I don’t disagree with a single word of your last post - and you and I probably agree on almost all of the politics of this....certainly we do on the border, on the Chamber of Commerce, on voting, on hand outs, on e verify, etc.
We just have vastly different life experiences in this market.
I was simply offering my real world experience of hiring and firing in the labor markets for 23 years. My experience tells me that the vast majority are employed with normal looking paperwork and withholding. That means taxes are withheld and most contractors really have no way of telling who is legal and illegal. We hired a third party human resource firm, at quite an expense to us , for just this reason. And even they admitted they really couldn’t tell. It’s not that easy.
BTW, one reason Washington won’t do anything about this...and there are several reasons, but one is that they KNOW good and well that millions and millions of dollars come into the IRS from phony socials withholding every Friday afternoon. That’s one of the dirty little secrets.....
The other side of that coin is, for any contractor who gets paid by check or credit card (NO commercial accounts pay in cash and only a few home owners do) - they cannot afford to pay under the table really...because they’re going to get taxed on all that gross income, and if they can’t write off the payroll, which can only be done if the payroll is legit, then they can’t stay in business.
The short term day laborer picked up in the parking lot at Home Depot is only a tiny percentage of the total. Sure that’s low paid and under the table, but it’s a teeny universe, and seriously...those are not jobs you want to do anyway.
The difference with full time employees is not so much in the pay as it is with productivity. The American culture gets bored with mundane jobs quickly. Their culture does not seem to. There are mundane jobs that need to be done out there.
Again, just some thoughts from my 20 plus years doing this. On the philosophy, you and I have no disagreement.
As I ponder this entire thread and commentary, it occurs to me that, the sixties and seventies, though in the beginning stages of decline, DID experience a lot of well paid jobs that, quite frankly did NOT include sweating in the hot sun for 10 plus hours at sub-standard (to us) wages and again quite frankly, if we DID know about such things (I didn't ... not for many years), we were glad to get a dozen tomatos for $.50 (or whatever)
I did well in the seventies and eighties ... very well