I recently read an article written by the former governor of Colorado on the disguised high cost of "cheap" labor in the United States. The article talks in depth about the growing problem with “cheap” labor in American and the effect is has on ordinary, legal, Americans. He argues that by hiring these illegal immigrants to work for lower wages and no benefits they are not only taking jobs from ordinary Americans, but they are increasing the gap between the rich and the poor through the lack of taxes received from these low-wage workers.
“Cheap” labor is growing more and more popular for employees across the nation. And why not, for employers it makes a lot of sense. Why would they want to pay an ordinary legal American $15.00 an hour with benefits, when they could an illegal immigrant to do the same job for $10.00 with no benefits. Richard Lamm argues that this way of thinking will, "forever lock the bottom quartile of our American earners into poverty: for how are they ever to obtain a decent wage?”(Lamm). Obviously this way of thinking is extremely beneficial to lower costs for employers but what does this do to normal American citizens? These illegal immigrants can afford to live off minimum wages because typically they send their wages back to their families in their hometown where the standard of living is much lower than it is in the United States. But this leaves ordinary Americans with less jobs to choose from and less jobs that they can afford to live on to survive and to support a family. This form of “cheap” labor is keeping Americans down in poverty and the number of poor grows higher year after year. This form of “cheap” labor is also a form of subsidizing. As Lamm puts it, “It may be “cheap” to those who pay the wages, but for the rest of us it is clearly “subsidized” labor, as we taxpayers pick up the costs of education, health, and other municipal costs imposed by this workforce.”(Lamm). The illegal immigrants who earn a wage in American typically get paid in cash which means they do not pay taxes. This leaves the burden of paying the taxes that illegal immigrants are not paying on ordinary legal Americans. How is this fair? How is it that illegal immigrants can enter into the United States workforce and take away jobs from ordinary Americans by accepting a lower wage? This is a problem with the capitalist system that Marx predicts in his writings.
This problem with “cheap” labor is exactly what Marx believed would happen with this type of economic system. He argued that the division of labor leads to a larger division between the poor. He also believed that as production increases, employers find new ways of lower costs, so wages therefore are decreased. In this current capitalist system, employers are forced to compete with each other, which forces them to come up with new and creative ways to cut costs of production. This hiring of illegal immigrants is this creative way to cut costs but it doesn’t make it right. They are taking jobs away from ordinary Americans and forcing them into a sinking hole of poverty that they can never get out of. Something needs to be changed to fix the problem of illegal immigrants or the gap between the rich and the poor will continue to increase and more and more Americans will sink down into poverty.