So are you trying to say that employers who don't have to pay the tab for a J-1's social security, thereby reducing their costs by 8% or so, do not have an incentive to hire J-1's over locals?
I would disagree strongly because the employer's costs are thus reduced and he does NOT have to share that increase in wealth with the employee.
Some of the purists have accused me of socialist thinking for application of the realities of labor economics to real life.
They argue that open borders are a good thing because they reduce costs across the board which benefit everyone. Juan McCain is one of them who holds out the prospect of unaffordable lettuce in the grocery stores if we have to pay lettuce pickers $50 per hour.
That's an idiotic argument on at least three counts:
Years ago, my sister worked in Grand Canyon National Park in the summer. By the time that food and dorm fees were deducted, she ended up with a little less than minimum wage. She still considered it a great experience because the hours were reasonable as were the meals and dorm fees. Somehow, I don't thank that is the case here. Kids from the Ukraine do not come to America infused with the same bloated sense of entitlement as does your average Section 8 housing occupant. But I could be wrong . . .
I am saying that the cost of whatever employment taxes an employer writes the check for is borne by the employee, not the employer.
On the more general point of hiring J-1s - I really don’t give a damn; I’m a free-marketer and get sick and tired of the lazy dolts who want to lock everything up so that God forbid someone who wasn’t graced by being born in the US wants to come to one of the few places where an individual can make a decent life for himself and his kin.
Obviously that isn’t these little J-1 twits, but nonetheless, the general point still stands: if you decide you’re going to cut these off because they’re supposedly taking jobs away from Americans (that is one of the oldest, and stupidest, canards in the book), then you’re just a socialist prostitute and the only thing left to discuss is your price.