California-based Pizza Hut franchisees announced they were laying off all their delivery drivers. Why? Because of the state’s new $20 minimum wage increase. It’s no secret that small businesses, and some big businesses, rely on ‘cheap’ labor. Why do we think migrants are still coming? Because they hear from family and friends already here that so-and-so company will hire them, no questions asked. However, the days of businesses built on the back of cheap US labor is quickly ending — and for 10 million Americans those days can’t come quick enough. Unfortunately, the bigger question will be: Will this trigger a more organized effort to bring and employ migrant labor subjecting them to exploitation and expanding an already underground job market? All the more reason to face the reality of what this immigration crisis is mostly about — jobs. It’s time a system was created that recognizes legal US labor and the costs associated with living a good quality of life in this country, and create a system that allows for the use of migrant labor, with housing and healthcare supplied by the companies that employ them, with an opportunity to choose to either stay in the US or work on a rotating basis and make enough money to create their own opportunities back in their home countries. At this stage of the debate, one side wants to let them all in and the other side just wants to vilify them. There is a compromise to be had, if people are willing to see it; Everyone and their grandmother are on social media these days and finding ‘home remedies’ for every ailment on earth. Health experts say a lot of these remedies are bunk but there are some worth adopting; Narcos in Mexico rule the marijuana trade but an unlikely group, who used the plant before it became popular, want to take it back. They may have God on their side. Go beyond the headlines…
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