4 ms·

> then you're also increasing demand of all the things the immigrants consume, which means you're increasing the demand for labour. How much of what you consum

> then you're also increasing demand of all the things the immigrants consume, which means you're increasing the demand for labour. How much of what you consume is even produced domesticly anymore? Take a look around the room you are in. The immigrant now with more money may decide to buy themselves a iPhone and that probably helps someone in China who would like a job assembling them but it still drives down the cost of labor locally. Much of the services immigrants use domesticly will be low margin, like grocery stores and restaurants adding little to the domestic economy.

notahacker 5y ago
Exactly the same arguments apply against claims that low-skilled migrants have much impact on wages though. They tend to work in low margin industries which compete internationally against imports from countries which pay lower wages, the existing domestic workforce has little negotiating power or ability, and often the jobs they take are either already at a minimum wage level so their existence literally can't depress it any further, or can't be filled at any reasonable wage level. Not all their additional consumption goes to the US economy and they only pay a little bit of tax, but they don't need to have very much impact on consumption and production to offset the impact of their slightly lower wage demands.
lupire 5y ago
The high margin that Apple makes is domestic (if you are talking US. Europe is a different matter). Foxconn isn't getting that margin.
mrtranscendence 5y ago
Plenty of people in the US were involved in getting that iPhone to the person who bought it. Hardware and software engineers at Apple, distribution center employees, truck drivers, customer service reps at the AT&T or Verizon store where many people still buy their phones. Even some of the internal parts of an iPhone are manufactured in the US. Just because many goods are assembled internationally does not mean that buying those goods does not stimulate the US economy in any way.

notahacker 5y ago

Exactly the same arguments apply against claims that low-skilled migrants have much impact on wages though. They tend to work in low margin industries which compete internationally against imports from countries which pay lower wages, the existing domestic workforce has little negotiating power or ability, and often the jobs they take are either already at a minimum wage level so their existence literally can't depress it any further, or can't be filled at any reasonable wage level. Not all their additional consumption goes to the US economy and they only pay a little bit of tax, but they don't need to have very much impact on consumption and production to offset the impact of their slightly lower wage demands.

lupire 5y ago

The high margin that Apple makes is domestic (if you are talking US. Europe is a different matter). Foxconn isn't getting that margin.

mrtranscendence 5y ago

Plenty of people in the US were involved in getting that iPhone to the person who bought it. Hardware and software engineers at Apple, distribution center employees, truck drivers, customer service reps at the AT&T or Verizon store where many people still buy their phones. Even some of the internal parts of an iPhone are manufactured in the US. Just because many goods are assembled internationally does not mean that buying those goods does not stimulate the US economy in any way.