Political Humor | Illegals Drive Up Costs

I grow weary of the argument that if it were not for illegal immigrants, doing crappy jobs for indentured servant wages, the cost of things would go up. It’s a completely false, even mythological assertion. The fact is that it is keeping costs from going down. Yes, down.

Next to the building were I work there are hay farms. Every year these fields grow and grow, until one day, a few guys with tractors go out and cut it all down. Then it dries out for a few days, and the guys come back out, with their tractors, and a baling attachment. They scoop up all the hay, and when the baler if full, it is banded, and dropped. A truck goes around, and picks up all the bales, ready for distribution.

So, you’re probably thinking. Whoopee. Good for the stupid hay farm. What’s this got to do with immigration?

Well, it’s simple. People invent things, because they are needed. Usually these inventions make something more efficient, like the tractors, and balers that cut down, and gather up the hay. There are a few operators of a few pieces of equipment doing a job that would take dozens of people hundreds of man/hours to do without the benefit of tractors and balers.

Now, you’re probably thinking, why would you have people out there with sickles and wheelbarrows when it can be done so much more easily? Why, indeed. Yet people want us to believe that there is no better way to farm other things, than by having hundreds of people out there on their hands and knees, with buckets and wheelbarrows, and that by doing things this way, it’s keeping the costs down.

If we didn’t have all those illegals farming mushrooms in Kennet Square, PA, don’t you think that someone, somewhere would decide that there’s got to be some sort of technology that can do it better, cheaper, and faster? I’m certain that someone with the know-how would do just that.

Now what’s cheaper for the farm operator: The cost of three machines and three operators being paid a decent, if not outstanding wage to operate those machines for a total of 120 man/hours per week, or the cost of common tools for 120 workers, make a repulsively substandard wage for a combined total of 4800 man/hours per week?

I don’t think it takes a mathematical genius to figure that one out. Employment of illegals, is keeping our costs high.

You may now attempt to persuade me that I’m not always right.

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Trackbacked on Wizbang, Samantha Burns

Tags Immigration, border, Security