On Fri, 10 Feb 1995 08:28:33 -0800 David Ranney said: >>I heard a comment that some Republican was opposing the increase in the >>minimum wage because it increase the gap between US and Mexican wages, and >>thus increase immigration. Does anyone have the details on this comment? >> >The comment was made by Newt. What do people think about the idea of tying >U.S. increases in Minimum Wage to similar or larger increases in the wage in >Mexico? It could be a proposal in a renegotiated NAFTA. Of course, it is not >clear to me that our unilaterally raising minimum would do much to the wage >gap overall. It is already so large. I'm afraid that any law linking the US minimum wage to that in Mexico is going to limit rises in the former rather than stimulating rises in the latter, given the political balance these days. Even if it were raise the Mexican MW, we have to remember that enforcement of the MW law there is even weaker than that here. Of course, there are also gyrations in exchange rates to mess up the link. But I guess one could link annual average MWs. Rather than linking MWs, I think the emphasis should be on simply raising the standard of living of the Mexicans. Allowing democratic rights, labor rights, etc. Mechanical formulas don't cut it. BTW, the op-ed page paragraph I posted was facetious, in case anyone missed that. The Republicans _are_ working to make the US more "third world" (more than it is already: I live in "America's third world city" -- the GOPs are going with a trend that's already with us). But this will not reduce in-migration, since so much of the "third world" is moving toward being part of the "fourth world" (e.g., Mexico). So it's a race to the bottom. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles, CA 90045-2699 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante.
