There are businesses throughout Maine that continue to exist only because of a constant influx of cheap foreign labor. These businesses are the loudest about not being able to find enough workers. They can’t pay attractive wages because their product and market position is too weak to sustain increased costs. They need to keep wages low, and can’t afford to improve working conditions, so they lobby for refugees and impoverished immigrants who willingly work hard for low wages and long hours.
It would be better for all Mainers, especially for “working-class” Mainers, if the flow of cheap labor was shut-off and those business were allowed to fail, or forced by the market to increase wages. If and when they failed, the legacy workers would be available to more viable businesses. The labor shortage should be self-correcting, and should be a boon to workers. Lax immigration policies have distorted the workings of the Market, to the benefit of Capital and the detriment of Labor. Instead of increasing wages and a rising standard of living, we have stagnant wages and a declining quality of life.
Aside from the baleful economic consequences of mass immigration, all these new people degrade community trust and cohesion, drive up rents and taxes, increase congestion, consumption, litter and environmental degradation. Ultimately, quality of life should be measured not by GDP, but by human happiness. We would all be happier with fewer businesses in Maine, and a more stable and sustainable future.