What’s the Plan
The Free State of Florida will soon find out whether unauthorized immigrant workers being deported will leave critical shortages in three of its largest industries.
Construction, agriculture, and hospitality all use large numbers of immigrants in their employ. Incoming President Trump has promised to deport millions of undocumented workers. Where will their replacements come from? JD Vance believes that by getting rid of the competition, the native born will flock to all the job openings. Some of these jobs have always been open…there were just no takers.
The population of the male with a high school diploma or less is shrinking and has been for decades. One reason, according to a recent study by the government, they are not in the work force is because they claim to be in poor health many because of drug and alcohol abuse rather than because of immigrant competitors. For anyone who wants a manual job, there are still plenty at livable wages for the asking.
The United States just needs more workers, period. Blue-collar, trades people, high tech, and white-collar jobs go begging in our society. Rounding up illegals isn’t going to solve the employment problems of people who don’t or can’t work any longer.
In Florida, we are significantly burdened with a shortage of workers because so many of our residents are retirees. How many seventy-year-olds are going to swing a hammer, or wash dishes, or plant tomatoes? Yet all three industries are what makes Florida’s economy hum.
Even in high-tech sectors, the United States needs the foreign born to stay ahead of European and Asian competitors. Our lead in most tech industries would vanish if we stopped immigration. America needs these well-educated immigrants to continue to have the standard of living we all enjoy.
So as the Trump administration begins to gather up those working in the shadows and readies them for deportation, what is the plan to replace them in the workforce? For argument’s sake, even if you believe that the native born will take those jobs, there still will be inflation because of higher wages since there are fewer workers. The idea that the supply and demand economy can be suspended has never been proven successful.
After you deport 2 million, 10 million or 20 million people from here, what is the Trump plan for legal immigration. Without it we will be in Japan’s or China’s shoes…no one to do the work or pay for our old age. Simplistic policies are just that simplistic policies not real solutions.
