Radical Idea #6 : Put a Hold on Work Visas for a While
High unemployment doesn’t just mean there aren’t enough jobs. It also means there are too many of us. Jobs that non-Americans are hired for could and should be done by one of the millions of Americans who are out of work.
We hate outsourcing. And we’re not afraid of speaking up when a company is sending “our jobs” “over there”. But what about when those workers come here? How many jobs are being outsourced right under our noses?
Look around you. Millions of jobs that used to be done by young Americans are now being done by non-Americans. Fast food restaurants, the grocery store, the car wash, the copy shop. You name it. People used to work their way through college working at fast food restaurants. How often do you even see an American working in a fast food restaurant these days? It’s because this trend has the effect of lowering wages for everyone. These jobs are no longer paying enough to cover rent while someone goes to school.
“They do jobs Americans won’t do.” That’s what we’re told. We’re told that the higher labor costs would be passed along to the consumer. It’s all a lie. Companies choose to pay less for these jobs in favor of higher profits. And it works. Companies are making record profits, in part, because they’re paying record low wages in relation to their intake. It used to be that Americans worked cash registers, vacuumed floors and made copies. The difference is that their bosses weren’t flying around in private jets. They are now. Big business knows that if they paid Americans a living wage, consumers wouldn’t stand for those costs being passed along to them. So, if they hire Americans at decent wages, it comes straight out of their profits.
Some who used to be against immigration now sell it politically as a symbol of American opportunity. And it’s no wonder why. It’s not an opportunity for people so much as it is corporate opportunism. If America is still the land of opportunity for immigrants, it is just barely. When America was a land of milk and honey, we were right to welcome them all. We’re no longer a land of opportunity and prosperity for all. Instead, we’re largely limited to what the wealthiest among us allow us to have after they decide how much to keep for themselves.
Current dogma on immigration says that immigration only makes us stronger, but that largely depends on one’s definition of “stronger”. The business world has a good supply of recent immigrants who are willing to work for less than their American counterparts and, no-doubt, some view this as a strength. But we’re only the 5th most competitive country now (1.Switzerland, 2.Singapore, 3.Sweden, 4.Finland) [Source: World Economic Forum] Perhaps immigrants looking for a better life have better choices than the United States. Immigrants used to come here because we had the most. Now they come here because we’re the most willing to give up our jobs.
The economy is much stronger for Americans during periods of worker shortages. We are in the midst of an upheaval, and hopeful that we can rearrange our system to be more equitable for everyone. We hope to persuade American businesses to re-begin behaving in ways that are good for America. Until we do, we need to stop enabling them by importing cheap labor and flooding the American job market with people who aren’t Americans.
If this country ever again becomes a land of milk and honey, opportunity and upward mobility for all, then we should once again use our wealth for the betterment of others by allowing people to come here and share in that opportunity. But that is not currently the case, and we should put things on hold until we can re-tune our system.
