Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur
You say Amadou does not hurt anyone. Lets look at the bigger picture. If all of the illegal immigrants in this country were to leave, that would leave a hole in the economy. Jobs that people dont want to do and Very low paying jobs would go unfilled. I will use your 'law of supply and demand' arguement.
This would have 2 effects:
1> Low paying jobs would need to up their salaries to attract workers.
2> Corporations (with thier big pockets and lobbiests) would be asking the government to loosen the immigration laws to allow more immigrants in.
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this may not be what would actually happen.
Many of the low paying jobs that illegal immigrants now fill are not necessary for our national economy. I will use a couple examples that came up after mondays Immigrant protest day.
A guy who owns a landscaping company complained that 30 of his workers did not show up monday, and he lost thousands of dollars in business. 95% of the 'landscaping' work these businesses do is mowing lawns. The guy buys a bunch of lawn mowers, then pays illegal immigrant less than minimum wage to run them.
Ok, lets say the small time 'landscapers' are all put out of business because their cheap labor is deported. Whats going to happen? Are they going to hire new workers at minimum wage or more, and double the price they charge to homeowners to get their lawns mowed?
most likely not. Some people will start mowing their own lawns. Some will get a neighbors kid to do it. Some will go in halves with a neighbor or two and buy a nice riding lawn mower. Some will cover their lawns with trees and astroturf so it no longer needs to be cut. Some people who have nice riding mowers will cut their neighbors grass for free.
What is the result on our economy? Difficult to say. Some homeowners will be in better health from the exercise they get mowing their own grass. Some wont cut their grass more than once a month. If enough people really hate mowing their lawns then some genius will come up with a cost effective lawm-mower-robot that runs on grass clippings. Scientists will be driven to come up with new forms of ground cover that dont need to be mowed at all (hybrid grass and such).
You could do the same exercise on many of the industries that illegal immigrants now work in: hotels, food service, food production, farming, house construction.... If they are taken out of the picture its difficult to predict what the end result will be, and whether our economy would be better or worse in the long run as a result.
Look at Japan for example. They have a shortage of people to take care of the elderly. What are they doing? Creating robots to be senior adult companions!
In an innovative society like ours the squeaky wheel doesnt automatically get oiled. It gets scrutinized. Sometimes it gets replaced by something better.