The HayekBlog reports on an LATimes story on immigration and informal employment. The official unemployment rate is said to be rising among the population earning the lowest wages, and many speculate that this is due to the proliferation of off-the-books work taken up by immigrants. Greg Ransom comments: “Off-shoring, the black market in labor, overseas production — all of these are measures folks in the non-government sector are taking to opt-out from taxes, regulations and lawsuits imposed by the American government sector. The folks getting screwed are the only folks without the protection of free and unregulated trade — overtaxed, over regulated American workers. There is a 20-40 percent tax tariff on American workers seeking to contract with American business. The regulation and tort tariff on the American worker must add another 10-20 percent on the anti-American worker tax penalty laid upon the back of the American employee. With this huge trade wall of tariffs blockading free trade between American business and American laborers, no wonder American labor is becoming the sick man of world trade.”
Informal Employment and Immigration
