re: immigration - just how stupid ARE we?

[ulysses]

I would like to see a show of hands.

Who here thought, or still thinks, that "free trade" agreements like NAFTA were the shit because Clinton backed them, but wants to whine about "illegals" taking American jobs?

(cue the tumbleweeds)

Is it that we *like* being duped, or is it that it's just easier for the marginally poor to fight the desperately poor than it is to fight the folks who are actually shitting on them?

[Sinti]

1. Divide and conquer

As long as you look at other potential workers and markets as the enemy, you aren't looking at the knife at your own throat.

If we all demanded living wages and decent work environments from our corporate masters, instead of fighting amongst ourselves for the scraps they throw, immigration wouldn't be a problem. Having worked alongside a good number of undocumented workers the whole situation makes me want to vomit. They were getting paid a quarter for every dollar I made, and were very much considered to be "there to serve."

Instead we get to shout They're Taking Our Jobs! While the elites say, They're Doing Jobs Americans Won't Do. Americans can't live on the wages the elites are willing to pay. Decent (generally smaller) companies have a hard time competing with these near-slave wages and often have to resort to the same behavior or face bankruptcy.

Nothing short of worldwide solidarity on this matter will ever fix/change it, and I don't see that happening any time soon. It's easier to hate the other little guy than it is to recognize that you are being driven into servitude by the really big one. OFUs ...

It's damn depressing

[ulysses]

2. it is depressing.

No damned wonder labor can't get off the floor.

[theobscure]

5. Depressing it is

Everytime I drive by Walmart is like a kick in the teeth. Parking lot is always packed full.

[northofdenali]

3. A friend of mine, who owns a small company,

decided two years ago to do the right thing, and decided to have a union-only shop. This wasn't an easy decision for him, as Alaska is a "right to work" state, and there's a lot of work out there that goes to the lowest bidder. Needless to say, a union shop cannot compete with that. He thought, however, that he could land enough federal and Bacon-Davis jobs to make up for the low-bid jobs that he could no longer get.

To make the story short, he is going to have to "reorganize" or go out of business. It seems he didn't have the connections to land those jobs that would pay enough to justify union wages. I emphasize the "connections" part, because the union worked very hard with him to try and keep things going.

The corporate culture in the US doesn't stop at Halliburton or Bechtel. It extends all the way into federal and state contracts. It's union busting all the way. NAFTA helped.

I will say this much - he has hired a few non-union laborers on non-union jobs, primarily for cleanup work, etc. He paid much more than minimum wage, and doesn't know if the workers were legal or not - and didn't care, because they arrived on the jobsite in cold weather, on foot, from the local homeless shelter.

It's corporate America that is killing this country. I'm doing all I can to ensure that my spouse and family and I can live sustainably in the near future - because we're all going to have to, when the jobs are gone.

[ulysses]

4. yup.

The corporate culture in the US doesn't stop at Halliburton or Bechtel. It extends all the way into federal and state contracts. It's union busting all the way. NAFTA helped.

Bingo. Sorry to hear about your friend, but kudos to him. Hope he can find his way through this.