Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Capitalists for Higher Wages

Silicon Valley multimillionaire, Ron Unz, supports the demand for a higher minimum wage.  More attractive wages in low-wage job sectors (such as washing dishes or stocking supermarket shelves) will draw “legitimate” workers, which will diminish employment opportunities for undocumented immigrants competing in the same job market.

“The overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants come to America for jobs and just as business lobbyists endlessly claim, they are hired “because they take the jobs that Americans just won’t do.” But the reason Americans won’t do those jobs is because the wages are too low. Raise the wages to a more liveable figure of $12 per hour or higher and millions of Americans would eagerly fill the positions”

 So Unz sees the wage boost as a long term deterrent against future migrants “flooding” into the U.S. and snatching up jobs to which “native” workers would otherwise be entitled. SOYMB will not concentrate on the validity of such a claim except to point out that it has been challenged by those who say a higher minimum wage serves as a magnet, attracting immigration.

More importantly, there is far more to the decision to migrate than demand-and-supply economics. People come to reunite with family members, to pursue educational opportunities, to escape persecution. Migration is a basic, universal, social impulse, and far from a harmful one.

There is also the fact that one section of the capitalist class does not benefit from a low wage economy but is required to pay the taxes to maintain it. Walmart rely on suppressing wages for their massive workforce. Other employers view minimum-wage increase as a strategy to reduce public assistance to the working poor and a state subsidy to low pay businesses since higher incomes would reduce the poor's reliance on government benefits like food stamps. Some also see a minimum-wage hike as part of what is needed to be done to boost the economy by raising consumer spending and their market.

From here

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