By Paul Weiser
America hosts millions of illegal immigrants, yet everything we buy is still made in China. Many remark on these two facts, but seldom in conjunction. Together, they tell us something important.
The economics of illegal immigrants (principally Mexicans) are well known: young males enter illegally, take low-paying jobs (food service, lawn care, construction), send their off-the-books earnings back , and either depart again or import women (who work as maids and produce “anchor” babies). They gorge on welfare money in the form of “emergency” medical services but pay no income tax and only the Social Security tax their employers cannot evade.
The economics of Chinese export industry are also understood. Chinese entrepreneurs connect with American buyers, manufacture quality knock-offs of Western goods, and pay workers a pittance (by American standards) which nevertheless lets them save and live well (by Chinese standards). Corruption, in the form of bribes and currency manipulation, is pandemic. At its worst the system uses prison labor and operates human organ farms.
But if illegal Mexican labor in America is so cheap, why hasn’t it rejuvenated American manufacturing? Because the labor of illegals is not cheap. Unlike the Chinese - who, except for prisoners, work for themselves - Mexican illegals work with numbing inefficiency (think of any road construction job you’ve seen: they make unionized labor look industrious). Why? Because, unlike the Chinese, they benefit only those in Mexico who get their remittances - and American overseers know they can find another hundred illegals any time.
In short, Mexicans consent to act as tools, actual wage-slaves. Their work is consequently low-value, for we all know we’d do better with home-made meals, lawns mowed by company-employed caretakers and sons, cleaning by wives and daughters. The Chinese are corrupt, but Mexican illegals in America are merely and finally corrupting.
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