Hello everybody. I am new in this forum and I am recently introduced in libertarian ideas. Therefore, I have many questions. Also, I am 29 y/o and I live in Greece.
I would like to ask about immigration and jobs.
Here in Greece we have approx. 1,000,000 illegal immigrants from Asia and Africa (total Greek population 11,500,000) These people do the hard jobs that Greeks refuse like in agriculture and construction industries. Employers prefer those to hire because they consist of low cost labor. No insurance cost and low wages. Greeks employees that accept to work there are still expensive. I mean that of course they want to more money which is normal, but the government demans from the employers a lot of insurance money for Greek employees. Therefore, employers prefer the illegals. In my opinion, if the government wants to make Greeks who want to work there more competitive, it should stop demanding those money from the employers. But this, can be true only with the minimization of taxation and the minimization of public sector. (<----- Public sector is like a holy cow. Politicians do not touch it) And it is important to state, that even if there is 23% unemployment Greeks do not wish to work there. But the fields must be cultivated, in order to avoid shortages in products..
What is your opinion about the same old anti-immigration argument: "They take our jobs, and we are unemployed!!"
Do you think that immigrants are necessary for the economy?
The refusal of the difficult jobs from natives is an international phenomenon?
Thank you in advance...
Here's some more specific data on Germany :
http://www.businessinsider.com/germany-economy-2011-7?op=1
The points that jump out are :
Cheaper materials(cost) will increase the profit margin, thus you can lower prices slightly and increase your sales in the global market. Lower quality materials mean your product is just lower quality. Again you may still be able to sell it, and probably at a cheaper price, and if the costs make sense, it may be more profitable.
Also, with low savings rates and high debt rates, the local economy may not have enough capital saved up to invest in the types of capital goods needed to create goods for export. Roads and rails are important. But without corresponding private investment in factories and plants, there's no way to make back the money invested in transportation.
More generally every tax that enters at any point in the production process (and the production processes of the goods used) will increase costs. Any regulation that must be complied with, regardless of it's "good" value, will increase costs.
Make it easy to save, make it cheap to invest and run a business, and greece will rapidly (and I mean very rapidly) spring back onto the global stage as a strong economic player. But the government has to lower taxes and spending. If they people won't let them, or demand it from them. It's gonna be a long lonely road, and you'll end up losing all the wealth, and all the people who want to succeed will leave.