If there were some kind of “anti-dirty-job” DNA code in the rear brain lobe of the American worker, then we would have no sewer inspectors, no cattle wranglers in slaughterhouses, no garbage collectors, no cell-tower repair guys, no prison guards, and certainly no lumberjacks. But since all the jobs on that list are either government hires or closely regulated industries—so that it’s impossible to hire illegals—the wages are decent. They’re not great, they’re just decent. And the reason they’re decent is that there’s a “dirty job” premium added to the minimum—enough to get a middle-class American to do the work, as opposed to a desperate Mexican.
Because desperation is the economic ingredient we’re dealing with here. If you say, “Those Mexicans do the jobs Americans won’t do,” what you’re really saying is “We should continue to rip off these foreigners because they have no choice and they have no way to go to court and stop us.” (…)
What’s really ironic is that the people who are trying to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour are the same people who say, “Mexicans will do jobs that Americans don’t want.”
Get rid of the illegal Mexicans and see how fast that wage goes up to $15 on its own, no government intervention needed.
