Washington Post bullshit:

In an editorial that complains that complains in a round-a-bout way that crackdowns on businesses employing illegal aliens is "misguided", we read: (emp add)

Despite the economic dip, there is still demand for unskilled labor that native-born Americans cannot supply. That demand will perk up when the economy does. The number of visas available for unskilled workers -- 66,000 per year -- is laughably inadequate. ...

A practical approach would acknowledge both the demand for unskilled labor and the fact that 5 percent of the American workforce consists of undocumented workers.

This "demand" that the Post is so concerned about is a "demand" by businesses, not the country as a whole. And how about this laugh-line:

there is still demand for unskilled labor that native-born Americans cannot supply

Why can't native-born Americans meet the demand for unskilled labor? It's not because of a skills gap! It's because wages would have to go up to get people to do those jobs, and that's something the Post is uninterested in.

And the Post is pretty much on board with the idea of borderless labor markets:

[The US should] raise the quota of temporary employment visas, establish a better system for employers to verify the legal status of job applicants and offer undocumented workers a way to register themselves and eventually earn citizenship. Critics will howl about an amnesty, but realists will see it is the way to address the reality of immigration and labor in a globalized marketplace.

Domestic labor in a Post-sanctioned globalized marketplace would suffer tremendously.


posted by Quiddity at 8/15/2008 01:43:00 AM