Liberal Talk Radio

Interesting liberal-friendly op-ed on immigration in the Times over the weekend, likening the flow of low-skilled immigrants to a “the economic and moral equivalent of a regressive tax”:

If the number of low-skilled foreign workers were to fall, wages would increase. Low-skilled American workers and their families would benefit, and society as a whole would gain from a reduction in income inequality.

Employers facing higher labor costs for low-skilled workers would raise their prices, and to some extent they would change the way they operate their businesses. A farmer who grows winter iceberg lettuce in Yuma County, Ariz., was asked on the ABC program “Nightline” in April what he would do if it were more difficult to find the low-skilled hand harvesters who work on his farm, many of whom are undocumented workers. He replied that he would mechanize the harvest. Such technology exists, but it is not used because of the abundance of low-wage laborers. In their absence, mechanical harvesters — and the higher skilled (and higher wage) workers to operate them — would replace low-skilled, low-wage workers.

But, you might ask, who would mow the lawns in suburbia? The higher wages would attract more lower-skilled American workers (including teenagers) to these jobs. Facing higher costs, some homeowners would switch to grass species that grow more slowly, to alternative ground cover or to flagstones. Others would simply mow every other week, or every 10 days, instead of weekly. And some would combine one or more of these strategies to offset rising labor costs.

He even clues you into the environmental benefits of reduced gardening — fewer gas motors to pollute the skies!

Meanwhile, we have to wonder if someone — anyone! — will deign to wash dishes at the restaurants we frequent. (Maybe we can eat off of fewer, dirtier dishes? That would save water!) Because the restaurant industry wants you to understand that they would go right out of business if it weren’t for the undocumented:

“My guys had so many expectations from the government,” said Chris, a manager at the Fort Greene [Brooklyn] restaurant, who like others interviewed did not want his full name or the establishment’s name published because most of his workers are undocumented. “Now everything has turned into a nightmare because they don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Last month, the Senate passed a broad immigration bill that would provide a path to legalization for many of the nation’s undocumented immigrants. But in December, the House passed a harsh enforcement-only bill. Whether the two sides can reach a compromise is uncertain.

But one thing is sure: Immigrant workers prop up the industry – nearly 70% of the workers are foreign-born. An estimated 40% — from general managers to dishwashers — are undocumented, according to a study by the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, an advocacy group. “We are in an industry that is going to be very, very significantly affected, whatever [Congress comes] up with,” says Chuck Hunt, executive vice president of the N.Y. State Restaurant Association.