Rising Immigration, Falling Salaries

[Scarecrow]

“The proportion of the workforce that is foreign born” remained stable at about 6% between 1960 and 1980, but has since been soaring and was 13.2% in 2000. Pro-immigration people have argued that immigration is nothing new and that the United States has always had immigration. However, Roberts’ statistics show that the percent of immigrant workers more than doubled over a twenty year period.



Roberts also explains that the average immigrant has a lower wage than the average American. The obvious conclusion is that immigrants are lowering salaries in the U.S. for people who were born here because employers can turn to a substitute good, a foreign born employee willing to work for less money.

When the capital/labor ratio is high, that means there’s a relative shortage of labor, so people who own capital have to pay higher wages in order get the labor necessary to make their capital profitable.



When the capital/labor ratio is low, this means there’s a surplus of labor, so wages are depressed, and the worker is often unable to earn enough money to get ahead. When the capital/labor ratio is low, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.


Source: Cafe Hayek

Upset about "failing wages" and "rising inequality"? There's your explanation.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Ah, Hayek. Such a reactionary. "Libertarian dictatorships are better than non-liberal democracy." :rolleyes: Care to provide an actual link instead of some underlined text?

Austrian schoolers like to think in a vacuum (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401686_pf.html). Increased immigration also helps the economy (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/03/business/03scene.html). That is why we're seeing a multi-pronged expansion of immigration on two fronts, with more emphasis on illegals (naturally). It's one way of rescuing our economy from the trials of neo-liberalism.

"The 'evidence that immigrants harm native opportunities is scant,' he concluded, observing 'a surprisingly weak relationship between immigration and less-skilled wages.'"

In "Rethinking the Gains From Immigration: Theory and Evidence From the U.S.," Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano of the University of Bologna and Giovanni Peri of the University of California, Davis estimate that immigration in the 1990's increased the average wage of American-born workers by 2.7 percent.

[Plagueround]

I heard something the other day while driving to work that immigration to the United States is seeing a rather drastic decrease because of increasing prosperity in other nations (even Mexico, which this article is undoubtedly aimed at).

In any event, even if this argument held much weight, why should we blame immigrants for the wage decreasing? Are we to believe they're holding employers at gunpoint and saying "Pay me less than a native born worker now...I'll never take what they were making!"? You should be angry at business owners for doing whatever they can to increase profits, not the people looking for the decent life that the U.S. pretends to offer to all.

There is only one "race" here that haven't been recent immigrants...perhaps they're the ones who can genuinely say things have gotten a lot worse for them since immigrants got here. :lol:

[Schrödinger's Cat]

I think Scarecrow was taking a shot at the American liberal perspective that Reagonomics has killed the economy, not necessarily diving into xenophobia. Although it's hard to tell what constitutes "growth" these days when inflation is underreported, necessities are growing more expensive, and debt is easier to find than real cash.