Mr Puggsly said:
If you want higher labor participation then flooding the country with immigrants that may not have a right to work is probably not the best solution (illegal and otherwise). Also, maybe get rid of welfare that encourages people to stay out of the workforce. With some sort of merit based immigration the country could get what it needs as opposed to more low skill labor, some of which will certainly rely on financial assistance. Just to show how much of a centrist I can be, I actually believe fairly high minimum wages can be a good thing when you have so much low skill labor in the market. But it seems like some people will argue paying people below minimum wage (like illegals) is also a good thing to keep prices down. Which I find bizarre, do we want workers being exploited in this country as long as they aren't citizens? I think you have me confused with someone that's anti immigrant or something. I see the value immigrants can bring, which is different than an open borders solution. Anyway, democrats aren't simply concerned with making sure our aging population is taken care of. Tax revenue needs to increase vastly for all their welfare ambitions. Furthermore, white supremacy and climate change is our WWII, its gonna cost trillions to combat that. |
Population size doesn't decimate labor force participation though. If it did, we would have been fucked decades ago, because population is growing, and fast. Luckily, that didn't happen. Why? Because when people enter the country, they create jobs. What is holding back our current labor participation rate isn't immigrants, it is old people. Our population is aging and leaving the work force, so labor participation is decreasing. This creates negative effects for the economy like difficulty filling some jobs. Immigrants tend to be young and work at high rates, which improves the labor participation rate and helps mitigate the negative effects of an aging population.
