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Originally Posted by mcsluggo
If I can boil down your argument I think it would be (corect me if I'm wrong):
"American productivity would go down if we kicked out the immigrants because Indiginous-Americans are lazier."
Now, I assume you are limiting that laziness label to the "unskilled" Americans that would be filling most of the positions vacated by the kicked out aliens. Even if that is the case,then two points:
(A) that is a pretty broad brush you are painting with, think what it would sound like if you tried to paint the other direction: "Mexicans get paid less because they are lazy" I know that you in fact said the opposite, but using race or nationality as an indicator of level of laziness is an exercise fraught with landmines.
(B) assuming your thesis is correct, and that all the positions vacated by illegals would be filled, but by Americans that are lazier (and thus less productive) than the workers they replaced... then the implication from that scenario is that the current wage for unskilled labor is not too low for americans to accept the work available, it is actually too high for american firms to accept the level of effort that wage will buy from american workers!
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I would actually not say "Indiginous-Americans are lazier", I would say that the pool of unemployed or underemployed americans are less motivated than the immigrant population. that is easily validated by the great amount of effort it takes for these immigrants to merely get to america.
this point isn't specific to any one race, or to any one nationality.
as for your second point, no, the businesses hiring the less productive worker will continue to hire that worker due to lack of alternatives. they will merely adjust their pricing to reflect the higher cost the less motivated/less productive worker is given.
long and short: cut off the flow of immigrants into america and our economy will suffer negatively. labor costs will increase while per employee productivity will decrease.