Could we have raised real wages by closing the borders?

Question

and limiting the supply of people willing to work for less then the minimum wage?

Answer 1

Limiting the supply of unskilled labor would increase the wages of the unskilled but also increase the price of the products of their labor. If you re an unskilled laborer your real wages would increase, If you are a college graduate your real wages would decrease. The argument over immigration is really between winners and losers in the wage competition.

Answer 2

Officially the real wage would almost certainly go down. Prices would go up and a huge mass of unreported jobs would be reported at the minimum wage level. This would drive down the average mean wage slightly.

Unofficially, there would be more people starving in Mexico and the US black market would be a bit smaller. I can't imagine anyone being better off by closing the borders. There really aren't droves of Americans lining up to do what the illegals are doing now. Also, unemployment isn't a problem in states were illegal immigrants are present.

Answer 3

Wages are already artificially high in this country. The plain fact is that labor such as picking fruit is only worth a few dollars an hour - and there are thousands of people waiting to do the work if you and I don't want to. But here, we pay people $80 an hour to move boxes because of "must hire" unions and labor rules. It's gonna break the dam and drive all the American labor overseas - oh, that's already happening - but that's why. Sure, we could prop it up a few more years, maybe even a decade or two, but the truth will ultimately out - if you can get it done for $4 an hour in India, vs $40 an hour here, you're gonna.

Answer 4

Probably not. Reducing the supply of labor will increase the costs of anything produced with that labor and therefore reduce the purchasing power of dollar and thereby lower real wages.

Which affect will dominate--higher nominal wages or higher prices--is unclear however.

Answer 5

umm actually its the other way around. By opening the border, the immigrants will work for less which will cause businesses to boom and recreate the middle class. Our economy would be much stronger and there would be many more higher paying jobs.

Answer 6

im not sure about that, but one things for sure alot, and i mean alot of our jobs were given to them, and our dollar isnt worth as much now due to the influx of immigrants, they live off of 150 per week like its gold, it would be like you were living off of 2000 per week, this in turn means that they are willing to work for peanuts making the big boss man fatter and making the rest of us suffer, the latest answering machine message is this For english press 1, If you dont speak english call back when you can, i thought it was great and if everyone banded together and refused to bend over backwards for the thieves that have drove our dollar into the ground, then maybe we could regain control, but we both know that will never happen.

Answer 7

well sorta.......wages would have gone up but the price of lettuce would have gone to 3 bucks a head or whatever kind of produce that the migrant worker picks.............