The Wall Street Journal just published
an article about labor shortages in United States. agricultural,
construction companies, restaurants and their complaint about labor
shortages due to a shortage of illegal immigrants. They complained
how they had to keep increasing wages in order to keep the employees
they have.
Throughout history businesses have
sought-out cheap labor. It's some of the extremes businesses have taken
that brought on the rise of unions, communism, and socialism.
Everyone is aware the part slavery played in the early USA and the
world. In the USA, agriculture required cheap labor, so they brought
in mostly African slaves. Slaves had little value for many industries
because they needed higher skilled labor. Even after slavery ended,
Africans still did a majority of the field work. This continued until
the late 60's when African-Americans became better educated and
sought out higher paying jobs.
