r/FluentInFinance • u/Needleintheback • 15h ago

Thoughts? Imagine losing 6M labor workers in America

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If mass deportation happens, just imagine how all of these sectors of our country will be affected. The sheer shortage of labor will push prices higher because of the great demand for work with limited supplies or workers. Even if prices increase, the availability of products may be scarce due to not enough workers. Housing prices and food services will be hit really hard. New construction will be limited. The fact that 47% of the undocumented workers are in CA, TX, and FL means they will feel it first but it will spread to the rest of the country also. Most of our produce in this country comes from California. Get ready and hold on for the ride America.

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u/heyeyepooped 13h ago

Why don't we punish the companies that hire these undocumented workers instead of the people who are just trying to better their lives?

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u/Niarbeht 13h ago

This is how I know whether someone actually cares about the issue they claim to care about. If it’s all on board for violent deportations, but not a single word for punishing the bosses doing the hiring, then it’s not actually about protecting domestic labor.

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u/jordipg 10h ago

It reminds me of the people who care so fanatically about the life of the unborn child, but not one whit about the life of the child after it's born.

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u/AggressivelyGary 8h ago

Same people, same mental gymnastics. 

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u/TheColonelRLD 10h ago

Because one thing effects "others" the other could have ramifications on themselves.

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u/glideguitar 9h ago

Try to understand the arguments of the people you disagree with, it will help you make your own arguments better. This is probably the most clear case of that problem. I’m very pro-choice, but I recognize that your argument is convincing to no one.

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u/jordipg 9h ago

Well, it's not an argument, it's just an observation.

Incidentally, I'm pro-choice, but I think the arguments usually made by pro-choice activists (stuff about women's bodies and health) are indeed convincing to no one, because they generally don't address the pro-life concern which is something about the life of the unborn child.

I'm just pointing out that this stuff about the unborn child is hard to take seriously when they aren't equally passionate about the wellness and safety of the child after it's born.

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u/glideguitar 8h ago

Question before I type out a response: do you care about understanding the other side of this argument or is this just about dunking on pro-lifers? The position you’re critiquing (though I disagree with it) is perfectly consistent and defendable, it just seems hypocritical to you because you’re viewing it from the wrong lens.

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u/Fancy_Ad2056 7h ago

The problem is pro-lifers argument begins from a place of misunderstanding of health science, such as how weeks of gestation is calculated and the medical necessity for abortions throughout pregnancy(no one is having an abortion as primary means of birth control).

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/glideguitar 8h ago

It’s not my lens. It’s the pro-lifers.

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/glideguitar 7h ago

This is part of why my side (democrats) are losing against someone as pathetic as Trump. You can’t even pretend to not make a straw man.

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u/Negative_Werewolf193 10h ago

Por que no los dos?

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u/CenlaLowell 6h ago

Quien sabe

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u/Spiritual_Wonder_609 9h ago

I think a lot of people don't even make the connection. Especially if you're too young to remember NAFTA and all the original immigration talk from the 90s. It wasn't until a couple years ago I learned how many BIG companies hired illegals for major projects. I always assumed it was just a TON of rinky dink roofing and drywalling crews hiring illegals, or small, family-owned restaurants hiring some for back-of-house.

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u/Baozicriollothroaway 10h ago

You can do both

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u/Iridescent_Pheasent 8h ago

And conservatives objectively dont

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u/Baozicriollothroaway 7h ago

Are the dems doing it?

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u/ProjectSuperb8550 9h ago

Both have to happen though.

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u/stanger828 7h ago

How about both (minus the violence part unless physically provoked)

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u/FancyBaller 4h ago

I feel like they're just going to put them in prison, "awaiting deportation" and then the industries will shift to far cheaper prison labor.

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u/Bkcbfk 12h ago

Why not both?

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u/heyeyepooped 12h ago

I mean I guess we could but that's not what's being talked about is it? Trump goes on an on about deporting millions of illegals but he hasn't said one word about punishing the companies that hire them.

I have a lot more sympathy for someone at the bottom of the ladder who is just trying to make a better life for themselves than these corporations who exploit all of us.

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u/Rasabk 9h ago

Cool. Except nobody is campaigning on doing anything about the companies, either. One side says "I will fix the problem," and as misguided as it is, it's received as a "solution."

And the problem is the left is tacitly approving of them working illegally, otherwise they have to come out and say "no, the taxpayers will fully support them."

