Time and again the NEOCON right asserts that they are the defenders of "Free Market" ideas and the left are anti- market socialists. However, the right's support of the "Guest Worker" program and other measures to bring in cheap foreign labor is about as anti-market as any policy can be.
The claim is "Americans won't do the jobs that foreign workers are willing to do." This is a fallicy. The truth is that Americans are not willing to do those jobs at the prices (wages rates) that the employers want to pay. In a free market, this imbalance of the quantity of labor supplied and the quantity of labor needed would be accomodated through rising wages. This higher wage rate would bring out more workers. However, because the businesses involved can make higher profits through low wage rates, they ignore the immigration and hiring laws. In fact, they lobby to make their illegal practices legal.
The right seems to believe in free markets only when it suits them. They constantly emphasize the efficiency of free markets. They claim that there are no external costs that the market can't handle. However, when the free market says that they need to raise wage rates, they claim that there is a need to ignore the marketplace and change our immigration laws.
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