The awful, dirty truth: America was built on cheap and free labor

[CatWoman]

and the more things change, the more they remain the same.















Immigrant laborers, like this Irish gas main digger, often started on the bottom rung and could expect low pay for hard work.

[napi21]

1. That's true, but that's also the reason Unions were born!

I blam Reagan for a lot of why the Unions now have very little power, but the unions were partly at fault too. They became too big and too powerful, and then they got arrogant. Pretty much the same as the Pub Party has done!

I do hope the unions can come back, as for the Pub Party, I hope they continue to suffer the plight of demise...permanently!

[bloom]

There has also been lots work by women

for free or cheap. Still is.


It did strike me when I was in the South - the idea of these amazing old houses built by people who were not paid anything.

[CatWoman]

3. not just the south

who do you think built the White House, and most of those purdy white buildings in DC?

[mntleo2]

12. As A Matter Of Fact Women's Work Is Considered

..."doing nothing" according to Robert Rechtor, the Heritage Foundation's author of Welfare Reform. Raising children is "doing nothing". Taking care of your sick mother is "doing nothing", community work is "doing nothing". The only time you are "doing something" is when you work a minimum wage job to make some entitled rich man richer.

Disgusting!

Cat In Seattle

[gatorboy]

2. Speaking of the Chinese.

There was (Is?) a law on the books in Georgia that made it illegal to marry any.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. That's disgusting

and probably true. :(

[CatWoman]

6. while looking for pics for this thread I came upon this

talk about "disgusting"

http://web.mit.edu/21h.153j/www/

[justice1]

5. I'm trying to stop it.

[applegrove]

7. Yup. Children often. Especially in farming. And people giving years

of servitude for their passage on boats. But none of compares to slavery. Europe too was built on cerfs. The world is a whole lot better than that today. And we have to fight to keep it so.

And be vigilant about globalism. And be involved in globalism and not step out of the picture so that the right wing gets to make all the rules and decide on the norms.

[CatWoman]

9. I just finished watching this Lifetime Movie about human

read: young girls being sold into slavery.

I had no idea!!! It appears to be a booming business, and the US is one of its best customers.

[applegrove]

10. One of those issues you want to do something about - but only if

you can hack it. Depressing. Harsh. Hard. The more you read the worse it gets. Cocoa, Africa, and elsewhere. At least the police in the emerging economies take it as seriously as we do. But what of the places where it is just considered tribal. Some activists go abroad and buy up slaves. And save a few dozen. Then go home and raise more money. People in churches I believe work the hardest on it. You gotta have some help to deal with that reality.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Always has been, always will be.

Thanks for posting. We are all about immigrants. My great-greats were immigrants who did textile jobs that no one in the USA today would want to do. Myself included. My mom told me stories about her grandmother who had major coughing spells from the shit she breathed in the mills.

[BlooInBloo]

11. Think you missed the memo.....

... it's not about race, it's about class...

From the "how to be a good white person, without being TOO good" seminar last week. Can forward a copy to you if you need one...

:rofl: