The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“The US needs roughly 10 million people, including low-wage and high-skilled workers, to fill job openings nationwide — and only 8.4 million Americans are actively seeking work.
“And despite job openings hitting historic highs in July and extended unemployment benefits ending in September, Americans aren’t returning to work, especially in low-wage industries. At the same time, workers are resigning in record numbers. And though consumer spending has surged this year, businesses don’t have the people to meet demand — to cope, some companies are raising their prices. Supply chain bottlenecks are even threatening to ruin Christmas.
“When the economy is fragile, there’s an instinct to shut borders to protect American workers. And indeed, that’s what the US has done during the pandemic, practically bringing legal immigration to a halt and closing the southern the border to migrants and asylum seekers. In a normal year, the US welcomes roughly 1 million immigrants, and roughly three-quarters of them end up participating in the labor force. In 2020, that number dropped to about 263,000.
“Generally, economic research has shown that the arrival of low-wage foreign workers has little to no negative impact on native-born workers’ wages or employment. And under the current circumstances, welcoming more low-wage foreign workers could address acute labor shortages in certain industries, helping hard-hit areas of the country recover while staving off higher inflation.” – Immigrants Could Fix the U.S. Labor Shortage, Nicole Narea, Vox, 10/26/21 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: It isn’t true that there are no Americans available to fill job openings. As an article sponsored by the Washington Examiner notes, “Just 61.9% of working-age people are in the American labor force. To bring those 10.6 million job openings down to zero, the labor force participation rate would only have to rise to 65.9%, a level last reached in 2008.” As the Vox article notes, many of the Americans who have dropped out of the workforce are low-wage workers. One reason many have left is that they are tired of low wages and poor working conditions. Limiting immigration to create a tight labor market would raise their wage levels and make their work more appealing. This is what the fundamental economic law of supply and demand predicts.
The Vox writer cites “research” claiming that this law no longer applies, and that flooding our labor markets with foreign workers does not depress wages. The research of Harvard economist George Borjas confirms that supply and demand is still in effect. The Wall Street Journal describes him as “American’s leading immigration economist.” Specifically, Borjas has found that immigration particularly harms low wage American workers. He observes that “What immigration really does is redistribute wealth away from workers toward employers.” In effect, mass immigration is a Robin Hood in reverse policy. It robs from the poor and gives to the rich.
The writer J.D. Vance offers an interesting illustration of the mentality of America’s cheap labor elites: “One of the things I had no idea about, coming from a working-class background, is that America’s ruling class loves to celebrate how much power and money it has. I call these ‘masters of the universe’ events, and they’re held all over the country in fancy hotels, ski lodges and beach resorts. On this particular evening, my wife and I found ourselves at a roundtable with the CEO of a large hotel chain on our left, and a large communications conglomerate on our right.
“The Republicans, we’re often told, are the party of the rich and famous. Yet nearly everyone assembled at this dinner simply loathed Donald Trump. He was the focus of nearly every conversation. And then the hotel CEO announced, ‘Trump has no idea how much his policies are hurting business. I mean, we can’t keep people for $18 an hour in our hotels. If we’re not paying $20, we’re understaffed. And it’s all because of Donald Trump’s immigration policies.’ Let’s pause for a second to appreciate one of the wealthiest men in the world complaining about paying hard-working staff $20 an hour. The only thing he was missing was the Monopoly Man hat and cane.”
Taking from the poor to enrich the rich is a terrible policy. It is morally disgusting.