Peter wrote:

> 'Illegal' (and non-tax-paying) work usually does not exist where wage
> laws do not exist, and where workers can migrate freely (in *AND* out). 

I agree in principle with most of your post, but I think this is not
correct -- however, I don't have any facts to cite, just a few observations
and thoughts. 

In Brazil, there are many people informally "employed" below the official
minimum wage -- and of course without the legal benefits that go with
formal employment. I don't think that a substantial part of these workers
would be formally employed (that is, receiving legal employment benefits)
if there was no minimum wage. I don't even think that anybody would
actually bother to formalize their employment if there weren't any legal
benefits attached to formal employment. I also think that this is nothing
really special about Brazil, but that it is symptomatic for any society
with a large number of workers without a certain degree of general
education.

(As a side note, I think that income tax on the wages is a non-issue for
the wages we're talking about. They are IME way below the threshold for
paying income taxes.)

So I have difficulty accepting this statement of yours. Do you have any
examples or whatever else to show that this is in fact so? Is there
actually a single example? (Let alone so many that one can rightfully use
the term "usually".)

Thanks,
Gerhard

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