All along, economists argued, with some credibility, that foreign workers took jobs away from locals – certainly those jobs that Israelis, if paid fairly, would be prepared to take.Unfortunately for those Israelis, those jobs wouldn't be there at a higher wage rate. Labor demand curves slope down, just like other demand curves. What does this mean? At a higher price, firms demand fewer workers. Anyone would be "prepared" to take any job for a high enough wage, that desire has absolutely nothing to do with the demand for labor.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Don’t punish the children
Jerusalem Post article "Don't punish the children" (July 5th, 2010) argues that though immigrants take jobs from citizens, expelling them would be unfair to their children. Speaking on immigrants, the Post noted:
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It would seem that the immigrant laborers may well be willing to work at a lower wage and thereby create some level of relative business success, growth and investment that would not have occurred at the higher wages that citizens required - but that the effect of this would be to provide increased regional income, more money spent in stores and shops and that money would ramify through the community with some level of multiplier effect producing wealth for the upper scale local residents and business owners.
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