The Way I See It!

America Needs a Two-Tier Worker Program

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on April 30, 2010

Culture, Economy, Development, Illegal Aliens, National, Wages

We need to be building things not just selling and servicing things.  China's commerce minister Chen Deming has pointed out something that maybe many Americans don’t want to believe.  The way America is today, it just isn’t practical to start producing goods such as telephones and televisions again.

China: U.S. has most to lose in ‘trade war’

‘You’re not going to get 1.3 billion Chinese to change by insulting them’

'Not practical'

Chen said if the U.S. actions were geared toward decreasing America's trade imbalance by limiting imports, it wouldn't work.  Perhaps imports from China would decrease, but that wouldn't mean that Americans would start producing goods such as telephones and televisions again.  "That production isn't going to return to America, that's just not practical," he said.  "Globalization has changed all that."

American workers can’t compete with low wage countries nor do we want to directly.  So how do we get our cake and eat it too?

Take a page from George W. Bush.

The Guest Worker Program is a program that has been proposed many times in the past and now also by former U.S. President George W. Bush has a way to permit U.S. employers to sponsor non-U.S. citizens as laborers for approximately three years, to be deported afterwards if they have not yet obtained a green card.  The program has been criticized as granting amnesty for illegal immigrants, and as impractical under current law which grants birthright citizenship to children born in the United States.  It is unclear if undocumented workers will register into the program.

A guest worker program that provides foreign workers with a worker ID removes the incentive for millions of people to illegally enter our country.  It adds workers to our tax base, generates revenue for needed social services and it satisfies the need that employers have for a reliable labor pool.

I am sure most of you have heard all of that before.

The two current groups - high tech and agriculture - have very different drivers and one would argue very different criteria/solution when it comes to temporary immigration.

Yes, this is not for either one of those, this is to bring new manufacturing jobs, that wouldn’t be in the U.S. anyways.  This isn’t to take jobs away from Americans, but to spur manufacturing in the U.S. and add jobs!

Companies must build new manufacturing plants to qualify for the guest worker program.

This isn’t a legal slavery program and people will paid less than minimum wage, but it will be regulated and monitored and will be a second type of class worker. 

We have plenty of state and federal workers whose current jobs are not being maximized and lateral shift maybe needed with no additional help added.  We don’t need to add more government jobs, but we do need to maximize the people we have in them. 

What needs to additionally change are the limits or restrictions for this workforce, the companies that can use them and for what reasons.

No more than 25% of the workforce can be guest workers.

This will add jobs and bring back manufacturing to America and will no depress wages for the poorest Americans, but bring new opportunities that otherwise wouldn’t be around.

Some of you are going to say, “A guest worker program is just a taxpayer-funded subsidy to business.” 

Did you raise a flag on Universal health care that covers everyone including illegals?

Anyways, that is where the employer comes into play.  They get cheap labor and need to provide insurance for them.  You also place a small special tax on the companies (yes a tax from an ultra-conservative) that’s use is to help offset the costs for schools.  The catch is, the guest workers must live in the city where they work and the students go to the schools in that city with the taxes going directly to the city only to be used for the school!

I am not looking at this to fix the immigration issues, but if the guest workers work for 4 years, maybe they get a fast track to U.S. citizenship.  Maybe they just decide to go back to their country. 

Side note - (Illegal Aliens in Cudahy)

Place limits that the guest worker can only work in the U.S. for 4 years and cannot return for 4 more years.

Our Constitution, rights, and laws concerning natural born citizens would have to be modified for children that are born to guest workers.  Those children born in America can come back to America as a U.S. Citizen at the age of 18, but not before the age of 18 unless the parent(s) become U.S. Citizens.

If one of the parents is already a U.S. Citizen, the child may stay with that parent, but if after the 4 years, the guest worker doesn’t get U.S. Citizenship that parent must return to their country.

Yes, this will mean changes to U.S. marriage laws as well.  Another post and subject.

To keep America moving forward and competing in this globalization world we now live in, will take some adjustments.  A two-tier worker program will help us do just that!