Additional workers who can preserve the size of the labour force need to be found somewhere.
Given Donald Trump’s nominees for key cabinet positions so far, it appears that the US president-elect is determined at least to try to deliver on many of his campaign promises. If so, the current news cycle may have come as a welcome surprise to those who have grown tired of elected leaders making promises they have no intention of keeping. But as a longtime student and practitioner of the dismal science (economics), I see no reason to believe that Trump’s policies will do what he and his supporters think they will do.
For example, aggressively enforcing a country’s immigration laws might well be a good idea. However, aggressively pursuing illegal immigrants who are already in the country is another matter. If it is done in a way that discourages immigrants more broadly, the US could lose one of the key advantages that it has over many of its advanced economy peers. With demographic trends putting downward pressure on the populations of Europe, Japan and many other countries, the US must be careful not to join them.