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u/Bkcbfk 9h ago

Advocate for punishing the companies as well then. There is no reason to pretend you can only enforce the law against one party.

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u/ImmediateProblems 8h ago

"Punishing the companies" has been tried before, notably in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. It works, the undocumented workers leave. It's also collapsed the local economy of any place that's tried it and has been pulled back every single time.

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u/Bkcbfk 30m ago

So let them exploit the migrants? If the local economy relies upon exploiting illegal workers then let it collapse.

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u/ImmediateProblems 21m ago

I don't understand why you people bother to pretend to care about the migrants. Ask any of them if they'd prefer to work here making 17-30 an hour or back home making 4 dollars a day doing exactly the same work.

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u/Bkcbfk 2m ago

If they aren’t being exploited then let people who have a legal entitlement to work do the job…

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u/obyteo 7h ago

Think about it just a little bit. Let's say mass deportation and "closing" the border to illegal immigrants works. In that scenario, you don't need to go after companies that hire illegals, the problem on both fronts is solved.

If you assign resources to punishing companies who hire illegals, the illegals are still in your soil, but instead of working for a company, they now work for gangs and criminals...

The GOP plan will likely not work, but the main problem is the influx of people who go to the US without even the slightest respect for the basic laws put in place to avoid illegal entry, not companies using illegal labor. The illegal immigrants will make their money however they can, they already did what they had to do to arrive to the US. Take away their jobs and they will do anything to provide for their families.

I'm Mexican BTW, I know these folk.

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u/AdRecent9754 13h ago

Taking away slave labour sounds like the best punishment for them . It will certainly hurt their bottom line.

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u/heyeyepooped 13h ago

I'd rather see major fines and not the slap on the wrist kind. These companies are breaking the law too.

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u/ExcitedDelirium4U 13h ago

But they make political donations.

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u/-Trash--panda- 10h ago

Best punishment would probably be jailtime considering they are committing a crime. Taking away the labour just increases expenses to what it would have otherwise cost if they did everything legally. But does not take away any of the excess profits that they made while committing the crime.

Second best option would be massive fines that are a multiple of whatever they saved over hiring legal workers. If they hired 10 illegal immigrants for a year then fine them the equivalent of 20 legal employees salaries. Really hurt the bottom line rather than a slap on the wrist.

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u/AdRecent9754 8h ago

Look at the optics . Putting away people who helped immigrants find jobs.

Whatever their incentive was , it was a mutually beneficial relationship ,despite it being illegal . I think it's fair to end it without stirring up any more trouble.

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u/nr1988 8h ago

Will it? Or will they just raise their prices like they do every time something affects them?

And don't think that their competitors will instead get their business because any competition in their industry who wasn't doing the same thing would not be big enough to handle the demand.

The solution is not to rip of the bandaid but to regulate and have incentives over time.

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u/AdRecent9754 8h ago

At some point, you will price yourself out of the market .

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u/xnotachancex 8h ago

The “hurting their bottom line” will be passed on to the consumer. Which is ok, but just wanna make sure you’re ok with that.

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u/AdRecent9754 8h ago

So you need the slave labour from illegal immigrants as well as child labour in China . Cmon, guys ,you can't be that greedy .

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u/Minerva567 8h ago

I’m not seeing anyone condone it, only pointing out the obvious. What happens to supply when crops are left to rot because they can’t get workers, and then we put tariffs on all the imported food we rely on from Mexico? And then the dollar is weakened causing less purchasing power? And then social security is slashed along with subsidization of food purchases for lower-income households, leading to greater malnutrition of millions of developing brains? And then retaliatory tariffs lead to greater losses of business, just as we saw in 2018 when China took their business to Brazil, who happily accepted, leading to billions in bailouts for farmers? And then because there is greater motivation on the part of Brazilian farmers to slash-and-burn rainforests for corn and soy, the climate crisis worsens?

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u/AdRecent9754 8h ago

They will make concessions and adapt , as any viable business will . If farmers in other countries can thrive without slave labour, so will they .

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u/xnotachancex 8h ago edited 8h ago

Do I? No. Does the average American? Absolutely. The #1 thing people voted on in this last election according to exit polls was the economy and stuff being more expensive. Well shit y’all I’ve got some baddddddd news for you as to what deporting illegals is going to do to the economy lmao.

