I am not a fan of illegal immigration.
I do not care for the hiring of illegals.
The main reason I dislike illegal immigrants is that they are not coming here to become Americans, they wish to remain foreigners and reap the benefits of being in America. I think if you want the bennies, you have to join.
It all would not be a problem if two things happened. First if an entire raft of social support funding was off limits to illegals then they would not come for the bennies. Second, if businesses would stop hiring them, they wouldn't come here for work.
I had a realization about that second part last night.
Illegal labor is cheaper. The thing is, why? In construction they have to have some skills to be hired and keep working. They aren't stupid. Why don't they demand the same hourly wage as the local labor pool?
Guess what. They do. And they get it.
Then why are they cheaper?
Because even paying the same wage to the illegal the business is skipping many layers of government interference in the labor market!
When illegals are building something that needs a scaffold they just grab some lumber and build a scaffold and get to work. Legal labor has to get specially rated and sized wood for the scaffold that must also be inspected and approved, extra cost and a delay waiting for the inspection. The materials used for the illegal scaffold can be recycled back into pool of building materials once the need has past. The legal scaffold's materials can only be used for the scaffold and may not be repurposed EVEN AS A SCAFFOLD AT A SECOND SITE!
Things like this add up and pretty soon the risk of being caught for hiring illegal labor becomes smaller than the cost of complying with the laws.
And once you teach someone that ignoring one law is in their interest, they start breaking other laws. How long before they start ignoring laws that do make sense?
Even when they can't get away with cutting (.gov imposed) corners, the biggest reason businesses hire illegals is because they can pay less in wages even if the person is taking home the same amount as a legal worker. They don't have to pay $X salary so that the worker can take home $X-tax, they just pay the worker $X-tax directly and pocket the difference. They also don't have to pay the employer's share of whatever other taxes are levied when a business hires a legal worker (FICA, etc.).
ReplyDeleteIt's an incentive to hire illegals that won't go away unless the entire tax system is replaced, or the risks and consequences are made severe enough to counteract the incentive.
Excellent point. Not to mention all sorts of matching monies that you don't have to pony up if your workforce is under the table.
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