More On Remittances

Okay

If we want to argue that "remittances" by Mexican immigrants to their families back home are good for America, it's got to be true that SOME of the money sent there gets spent here---via both our exports and cross-border shopping. But, we could also argue that ALL of the money paid to American workers (as opposed to immigrants working here illegally) gets spent here.

On a broader moral plane, we could say that Mexican workers actually produce more value in the American economy than we pay them---since they tend to work cheaper---and therefore "deserve" every cent (except for the illegality of being here). We could say there is something right about helping a neighbor nation that suffers more poverty as a whole than we do.

I would also express fears that American corporations may be reaping the benefit of the cheaper labor to the exclusion of American workers, and that in a purely economic sense, most of the remittances sent out never return. There may be some good things about the whole of immigration, but I can't believe the case that sending lots of money out of the country right now is one of them----not with our unemployment situation here.

Muser of NM @ Oct 13, 2009 16:26:35 PM