Immigration economics

Re “Amnesty’s one thing, a solution’s another,” Opinion, May 10

Imagine what would happen if no foreign workers were available. The economy would surely shrink. There would be less strain on public facilities such as schools and transportation. There would be less environmental degradation. We would have to pay more for certain public services. Some businesses would fail.

Still, the net effect of a significant reduction in immigration would likely be beneficial to us. This process is happening in Japan. As its population shrinks, the economy does also, with no significant drop in the standard of living.

The Japanese have no intention of bringing foreigners in, and no one is accusing them of pathological racism or xenophobia for not doing so.

RAYMOND R. TOAL

Mission Viejo

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By comparing immigration limits to import quotas on steel, Tamar Jacoby betrays the conceptual confusion of trade and immigration that is common among promoters of large-scale immigration. A ton of steel doesn’t require housing, healthcare, education for its children or the common infrastructure of a community. It doesn’t change the demographics of a community, nor does it affect political dynamics by achieving citizenship and voting.

Immigration is more like the importation of an entire steel plant, complete with workers. No doubt such a plant would increase total economic output and increase the tax base of a community. However, it also would produce pollution, cause extra traffic, increase demands on public services and generally change the character of the community in which it was located.

Just as with immigration, some Americans might benefit from auxiliary jobs created, but we all would be paying the fiscal, environmental and political costs of having the plant within our borders.

MITCHELL YOUNG

Dana Point

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Jacoby asserts that the United States has an economic need for a huge influx of both skilled and unskilled workers. Because labor operates according to the law of supply and demand, however, what she is saying is that wages are too high in the United States and that we need to lower them by expanding the labor supply. I sincerely doubt that is a policy that she can persuade American workers to embrace.

LANCE B. SJOGREN

San Pedro