Beat me to it.
I have a friend who is an illegal alien (Brazil). He works as a stonemason-he gets paid for 30 hours work at his regular job (he works for a small stone company). He works perhaps 40 hours/week for himself-all cash, materials purchased for cash, no receipts, no records. You really believe that he reports that income? If you do, i have some swampland to sell you.
Thats why one looks for a place to live that is a balance. Where ones wages are high but expenses like housing are low.
What I believe is that is not only not a cite, it’s not even an anecdote in support of your claim. You haven’t been around here very long, so you might want to read the rules regarding this forum, which deals in factual information, not personal opinions or vague guesses.
Was the house purchase really a scam or just unlucky timing?
My guess is bad timing. Depending on where the house was, it’s entirely likely that its value was inflated in 2004, and then lost a huge chunk of that inflated value in 2008, and then has probably gained some back, but if it was truly overvalued in the first place, it won’t get back up to the same level anytime soon.
And… he’s probably a bit confused about how much he owes; the principal due is probably still 75k, but over the past 11 years, he’s likely been paying mostly interest, not principal, so the principal due is kind of misleading; he’s probably near the halfway point on the entire loan overall.
No, the primary reason why people don’t move to countries with higher wages is that their familial, social, and support networks are in their home country, and most humans aren’t willing to give that up. Even though the economic differences between Puerto Rico and the mainland US are high and there are no immigration restrictions, immigration remains quite low.
And for many people, the reason to move is that they (we) are other people’s support network, or because it’s the only way we can see to stop relying on that family at ages at which we consider it inappropriate. The same reason works both ways, depending on circumstances.
I assume that the assertion that you are being asked to support is that “Most of the Washington DC elite use illegal labor.” I’m not sure what an anecdote about a stonemason in Brazil has to do with that.
I assume he means the guys is from Brazil, living illegally in the US. But it’s still not even an anecdote about “the elite”. Besides, working cash deals in construction is common, independent of whether the guy doing the work is a citizen or not.
No,** even sven** is correct. You might be correct IF there were no immigration barriers, but there are. Lots of them. Most people in low wage countries simply aren’t allowed to immigrate to their country of choice. I think we’ve all seen surveys of how more than half the country of Mexico would move to the US if they could.
So if your buddy wasn’t an illegal alien, he’d do all his work on the books? I know plenty of people who work in trades and do gray market work off the books. They are all American citizens. Their immigration status has nothing to do with it, their status as independent workers has everything to do with it. I work at a large company at an office, and I don’t do any off the books work for them. But when I’ve been out of work I’ve done a little freelance computer work for random people, and I didn’t report any of the money I made doing that, which was a couple hundred dollars. I also didn’t report the money my friend paid me when I helped paint their deck.
What people say they’ll do isn’t always an indicator of what they will actually do. I think the best indicator is between countries where immigration is open and there are large differences in standard of living. I know Puerto Rico/mainland US is a good example. I know less about the EU, but immigration was relatively free there and still fairly low.
I should add that the language and cultural barriers are also a factor, however.
You’re missing the fact that many, if not most, low wage countries are political basket cases or near so. Someone in Puerto Rico doesn’t have to worry about a coup or the next revolution, right around the corner. But that’s probably a discussion best suited for GD, and not GQ.
No, I’m not missing that fact. Short of actual civil war or extreme natural disaster, most people don’t leave the comfort of their homes to pursue economic opportunity where they have no friends, family, or support network, and don’t speak the language or have familiarity with the local culture. If you have a counter-example, based on things people actually did as opposed to things people said they would do, I’d love to hear it.
The difference from state to state is unreal. I live in minnesota where I can actually make a decent living in construction. I have worked in Iowa and south dakota. I make three times what they make in those two states and the majority of their workers are now mexicans. Which is fine, I have nothing against mexicans but I feel sorry for the workers in those two states. 14 dollars an hour is as good as it gets. I am in the laborer union and I believe in unions. We have a great crew that gets shit. People think union workers are lazy. That’s not the case. Go ahead and work I’m iowa for 14 bucks an hour busting your ass. The mexicans need to start demanding more money. We have a few on our crew and they are great guys that are getting paid well. Minnesota trumps iowa and both north and south dakota by a mile
Last thing. I have worked for pci roads out of minnesota. They are a union company. The average person would cry themselves to sleep after one week of working there because of how demanding it is. Unions are not what most people think. Yes everyone is making 30 bucks an hour but they get shit done.
Puerto Rico’s GDP per capita is $28,000 and has been rising extremely rapidly. A relatively high-middle-income, political stable, upwardly rising territory with a powerful protector isn’t a bad place to be at all.
You are right that the whole world isn’t chomping at the bit to come to America. Home, family, culture and language is a powerful draw. Immigration is hard and risky, and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.
That doesn’t change one it the absolute, critical, game-changing role that immigration controls plays on the cost of labor. This is the fundamental reason why our labor costs stay high.
I was responding to the “The primary reason why people don’t move to countries with higher wages is … because they are legally restricted for doing so” part (bolding added.) Not the “The price of labor is kept high in rich countries through immigration regulation” part. I think it goes without saying that the hodgepodge of immigration regulations has impact on different parts of the labor markets of developed countries.