While some contractors dismiss the plan as political rhetoric, many say they can’t afford to lose more people from an aging, immigrant-dependent workforce still short of nearly 400,000 people.
Both presidential candidates promise to build more homes. One promises to deport hundreds of thousands of people who build them.
Former President Donald Trump’s pledge to “launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country” would hamstring construction firms already facing labor shortages and push record home prices higher, say industry leaders, contractors and economists.
“It would be detrimental to the construction industry and our labor supply and exacerbate our housing affordability problems,” said Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. The trade group considers foreign-born workers, regardless of legal status, “a vital and flexible source of labor” to builders, estimating they fill 30% of trade jobs like carpentry, plastering, masonry and electrical roles.
You mean to tell me that a real estate investor would do something that would drive up housing costs? You mean to tell me that a guy who doesn’t pay his workers doesn’t give a shit about people who work for a living?
I’m sure he would find some way to profit off of the “driving up home costs” aspect of this.
it doesnt matter. even if trump get elected and all those predicted bad things happen, republicans have no hesitate to spin those onto some leftist/wokish things.
Our economy depends on a base of low cost labor that used to be from kids or young people. It’s almost like Democrats have decided to fill that void with immigrants while Republicans are trying to get back to the low cost labor being from having more kids. It makes sense if your goal is to keep the machine running the way it was designed, or at least how it evolved to operate. Social security, insurance, fast food, service industries, construction would all need overhaul to function without low cost labor being their base. Seems like you could reduce consumerism in general to compensate for the reduced low income work force, but that would hurt the economic numbers and cause an overall contraction in the stock market. Tough pills to swallow for everyone who has accumulated any significant amount of wealth in this system.
Isn’t one of the arguments for raising minimum wage that higher incomes will result in more consumption and social program contribution?
Pay people more, less need for social services and collect more in taxes. Reduces government expenses and raise revenue. More money to spend on infrastructure. This is without fixing tax code so mega wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
Illegal immigrants are being paid outside of the system and raising minimum wage only increases demand for employing more of them, continuing exploitation of them. You can make an argument for minimum wage increases, but it doesn’t benefit illegal immigrants.
Conservatives have always been about creating and maintaining have exploitable underclass. First it was owned slaves, then prisoner slaves, than “illegal” immigrants.
Conservatives are trying to deport illegal immigrants and stop allowing them in, which may have a motive, but exploitation is not it.
Thats merely an excuse to keep them as “illegal” and maintain a poltical boogeyman.
Everything to maximize profits. and one should examine the US agricultural sector that relies heavily on cheap illegal labor.
Yeah… IM no fan of trump but the reason housing is so expensive has nothing to do with needing more houses.
And then the response from the democratic candidate ends up being “Harris vows to deport Trump. Builders say it would increase their crews and drive down home costs.”
By saying that, aren’t contractors admitting that they’re doing something illegal, and that undocumented workers are also prone to abuse and lower pay?
A lot of farmers use farm hands from Mexico with permits and a form of green card that allows them to get paid in American dollars during work seasons to bring back home, and get a path towards American citizenship than if they just entered the country with a passport or applied directly for a visa.
I don’t know if a lot of contractors do the same thing, but I wouldn’t be shocked. The labor is cheap and it kinda looks good for the camera. Adam Raguesa, a YouTube chef, has a good video on how farmers in the modern era grow the crops we eat on the table every day.
Drive up
home pricesTrump’s property values.This is proof they don’t understand the endgame here. The only (legal) type of slavery left in the United States is prisoner labour. It is not a coincidence that the right wants to make so many things criminal. It’s also not a coincidence they want to keep poor people desperate because it makes them more likely to commit crime. It’s not a coincidence they support minimum sentences.
More crime, more free labour, more for profit prisons selling services…
And then they turn around and call themselves the party of Lincoln.
This is exactly what I’ve been thinking lately. And on top of already existing laws, make new ones that criminalize currently normal things. Hell, the South enacted new laws after slavery ended and only applied them against Black Americans. Why stop there, why not increase penalties for certain crimes from misdemeanors to felonies and make 3 felony convictions mean a life sentence?
The only part I disagree with is the for profit prisons part. 8% of prisoners are in private prisons which is 8% too many, but 92% are in publicly funded and operated prisons. And those publicly operated prisons sell the services of their trapped slave labor for so many more things than stamping license plates or road work. Not only do they fight fires and clean up after natural disasters, they also make kit (armor, helmets) for the armed forces, they pick crops, they manufacture white goods (washing machines, refrigerators)(I can’t find a link specifically mentioning appliances and I’ll update this it I find one), and so much more. Shoot, some cities’ budgets would be blown up if not for the availability of publicly held prison slaves.
8% now. 20 years ago, it was a third of that. If there is profit to be made, profit will be made. It’s also just one small factor in an extremely shitty whole.
The fact prison labour exists at all is an issue. If prisoners truly benefited from it, like a fair wage plus every day reducing their sentence, then I could hold my nose, but as is. Slavery.
Wow, that is pretty dark. If you take that to its logical conclusion, you could even turn parking fines into a slave sentence.
We can and we have for similar crimes. Loitering is a crime only for the poor, and then we send the homeless into camps and jails.
You owned a plant that was previously fine to own? Straight to jail, no questions asked.
It already can.
There are some places where an inability to pay fines, can result in a warrant and imprisonment.
Well if they can keep income inequality growing, there’s a big pool of wage slaves to draw from with much better optics.
his vows are no more meaningful than the clergy’s vows of celibacy
Pretty much.
I walked by a construction site when I lived in California, I heard everyone speaking Spanish.
I walk by a construction site now that I live in Indiana and I hear… everyone speaking Spanish.
I’m guessing that at least some of them aren’t citizens.
Anytime you come across someone shitting on immigration ask them who built their house.
I’ve been saying this for years, the American dream is subsidized by cheap labor from South of the border. Without them we would be doing far worse
Not to mention illegal immigrants are half as likely to commit crime as American citizens
Not to mention illegal immigrants are half as likely to commit crime as American citizens
It’s like Umberto said in The Ranch: “We live in fear everyday. 5 miles over the speed limit and it could ruin our life”
“We live in fear everyday. 5 miles over the speed limit and it could ruin our life”
Almost every time I was stuck behind a slow person on the L.A. freeway, they were Latino. I guessed that was why back then and I still do.
When you turn people into contraband, those people drive like they have contraband in the car.
Don’t need to be a citizen to pass eVerify. I’m working with six natural born citizens, one naturalized citizen, three green card holders, three work visa holders and a “dreamer”
We also wouldn’t have, you know, food, since agriculture and meat-packing are heavily dependent on undocumented immigrants and almost every kitchen in every restaurant in the country is staffed with undocumented immigrants. I want to think that the importance of food and housing would make Republicans not actually do this, but you never know with these crazy fuckwits. Perhaps they think child and prison labor would make an adequate replacement.
Almost all trump related policies will drive up costs for the consumer. He’s only worried about lining the pockets of his rich friends, not making daily life for the average family more affordable
I’ll be so glad when this election is over and he can just lose the rest of his criminal cases and get sentenced, or have his final Big Mac Attack and dodge justice forever.
I’ll be so glad when this election is over and he can just lose the rest of his criminal cases and get sentenced
As though there’s any real interest in anything that would result in actual consequences.
