Re: On the Settler Question

On May 9, 5:44=A0pm, "Stephen R. Diamond" <srdiam...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Fri, 09 May 2008 10:16:40 -0700, <dave.walt...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > On one aspect of this. Generally Central American and Mexican
> > immigrant labor do NOT directly sell the ranks of the unemployed.
>
> If a worker takes a job in an open shop, taking work no American worker
=
=A0
> wants, because the remuneration and work standards fall so far below the
=
=A0
> U.S. norm--that worker is unemployed for many practical purposes.
Bluntly,=
 =A0
> the Mexican is doing a job that NO ONE SHOULD BE DOING.
>
> A Mexican building "contractor" gathers together his brothers, =A0
> half-brothers, and cousins, "fixes" the stairway on the Slavic
landowner's=
 =A0
> rental property--receiving less pay, using inferior materials and =A0
> skill--on which stairway the Slavic landlord's black tenant breaks his
=A0=

> neck because of the shoddiness of the work. That sort of thing--I'd =A0
> wager--forms a large part of this "different economy."
>
> Doing work that nobody else wants to do is NOT necessarily to do ANYONE
a =
=A0
> favor.
>
> srd

This is analysis by antedocte, not by a serious study of "value". You
can probably argue that for most of capitalist history for all
comodities and services. The stairs get fixed. Not well, let's say,
but it works. The food gets cooked. The food gets harvested. Etc etc.
Capitalism makes it 'work' because at evey step some value is added,
even if quantititvly or qualitatively it's "less" by some standard.

Generally I'd doubt you could prove the immigrant does more shoddy
work than the native. I doubt the materials are any worse...everyone
buys from the same Home Depot or Lowes. The tools are the same. etc.
88% of all work in the US is non-union. 'things' as well as
'services'.

David