Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s son Eric seems to have inherited his father’s problems with grasping basic logic. In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Eric attributed American wage stagnation to, get this, Syrian refugees and immigration. Trying to explain his father’s stance on immigration, Trump said that:
“I mean, wages have been stagnant for the last 15 years and it’s because you have, you know, Syrian refugees coming in. It’s because you have, you know, thousands of people coming over the border. I mean, Americans are suffering because of it, and that’s his point.”
The first place Trump is clearly wrong is with the timing. The Syrian civil war began in 2011. United States wages have been stagnant since the 1970s. So somehow, the 11,000 Syrian immigrants that America accepted in the past few years managed to time travel to make sure they stopped wages from growing along with inflation.
Yeah, that makes sense, Eric.
The second point makes no sense economically. Research is divided on whether immigration in general raises, lowers, or has no effect on native worker’s wages. The Hamilton Project found that:
“…economists do not tend to find that immigrants cause any sizable decrease in wages…and instead may raise wages and lower prices in the aggregate.”
In fact, research on the impact of immigration on localized portions of the country found a small positive impact on business, hiring, and wage growth. The fact of the matter is that the Trumps are blaming the wrong people when it comes to wage stagnation. They should be blaming themselves.
Corporate America has been keeping their cash at the top of the pyramid for half a decade, instead of investing it in their workers or supporting raising the minimum wage. According to Inequality.org, the top 1 percent of wage earners in the country own 38 percent of its wealth, and the bottom 90 percent hold 73 percent of all debt.
So if you want to solve wealth inequality Mr. Trump, just look in the mirror.
Watch the clip here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-8p2uTyjU
Feature image via Youtube screengrab.
