I agree with Phil Hands' cartoon in Tuesday's State Journal suggesting that migrants can help solve a labor shortage.Â
We are $31 trillion in debt and can't afford to keep feeding, housing, clothing and providing free medical care for millions of new undocumented migrants. They need to work and pay taxes. We aren't replacing our own population. Our fertility rate is low. The economy won't grow if our population doesn't grow.
There will be a downside though. I went to North Carolina for a dozen years and worked in real estate before returning home in 2019. I observed that contractors in the building trades who hired undocumented workers consistently underbid contractors who employed Americans -- thus depressing the wages of American workers.
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I agree with Hands that we can solve our labor crisis by putting undocumented immigrants to work, but there will be tradeoffs.
Mike Badger, Mount Horeb
