Re: Immigration hastens downward wage equalization of EEO

In article <4nktp1$m4o_at_mule2.mindspring.com>, dburden_at_mindspring.com wrote:

> immigration is a net plus for America. I think immigrants
> do come in at low wages, but quickly catch up over a years
> time. When the guy next to you is earning 40% more, you
> quickly adjust that situation even if your an immigrant.
 

> Dan Burden

Now exd61076 replies:

Thanks for your input, Dan.

I think a clarification is in order.

Immigration is NOT the gist of my treatise, therefore no "blame" nor "fault" is being assessed against any immigrant. The gist of the treatise is the downward wage equalization of equal employment opportunity, and how the labor market is unleashing self-correcting forces (that is, the responses on the part of employers to EEO) which are downwardly equalizing everyone's wage to the perceived value of the least preferred job candidate (within job category).

In addition to immigration, the other self-correcting forces are:

Inflation
Wage concessions
Downsizings
Mergers and acquisitions
Exporting of jobs to foreign countries
The rush to automation
The outsourcing of work to non-union shops Unpaid overtime
The utilization of temporary workers
Conversion of workers to independent contractors The elimination of benefits
And more!

I do believe that all of this should be very much of interest to software engineering professionals.

Consider mergers and acquisitions alone. Let's say a major bank employs 2,000 programmers as does its competitor. After the two banks merge, the new banking entity will need only 2,000 programmers with the other 2,000 being terminated as redundant surplus. When this new banking entity merges with the next bank, then 2,000 more programmers are let go as redundant surplus. These hypothetical numbers are for illustration only, but you can see that prior to the mergers, 6,000 programmers are employed, and after the merges only 2,000 are employed with 4,000 programmers pounding the pavement. 4,000 unemployed programmers in the NYC area can flood the market causing a collapse of compensation levels!

Does anyone out there know the exact numbers for the Manufacturers, Chemical, Chase mergers? Received on Sun May 19 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST