Literature Review Wage Suppression / Bracero Program

Elsa Gomez Pena Professor Murshid POSC 349B 02 November 2015 Literature Review: Wage Suppression/Bracero Program In a capitalist society, profit maximization is the primary concern of firms and corporations. Because wages are a deduction from profit, one often reads in our texts and other articles inspired by Marx that wage can never be low enough for capital. These kind of statements are supported by empirical evidence, in particular, by various companies’ and economic policy makers’ major efforts over the past years to suppress wages in general. Rivoli highlights the idea that in a capitalist society, the ‘race to the bottom’ is a driving mechanism for profit maximization, in turn such actions result in labor exploitation and†¦show more content†¦897). During this time period, the United States was experiencing a factor period of abundant land and labor, therefore it made sense that since WWII was occurring, the growers demanded more labor. When the war ended, the Bracero Program continued, causing discontent among the returning U.S. domestic labor force. Although the Mexican government signed a second agreement extending the Bracero Program, it slowly lost any control over the program after the end of World War II, resulting in a chain reaction of illegal immigration (Gamboa 1993 p. 860). Mexican laborers who participated in the Bracero Program hoped that the involvement of the Mexican government would protect them from exploitation at the hands of U.S. growers. The Bilateral agreement suggested that those laborers chosen would meet physical standards, live in sanitary housing, have paid transportation, and be paid a decent wage for the crop they harvested (Cohen 2011) However, that was not the case; living conditions were meant to treat workers as â€Å"replaceable† and â€Å"interchangeable† (Mize Swords 2010 p. 19). The laborers were bound to a specific schedule, their lives were structured around work schedules and always separated from U.S society (Mize Swords 2010 p.19). They had to individual choice, every small action they performed came at a monetary cost.