[michaelmrose]

He said you ought to import a person like you would import an orange and specifically said it would be ok to pay them a substandard wage as it would still be a good deal to them so they could send money home for their family.

One doesn't acquire the services of mexican's to pick your fruit merely because they work hard. You do so because they will work hard for less.

Literally the only reason to bring in someone from out of country which is implicitly a larger effort is because you have implicit leverage over that person and can use that leverage to extract more work for less money.

Further the broader context was meeting budgetary constraints.

In brief he said that in order to save money you ought to bring someone in from out of country so that you can use your leverage over them to get more work for less money while ignoring your fellow Americans looking for work because they expect things like benefits and fair pay which cost money.

[IanCal]

It's not "leverage" it's about different expectations. You're not hiring professional childminders, the goal is to have someone come and live with you and be more like part of the family. You give them a room, I would expect food, and also pay them. Since in the US you need to go through an agency I don't think it would be a great deal of work.

> ignoring your fellow Americans looking for work because they expect things like benefits and fair pay which cost money.

Almost a quarter are from Germany. Most European countries do not consider America to be somewhere with many employee benefits.

Is $24,000 after room and board an unfair wage? What's the cost of a room in NYC?

[toasterlovin]

> He said you ought to import a person like you would import an orange

It's awkward phrasing, but you don't know that they meant to compare people to commodities. Lots of people on this site do not speak English as their native language.

> Literally the only reason to bring in someone from out of country which is implicitly a larger effort is because you have implicit leverage over that person and can use that leverage to extract more work for less money.

They don't work for less because you have leverage over them. They work for less because they are not permanent residents of the U.S. and their cost of living is calibrated to their own country, which is typically less developed than the U.S.

But that's if they work for less. The price OP quoted was $2k/month. If you add on $500 in free housing, it works out to the same annual compensation as the $15/hour you cited (assuming 2000 hours/year @ $15/hour). And, FWIW, when I've looked into an au pair in the past, $2k seemed like the lower end of what they cost.