I read last week that there are a growing number of regions around the country where there are labor shortages. Businesses literally cannot find the workers they need to operate their businesses.
Today is Labor Day, a day to celebrate the workers who built America and the labor movement that rose up to protect workers from abusive labor practices.
And so it is worth noting that we don’t have enough labor in our country right now. Some of this results from the strong economy which is ten+ years into an expansion. Some of this results from restrictive immigration policies.
But whatever the cause, we have an abundance of capital and a shortage of labor in the economy right now.
That makes it difficult to operate a business and even more difficult to expand. Automation can solve some of these issues and I expect we will see more automation in an environment where capital is available to fund investments in automation and labor is very tight.
But the other question is how much longer should we maintain a restrictive immigration policy. I believe we should have more legal immigration in the United States. We have labor shortages and many talented people who would like to come here and live and work.
It seems like a no brainer to me that we should expand legal immigration in the US right now.
