I suppose the title of this post could be more specific, but I was just reading about Willie Horton last night so I thought a generic statement of fact would suffice. In this instance, Michael Dukakis reveals that he completely and fundamentally misunderstands some of the most basic principles of logic and economics by arguing that raising the minimum wage would decrease illegal immigration.
Millions of illegal immigrants work for minimum and even sub-minimum wages in workplaces that don’t come close to meeting health and safety standards. It is nonsense to say, as President Bush did recently, that these jobs are filled by illegal immigrants because Americans won’t do them. Before we had mass illegal immigration in this country, hotel beds were made, office floors were cleaned, restaurant dishes were washed and crops were picked — by Americans.Americans will work at jobs that are risky, dirty or unpleasant so long as they provide decent wages and working conditions, especially if employers also provide health insurance. Plenty of Americans now work in such jobs, from mining coal to picking up garbage. The difference is they are paid a decent wage and provided benefits for their labor.
However, Americans won’t work for peanuts, and these days the national minimum wage is less than peanuts.
But illegal immigrants work illegally and aren't paid the minimum wage -- only legal workers are. If we were to raise the minimum wage it would only create a greater incentive for employers to hire illegal aliens. The proposal is completely backwards. If we want to make Americans competitive with illegal immigrants, we should eliminate the minimum wage and flatten the playing surface. Eliminating the minimum wage would perhaps erase the market distortion that drives a large amount of illegal immigration.
Now, illegal immigrants also seem willing to live more cheaply than Americans, and our record-low unemployment numbers indicate that just about every American who wants a job has one, so it's not clear that changing the minimum wage in either direction would have much practical effect. Despite the forlorn cries of Democrats, the only people who actually make minimum wage are entry-level workers or students, and they're the ones who would be hurt most if the minimum wage were increased, because some of them would lose their jobs.
(HT: James Taranto.)
"Mr. Dukakis, if an undocumented immigrant worker raped and murdered your wife, would you favor deporting him?"
Please check your facts. The minimum wage applies to all workers, documented or undocumented. However, undocumented workers are less likely to make complaints to gov't agencies, even though it is US Dept of Labor policy (and many state departments of labor) not to act as immigration agents. Even documented workers have a hard time getting employers to pay unpaid wages and overtime because the labor laws are largely unenforced due to lack of resources, weak laws, and lack of political will.
I think I speak for most of the nation by saying that we'd rather have Dukakis right now than the current moron in office.