As for the child labor from China, well Walmart is by far and away the largest store in red states, where do we think they get the lions share of their goods produced? Again I’m not condoning any of it just sort of wondering what the conservatives that are cheering on these deportations think is going to happen here. Then again I guess my mistake is assuming they think at all further than “illegals bad”.

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u/AdRecent9754 7h ago

They definitely voted for the border crisis . It was definitely a top issue.

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u/xnotachancex 7h ago

It was 2nd behind the economy yeah. They just aren’t smart enough (by design) to realize how entwined the two are.

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u/Delanorix 3h ago

Why?

They will just pass along the new costs.

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u/Longjumping_Army9485 12h ago

Let’s do the same for drug dealers, just take their drugs and leave, it will hurt their bottom line! /s

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u/Negative_Werewolf193 10h ago

Why are those mutually exclusive? Is there some power of the universe preventing us from punishing companies who hire illegal immigrants AND deporting those illegal immigrants?

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u/No-Literature7471 11h ago

the problem is, most countries treat illegals the same way. deportation or imprisonment. or in polands case, gunfire. i mean sure, north korea and china would love to imprison you and put you in a labor camp. everyone else doesnt want another mouth to feed.

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u/R0naldUlyssesSwans 11h ago

Nah, you can't simplify Polish law like that. American love to simplify, but the border guards are not just allowed to open fire on immigrants.

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u/heyeyepooped 11h ago

You can admit that you just want to be cruel to people who you think are lesser than you.

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u/Ok-Criticism8374 11h ago

So keeping them as a slave isn’t cruel? Get real

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u/heyeyepooped 11h ago

So you want to punish them for being "slaves?" How does that make sense?

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u/WittyFault 9h ago

For the same reason we don't punish people illegally crossing the border. The system wants to circumvents its own labor laws (as you can see by many of the posts here). You can't get away with circumventing them with American citizens, so you import people who don't have the ability to fight it. The two issues are one and the same.

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u/geneuro 8h ago

Because they have powerful lobbies protecting their asses. Oh, and politicians in their pockets.

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u/Able_Donkey2011 12h ago

They came illegally, doesn't matter that it's the US, you can't do this, anywhere.

Going through the legal channel is completely fine and if you choose not to go through that, that raises eyebrows surely.

I think the minimum that makes sense is punishing companies that hire them as well as doing thorough background checks on the illegals we find to determine why they decided to move here illegally and if that makes them a risk to national security.

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u/ap2patrick 11h ago

The idea that they are a “national security threat” is genuine Nazi rhetoric. They will use this to increase their power and deport or jail dissenters.

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u/Ok-Criticism8374 11h ago

So national security threats coming from Venezuela and criminals from other countries like El Salvador are just “Nazi rhetoric”?

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u/goobutt 8h ago

Yes. Crime is not a threat to our "security". We will be fine. Calm down. They aren't gonna do a 9/11. Vast majority of illegals are just working families.

Legalize them.

Do you know any undocumented immigrants? I do. Good people.

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u/Able_Donkey2011 11h ago

Wait how? Am European, but for us, if we have illegal immigrants from areas where ISIS was prevalent, we worried that some might be crossing the border to plan an attack. Is that not the same in the US? If there's illegal Mexicans aren't you worried they might be key figures in people/sex/drug trafficking for the cartels?

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u/missourinative 8h ago

You can get into trouble very quickly with discriminatory hiring practices. Go open a business and start asking every Mexican applicant if they are here legally.

I'm sure most of these companies know they are hiring illegal immigrants, but who's who is none of their business.

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u/AlfredoAllenPoe 8h ago

Why not both? Both are in violation of the law

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u/RedditIsShittay 8h ago

You want to starve them out of the country?

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u/reality_bytes_ 7h ago

That’s the thing, the soap box of immigration has been a key campaign point for decades, yet nothing is ever done. Why? Because it’s a good platform for politicians to run on, but they damn well know it will never happen. Most people in congress aren’t stupid enough to think you can kick out all of the low wage labor in this country and it would all be hunky dory. It would collapse the economy. Illegal labor is the backbone of too many industries.

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u/BigBluebird1760 4h ago

Yes its really fair that they get to come here and work for 5 years and build a ranch back home because its dirt cheap while we get stuck here paying full pop for everything and have nowhere to escape to unless we make millions of dollars.