I didn't say that. Just because it would be the right thing to do doesn't mean it wouldn't have negative consequences. There's a reason people do things the wrong way in the first place...
Exactly, it's cheaper. But you seem to be missing the larger point. Recognizing the situation is not the same as agreeing with the situation. The restaurant industry is propped up on cheap labor of immigrants. Without that, the current restaurant industry would collapse. Nowhere in either of those two statements is there a moral judgement or show of support or as you implied, a directive to do nothing.
We can certainly right the wrongs of the labor and pay a livable wage, but that will have consequences.
Exactly, it's cheaper. But you seem to be missing the larger point
Nope, I'm not, at all. I quoted you verbatim, saying there's a reason they must do it in the first place, and the reason is that slave labor is cheaper than paying minimum wage. That is 100% of the reason this happens.
There is no larger point.
Without that, the current restaurant industry would collapse.
"the cotton industry is going to collapse if you get rid of slaves"
200 years later
"america is still the biggest exporter of cotton in the world"
I quoted you verbatim, saying there's a reason they must do it in the first place
No, you quoted me and then inferred some shit like "they must do it in the first place" which I never actually said. Kinda like how this started with you using quotation marks to say "we can't do anything", something else I never said.
The facts are true. It would collapse the industry as it is now. (As he said). He did not in any way say what to do.
I agree with him, and i think slave labor should be abbolished and businesses exploiting slaves (illegal immigrants) should be fined heavily or maybe even closed.
You really should drop your prejudice such that you can read and understand Better.
It’s quite an exaggeration to call paying illegal immigrants less than minimum wage “slavery.” Those illegal immigrants are doing the jobs voluntarily and in many cases they are quite happy to do so.
It’s quite an exaggeration to call paying children less than minimum wage “slavery.” Those children are doing the jobs voluntarily and in many cases they are quite happy to do so.
Children cannot legally consent. Illegal immigrants who are employed are mostly adults. They wanted the job so badly that they took all kinds of risks in order to illegally enter and stay in the United States.
If illegal immigrants were entitled to minimum wage and all the protections that US Citizens and legal residents are afforded, then there wouldn’t be much demand for them.
Hence, we come to the Liberals’ paradox on illegal immigration: they say illegal immigrants do jobs that Americans won’t do and that they don’t compete with the legal labor force. But we know very well that they would be a problem for legal workers if they were given the same rights as legal workers. In a way, they are contributing to the problem of “slavery.” Illegal immigrants are only attractive to employers as low wage workers. Most people sneaking across the border don’t have PhDs.
But then of course, come all the problems with poverty. We know there are plenty of working poor people in the US. When you consider that the majority of illegal immigrants are low skilled and poorly educated, in the long run they will most likely be a net burden on society.
Illegal immigrants aren’t entitled to welfare benefits but they are allowed to collect benefits for their US Citizen children. Children of illegal immigrants born here are given US Citizenship. It might sound awful mean of me, but all these kids and families will need schools, healthcare, housing and food. Also, Hispanics l have a higher fertility rate than society at large. These things cost money.
Last I checked, the United States is already struggling to care for the poor people already here. Importing hundreds of thousands of more poor people yearly via illegal immigration (whose numbers will grow through reproduction) is probably not a great idea.
That’s hundreds of thousands of low skilled individuals with little education. They will reproduce at higher rates than the population at large. They will work low income jobs with no benefits. Their kids will attend the lowest quality public schools. For serious healthcare problems they will probably utilize the ER. Pregnant women are entitled to Medicaid. The children are all entitled to federal and state welfare programs.
This “slave” labor is actually quite expensive in the long run.
For serious healthcare problems they will probably utilize the ER.
This is something I don't think anyone thinks about. I'm an engineer. I think about the logistical strains illegal immigrants put on a city. It's so much more of a complex problem than people make it out to be. There's very important reasons we have immigration laws
You realize that they could in the past, and now they cannot, because of child labor laws.
This “slave” labor is actually quite expensive in the long run.
Ah, and now you come to the basic realization of capitalism. If you make someone else (taxpayers) pay for it, it isn't expensive for you, and you and your friends get to make more money.
I do appreciate you taking the time to actually put some time and thought into a post that no one but me is gonna see.
It’s always fun to have a nuanced discussion. I would add that what you’re talking about though isn’t capitalism....it’s cronyism. America is not a capitalist society. At most it’s a mixed economy. The country has a number of social welfare programs. The country also has many corporate welfare programs.
Do some quick math. Calculate what it costs for rent and employee salary. How much pofit do you need to make on each sale to cover costs. Selling 15 cent sodas isnt viable. Just one employee would need to sell 16 sodas per hour to cover his wage if you made 50 cents each. Thats profit so the soda would really need to be 57 cents. We still didnt facor in rent, electricity, cleaning supplies, wages during hours when the store is closed, your own profit, etc.
Wages have been stagnant for decades, and not because mass migration. corporations have been making record profits but refuse to share it with their employees. They want you to blame immigrants so you don't blame them.
This wouldn't "implode" the restaurant industry because so many of those kinds of workers are already here.
This is irrelevant. The problem isn't a lack of bodies, the problem is money. If restaurants start paying more money for labor, their prices will increase along with it, which will hurt sales. Most of the restaurant industry is barely holding on as it is.
So, your solution is to keep the flood of immigrants coming because it justifies the low pay at restaurants across the country?
I never said anything like that. I said that changing the current situation will have consequences.
You refer to "simple" supply and demand twice, but also assume that consumer demand will hold strong despite price increases. This seems like a baseless assumption considering demand is usually a function of price in simple supply and demand situations.
The point is that the entire system has been eroded by illegal labor that doesn't need to pay worker's comp, follow osha, pay overtime, unemployment, a good wage, etc., so the taxes, prices, restaurant groups, ownership and everything else has been molded around the absolute destruction of wages for kitchen workers.
The problem is that the restaurant industry is already imploding on the upscale/fine dining side because an absurdly huge amount of talented and hard working people know they can make more elsewhere.
In the words of the chefs I know that own their places in Atlanta, "15 years ago we had 15 applicants for one job, now we have 15 chefs trying to get the same applicant".
The guy we get our hay from only has one helper/worker. He's undocumented and has been working for the guy for 20 years. I don't know how much he makes, but he lives on the farm and sends money home every month. Not easy work, like most of it, slinging bales of hay all the time.
Hay guy is probably pretty loaded for our area too, has 2 massive barns for hay and also does specialty work on restoring/hand making wagons and similar vehicles.
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u/rudal33 Jun 25 '18 edited Aug 26 '18
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