Despite all of the public wailing for the desperate state of the poor left behind in New Orleans, to say nothing of all the low-wage workers who recently lost their employers down along the Bayou, the White House announced today that it will apply Davis-Bacon workplace rules to federally-funded reconstruction work in New Orleans. Although the media will generally couch this decision in terms of enforcing “prevailing wages,” in truth it creates unemployment by using the force of law to favor union workers at the expense of other available workers.
This ruling benefits an annointed class of skilled labor living largely outside of New Orleans, it is a form of payback for past political support, it will primarily hurt New Orleans’ poor unskilled minorities in great need for work (through which, after all, they would learn the tasks necessary to become skilled workers), it is a wage ceiling imposed at a time of record unemployment claims in the area, and it is another example of a wasteful use of tax dollars in contrast to how private capital would operate.
{ 15 comments }
If you want to do something good for NO’s “poor unskilled minorities”, let me suggest opposing illegal aliens being allowed to move in and take their jobs. Here’s an example of how Bush-style private capital operates.
Listen, that al sounds good in theory. But, in practice the suspension of Davis Bacon would have given license to employers to import untold numbers of illegal aliens who would not leave after the job was done. Very few American worker would have been aided by the ploy. You may know this and not care, but some of us do.
I don’t know about NO but here in the central valley of California the raisun farmers have been hurt by the lack of field workers this year. Many of those field workers are usually undocumented illegal aliens. The border crackdown is having an effect as well as the boom in construction work. The illegals aren’t stupid. If they can get a job driving nail for $12 to $20 an hour why would they work in the fields for much less. I bet they show up in NO without much help from anyone. They can smell work from 3 states away and most importantly are willing to work hard. Are the local and unskilled willing? Most are unskilled and poor for a reason. They prefer to live in poverty rather than face the responsibility of having to be at work every day on time.
A.C
TLB
Heaven forbid we should allow people in essentialy third world countries to work hard and expand our economy.
You protectionists make me sick, you really do.
“Very few American worker [sic] would have been aided by the ploy.”
Why? Because immigrant workers work harder and get more done for less money than the locals? There has to be some reason employers would give them the work. There is no such economic axiom that “immigrants take away jobs” (whatever that means).
The question still is, “When will Davis stop eating our Bacon?”
You guys just looking for another venue to spam with your anti-immigration rhetoric? Minimum wage laws help illegal immigrants because they provide a service (low-cost labor) that Americans cannot legally provide.
The underground economy exists primarily because of government regulation, and you simply want to add more regulation on top. That makes no sense, unless you’re secretly wanting to support illegal labor. Hey, maybe you guys are really middle and upper class managers at companies that illegally hire illegal labor!
The ideological inconsistency of Bush never seems to fade. What exactly is he for or against?
Good question, Phillip! Bush is supposedly an ideological conservative, and thus supports all those terrible, minimal government, free market capitalism ideas. But then again, he’s a neo-conservative who supports big government, power, and imperialism.
In reality, Bush is a politician who simply supports whatever his supporters want and will use whatever rhetoric is necessary to maintain that support.
The dirty secret that would be exposed, were the feds to fail to enforce Davis-Bacon, is that a large part of the reason for illegal immigration is the artificial contraction of the supply of labor in this country by way of the minimum wage, unemployment insurance, Davis-Bacon, Wagner Act, and welfare. All of these either raise the price of legitimate labor directly, or else indirectly by restricting its supply. An example I use that is local to me is that illegal immigrants will work for an equilibrium wage picking tomatoes of anywhere from $3.00 to $8.00 per hour or more, wheras unskilled, unemployable people from Camden or Trenton would have to be paid $20-$30 per hour to equal the economic incentives they obtain for doing nothing.
I don’t know about NO but here in the central valley of California the raisun farmers have been hurt by the lack of field workers this year.
The farmars alwuz say that tho. Its a perenniel complante.
Many of those field workers are usually undocumented illegal aliens.
No undocumented person is illegal. I saw it on a sign once.
If they can get a job driving nail for $12 to $20 an hour why would they work in the fields for much less.
So, there are jobs our current serfs won’t do? Perhaps we should import serfs from a less demanding country. What about Borneo? I hear they’re willing to work longer hours and under even worse conditions than our current lazy serfs. If you told one of those Borneoians that strawberry pickers were forced to live in caves near Salinas, they’d think that was a luxury!
Most [locals are] unskilled and poor for a reason. They prefer to live in poverty rather than face the responsibility of having to be at work every day on time.
If they’re as shiftless and unaccountable as you say, perhaps we could strip them of their American citizenship and send them to some other country or something. The “free” market must prevail.
TLB quoted and answered;
“Most [locals are] unskilled and poor for a reason. They prefer to live in poverty rather than face the responsibility of having to be at work every day on time.
If they’re as shiftless and unaccountable as you say, perhaps we could strip them of their American citizenship and send them to some other country or something. The “free” market must prevail.”
You are both making a post-hoc error – A person who is “shiftless” and “unaccountable” in a true free market will not exist as such for very long. The very programs and regulations that are purported to eliminate poverty or workers living hand-to-mouth are the cause of shiftlessness and lack of accountability.
Because we as a society have decided that some arbitrary level of income represents “poverty”, we have removed whole classes of citizens from the economic marketplace by pricing their labor out of the market.
The fact that Fed-created inflation makes things worse is often used as a justification for taking even more wages away from working people and creating even more shiftless and unaccountable people.
Meanwhile, work goes begging, eventually to be filled by “illegal” immigrants who are willing to work for a wage that is economic to the employer.
The very programs and regulations that are purported to eliminate poverty or workers living hand-to-mouth are the cause of shiftlessness and lack of accountability.
I agree. And, I think if we had a more mainstream American president they’d take this opportunity to do something about it. That would involve do whatever is necessary to get formerly unemployed NO residents cleaning up their own city. That might involve working with or co-opting Jesse Jackson and perhaps even a – gasp! – WPA-style program.
That would not involve shipping them off to live on the dole in hotel rooms in Atlanta while illegal aliens were shipped in to do jobs they should be doing.
Viva la “free” market, Bush-style.
Perhaps we should rename it Davis-Pork!
(shudder) WPA? Come on, you know that’s even worse than shipping them to Atlanta to live on the dole.
A much simpler, fairer thing to do would be to get the Federal, state, and local government to compensate everyone who suffered losses due to their negligence. Then clear them all out of New Orleans except for police, fire, and EMS, and announce that New Orleans is, for the next 5 years, a free enterprise zone. Only local taxes will be levied, and only spent to protect life and property and adjudicate the disposition of abandoned flood-prone properties. I guarantee that every refugee that has a stake in the rebirth of NO, or who wants to make money, or who simply wants to help will find their way back…
Comments on this entry are closed.