Capitalism works.....kind of

An interesting article in the WSJ today.

Seems that the Feds, when enforcing existing law, went to a chicken processing plant in rural Georgia to enforce employment law. Is it any surprise that the illegal immigrants flew the coop? This flight left 700 jobs and guess what the company did? They increased the hourly rate (from 6 bucks an hour to 9 bucks an hour) and found that Americans came quickly to fill the void. Similar results were reported in a similar case in Greeley, CO recently - again by the WSJ. Wow, Americans will do the job for fair(er) wages. However the processing company did not hire these Americans outright, rather they used a third party to hire "contractors" for the job. The processing plant, which demonstrably broke Federal law, did not want to have to carry these new employees on their balance sheet. And, shockingly, this third party started screwing the new employees out of hours (oddly, this third party failed to have the new workers fill out Federal tax forms which is technically a felony). So when the new employees were asked to receive wages that were not comparable to their hours worked starting quiting, this was evidence that Americans would not do the job.

Ummm, does this not seem like that corporations, which cannot outsource this labor to developing nations, turned to the gaping, and unenforced, flaws in our existing Federal law to hire illegals to work more for less. I want to be upset about this, but I must resolve that the government implicitly supports this internal outsourcing and that enforcement of existing law only has come about by political pressure. However these companies refuse to hire the new, and native, employees. They force that issue onto some sketchy third party....this is endemic in one particular area that I have personally encountered, janitorial service. Capitalism, again, is more than happy to distort the law (with the implicit agreement of the Labor dept.) to drive up profits by reducing labor costs, not by increases in productivity through legal mean, rather through illegal means.

Does the application of Federal law no longer apply to service/blue collar labor? And do Americans care??? In a word, NO. Americans will keep buying and supporting this violation of Federal law. I could not have gotten my job without proper ID which confirms that the Feds do enforce the law - but only for white collar jobs. Blue collar/service jobs are exempt.

Do your duty - spend more at the Co-op on organic, small farms to support Federal law. Buy your goods from the Farmer's market for slightly more $$$; at least you know who has produced. Don't support the violation of Federal law by the multinationals. Ban the box-stores from your shopping and implicitly support our laws.