This is kind of interesting for the Wall Street Journal. Although it critcizes the government's signals that illegal immigration will be winked at (Bush's Guest worker program proposal), it is harsher on the fact that open immigration has limited innovation and mechanization, but yet admits that there are just some low wage jobs that do need to be done by humans. So an endorsement for illegal immigration from a conservative source that you would think would be adamantly against it. Huh.
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Immigrants vs.Machines
This is kind of interesting for the Wall Street Journal. Although it critcizes the government's signals that illegal immigration will be winked at (Bush's Guest worker program proposal), it is harsher on the fact that open immigration has limited innovation and mechanization, but yet admits that there are just some low wage jobs that do need to be done by humans. So an endorsement for illegal immigration from a conservative source that you would think would be adamantly against it. Huh.
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3 comments:
Ok, unless the world is to be ruled by one government in the future, then there will always bee illegal in our country and in every country around the world. And demand for illegal workers will be high for many years to come. I do believe however that one day there Machines will replace people in this area and that the change will be inevitable. Change is something that is constant and humans have always been known to find better, cheaper, and faster ways to produce goods. However there will always be a need for human services to produce goods and we will look for the cheapest way to use human services and illegal workers and the cheapest.
This article is interesting because we usually assume technology increases productivity and shifts the supply line outward. However, in this case the new machinery bruises the lettuce, and due to a design flaw, some of the lettuce is harvested incorrectly. This shows that, although technology does increase at a fast rate, there are still jobs in the current job market that must be done by humans. Perhaps the future will provide us with technology to do these jobs, but for right now illegal labor seems like the easiest way to get the job done.
Although it is true that technology does improve production it is shown in this article that sometimes it may not be worth taking that step forward into technological advancements. Although this lettuce machine increased productivity it had technological glitches and many people were still needed to process and prepare the lettuce for market. People will always have their place in the work force. These illegal workers are getting these low paying jobs because they are jobs that could be replaced with technology, but could also be done just as well by humans for a very low cost.
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