Practical definition: Illegal labor

Posted by Marc Hodak on October 2, 2007 under Practical definitions | Comments are off for this article

Illegal labor. What an ugly term.

Definition: I want to work for you. You want me to work for you. Someone else gets to say: “Too bad.”

That someone else very likely has zero interest in this proposed transaction; they just don’t want me to work for you. They will call me “illegal” because they can, and use that as an excuse to stop us from agreeing to help each other out.

Or that someone else might have some pie-in-the-sky, stupid-ass reason for wanting me to not be able to work. They might belong to some organization called Californians for Population Stabilization. This organization actually says that there are “too many people.” Yes. In a state with one of the lowest population densities in a largely unpopulated country. If this sounds disingenuous, that’s because it is.

Californians for Population Stabilization, like most organizations using the term “illegal labor,” is actually a front for the unions. Unions are deathly afraid of anyone possessing two hands and a brain because such persons represent labor competition. Unions would like all labor competition to be banned. This reflects a profound ignorance about the nature of an economy, that it’s a fixed-pie, zero-sum game. It ignores that those hands are attached to a mouth, and that brain contains aspirations. In other words, a working human being creates at least as much demand for labor as supply.

Thus, labeling certain people as “illegal,” intended to undermine their ability to support themselves, actually undermines their potential as sources of jobs for others. We’re used to unions engaging in self-destructive behavior by undermining the companies and industries they dominate. At least in those cases, some existing workers get a temporary benefit from bleeding their companies, even if it eventually undermines their jobs. But why should we put up with union attempts to keep other people from working for everyone’s benefit?