----- Original Message ----- From: "Gautam Mukunda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 2:04 PM Subject: Re: Race to the Bottom
> --- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But, even with the immigration, the increase in the > > labor supply has slowed > > down. So, I'd argue that, instead of looking at how > > fast the labor supply > > has grown since '80, we should ask why the increase > > in the demand for > > labor has slowed down so much since 1980. > > > > Dan M. > It is both intuitively > logical and supported by empirics (Borjas) that > droppin millions (literally) of low-skilled workers > into the labor pool would drastically impact people at > the bottom of the labor market and (in real terms) > _increase_ the income of people at the top of the > labor market. Which is, of course, exactly what > happened. Furthermore, the large number of illegal > immigrants - people willing to work, effectively, for > below the minimum wage - creates a further downward > pull on low-skilled workers incomes, further > exacerbating the income inequality problem. If that were true, wouldn't the relative gain in the fraction of income received by the top 5% be roughly on par with the drop of the bottom 40%? In other words, wouldn't the 40%-95% group be not much worse than flat? At the very least, their loss of income should be absolutely smaller than the loss of income of the bottom 40%, because the unskilled immigrants are not competing for their jobs. Dan M. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
