Re: Interconnectedness of Employment Markets (was Bankruptcy)

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On 4/02/06, L wrote:
> On 4/02/06, Mr. Blue wrote:
> Of course, we're also continuing to shed lower middle
>> class blue collar jobs with many of those jobs going to illegals (construction
> and
>> meat packing come to mind).
>>
> Most whites and blacks won't do those jobs anyway.

Didn't Americans do these jobs in the past? Also, don't basic economic principles
dictate that if the price point (wages) were to increase that the supply of people
willing to work at that price point would also increase? I'm amazed that so many
commentators and politicians can get away with their claims that we have shortages of
people in various fields and that the alleged shortages are intractable problems that
can only be solved by importing foreigners. They always purposely forget to mention
that supply is a function of the price point.

> The illegals work for less
> than the minimum wage so Americans can enjoy goods/services at low prices.

The prices on the front-end are low. However, the invisible prices on the back-end
are high. Who pays to educate the illegals' children? Who pays for their hospital
care? Who pays the environmental costs associated with having a higher population?
Who pays when the wealthy who own the means of production can keep a larger percentage
of the wealth produced as profit instead of having to pay it out to their employees as
a result of an artificially high supply of labor?

> You've been looking for meatpacking jobs and losing out to illegals?

No, but I recognize that my economic fortune is partially a function of the overall
state of the employment market. My belief is that I am more likely to enjoy a higher
standard of living in a wealthy country with a large and vibrant middle class (such as
the U.S.) than I would in a third world country. Also, it has a negative effect on
our client base. Where will solos' clients come from if the lower middle class and
the middle class sink into poverty?

Furthermore, the employment market is interconnected and malaise in one area could
translate into an increased supply of available labor in other areas as people obtain
training for other fields.

Have you considered why we have so many lawyers (or MBAs, etc.)? Why is it that so
many people go to college and then law school instead of just beginning work after
high school? Why are so many people discontent with a bachelor's degree? Why do so
many science Ph.D.'s feel a need to go to law school? Answer--because they felt that
they needed the law degree because the job market for people with bachelor's degrees
and science Ph.D.'s isn't very good. The result is an oversupply of lawyers,
including patent lawyers. (When I started law school, the entry-level requirement for
becoming a patent lawyer in the chemstry/biotech area was a bachelor's degree. Today
it is a Ph.D. and those same people who are now established in the field with
bachelor's degrees wouldn't even receive as much as a rejection letter if they were to
apply for entry-level jobs in the field today (using the resumes they had when they
graduated from law school). This is an example of how malaise in one market can
affect the supply of labor in another market.) More broadly, in general we're
witnessing what amounts to an education arms race and the result will be
college-educated unemployed and underemployed. The people who might have previously
happily earned middle class incomes working construction and meat-packing are now
flooding into the universities. Contrary to the opiate the politicians and the media
are trying to sell to us, education is not a substitute for sound economic policy.