Thursday, December 29, 2016

Kudos, or cause for concern?


Today I was reminded of a situation, several actually, where foreign immigrants here in my area have done exceedingly well since coming to America.  They all happened to involve Asians or Indians (but it could have been any nationality) who made their fortunes in retail businesses such as convenience stores, grocery stores, liquor stores, home furnishings, women's fashions, etc.  They all worked extremely hard, long hours, and saved virtually every cent they made.  Being hard working and frugal seems like great virtues, right?  But is it really?

What they all seemed to have in common was that they were from countries where poverty was the norm and you either had to work yourself to near exhaustion or you starved.  That's the only way they knew how to live.  Entire extended families moved here together, pooled their meager cash, and started a business.  Mom and dad, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, and spouses worked in shifts keeping their business open sometimes 24-7.

The entire family might have only a couple of vintage cars and live in the same house.  They never went out for dinner or enjoyed any recreational activities.  It was just work, eat, sleep when you could, then start the process over the next day.  The kids would go to school, do their homework, then work their shift at the family business.  They were allowed no extracurricular activities.  It was a brutal schedule, but it paid off monetarily.  Over time they became quite well-to-do.

I've seen this personally when selling homes to them, sitting on college scholarship committees, etc.  Understand, this is not to say ALL immigrants live like this.  Many quickly adapt the "American lifestyle" (which in retrospect might not have been the wisest thing).

But think of the big picture:  How can established businesses here now compete with their extreme work ethic and pay "brother-in-law" wages that almost demand a communal lifestyle?  Aren't these the conditions that spawned labor unions a century ago?  If everyone is working extreme hours and pinching every penny, would our economy collapse?  Will this become more common with our next incoming wave of immigrants?  For capitalism to work, enough people have to spend to keep the cycle going.

Where is the fine line between working hard, living modestly, and saving vs enjoying the fruits of your labor, ie: living one family per residence, each adult having a car, enjoying eating out occasionally, taking a vacation, etc?  Will we someday find an economic equilibrium (statistics say we may be doing that right now), and if so, how much social upheaval, either locally, regionally, or nationally, will this transition cause our society?

I don't have an answer.  It obviously isn't a black or white issue.  Your thoughts?




11 comments:

  1. I don't think hard work and frugality are traits we need to be concerned about.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha! Good point. But seriously, there could be some limited situations where clusters of immigrants could wreck havoc on local economies.

      Delete
    2. Yeah, let's imagine that scenario: Immigrants are choosing cities, one with a Computational Math Phd lists Boston. "Um, no, you'd put lesser qualified Americans out of a job there. How about Tyler Texas, sir?"

      Delete
    3. Mike, I'm thinking more about the unskilled immigrants who will be competing with our already struggling unskilled citizens. My experience is those computational math PhD's will be demanding and getting pay on par with their American counterparts.

      Delete
  2. I was raised with a strong 'Live within your means' attitude. It allowed us to enjoy life along the way and still retire when we wanted. I once had a manager tell me I was unpatriotic since I drove cars for 15 years or more and was not in debt. I saw in the paper he retired at age 78 this Summer. We had different goals I guess.
    There will always be different money types living in the USA, no mater where they came from.

    ReplyDelete
  3. reading this it just sounds like the immigrants of yesterday who arrived via Ellis Island, only culture to suffer were the Native Americans,

    ReplyDelete
  4. Excellent comparison, ming. As I'm not all that familiar with that era (late 18th, early 19th century), I must ask, did this influx of new immigrants noticeably depress the wages of the workers already here? And how long did it take for a new wage equilibrium to emerge? A generation? More?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Been hesitant to reply on this one, understandably. Joeh got it right in his comment, and your response should trigger, on a wider-read blog, comments about only wanting low wage, whatever immigrants, speaks for it'self.
    Do we not want the 'best and brightest' to move to our country? What if they are 'better and brighter' than those white Cleveland guys they are replacing?
    This one might warrant a bit more thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh I grant you, in the long term the newcomers will likely make us better. My question is, in the short term, how disruptive will their arrival be?

      Delete
    2. I think you're reading more into my question than I meant.

      Delete