this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 76 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Fucking seriously... We have this goddamn obsession with hating immigrants and blaming them for wage stagnation in a lot of sectors, but we NEVER talk about going after the people hiring them or putting the squeeze on us in every way imaginable...

Not to mention everyone I know bitches about "illegals" but wants to to fuck-all about solving the issue of immigration wait times... If it takes a decade to get through the process then maybe jusssssst maybe we address that?? Nahhh... That's communisocialivenezuela or something.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago

That's an absolutely valid point. I'm not American but in Ireland we get the same "foreigners are stealing our jobs" bullshit. I work in a meat processing plant. Most Irish new starts don't last the first week.

What jobs are they stealing? Jobs we won't do? We need immigrants, we aren't far away from a declining population. I don't understand how people thing that's an issue when our entire economy is propped up on migrant workers.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Not at the wages they're paying, anyway.

If you want people to do back-breaking labour, then pay back-breaking money.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

I believe stiffer penalties for employers WAS part of the bipartisan immigration bill that Trump killed, but I don't have a source for that.

I think the reason this doesn't get addressed is because Republicans actually want to keep the status quo where they can employ illegal immigrants to depress wages. They just want to use immigrants as a scapegoat to rile people up.

[–] loutr 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Maddox from the internet prehistory talked about it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

holy shit, that dude is still around and posting content! Albeit, just 5 times in the past 4 years, but still.

[–] loutr 2 points 1 month ago

I think he's on YouTube now.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Let's say that it actually was illegal immigrants "stealing your job." Who is actually hiring them in the first place, hm? Even if it was true, the anger shouldn't be directed at the immigrants.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't think anger should be directed towards illegal immigrants but probably would make sense to go after both those hiring them and making sure there aren't as much illegal immigrants. Because with illegal immigrants around to be abused and made to work on pennies, that will cause all kinds of hurt. But obviously they should have a hefty penalty for those hiring them as well.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

making sure there aren't as much illegal immigrants.

We can do that by legalizing them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There already is a legal process for immigrantion isn't there

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

It is inadequate.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

But the free market ! If we don't let them do what they want then it's just like communism !

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not American, but isn't there an underground adage something like, "The country runs on migrant workers"?

And from what I see from beyond its borders, whenever it breaks—sometimes in such a way it impacts globalisation and foreign economies—its always been the rich.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

Kind of, but that's not even very "nice." Yeah, there's a lot of things that migrant workers do, primarily in agriculture and service work, but they're still taken advantage of. If we're being honest, the relative comfort of the first world relies on the exploitation of the global poor.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 month ago

The point I've made repeatedly is that if you want to stop immigration, it's much simpler and far cheaper to go after the big companies that hire them. Arrest and throw some American business people in jail and the rest will stop hiring.

For some reason, that doesn't seem to get a lot of play in GOP circles.

[–] can 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Ah, yes, but have you considered that the billionaires are the same colour as me and the immigrants aren't?

Check mate

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

And we don't want to punish billionaires cuz they just have a great work ethic. Plus I'm totally gonna be a billionaire next week when I hit the Powerballz

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah, but you peel away the skin and you get two screaming blood monkeys that look basically the same. Mate check

[–] can 2 points 1 month ago

Apes, but yes. If it wasn't exceedingly clear I was being sarcastic above.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

So much of this sentiment comes down to ethnic alignments. People see the billionaire as a white, Christian patriarch who shares a set of cultural values and beliefs that overlap with their own. The billionaire advertises on the shows I listen to. The billionaire runs the businesses that I shop at. The billionaire sponsors the entertainment - the sporting events and the TV shows and the local festivals - that I enjoy attending.

Yeah, sure, all that money comes from my surplus labor. And maybe the Six Guns Over Grade School celebration, where eight year olds fire long rifles at biology textbooks while saying the Our Father prayer is a bit off-putting. But by God, that's our tradition!

Meanwhile, the hispanic migrants who cross the border to pick fruit doesn't celebrate Six Guns. They don't watch Border Patrol Bloopers or Rich Kids In The City or Loud Guy Radio. They don't root for the Fightin' Oil Spigots or eat Fried Cheese. They don't even speak American! Every time a new hispanic family moves into town, they make the town a little less homogeneous. And that makes me feel unsafe. If they feel about me the way that I feel about them, how long until they break into my house and murder me?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have no idea what this Rich Kids In the City is, or Loud Guy Radio, and I am not a sports fan, but I think I'd like to try some of that fried cheese!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have no idea what this Rich Kids In the City is

Friends

Loud Guy Radio

Rush Limbaugh / Sean Hannity / Tucker Carlson / take your pick

I think I’d like to try some of that fried cheese!

It's all fun and games until you find out you're lactose intolerant.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

OK so I did watch Rich Kids in the City... and I actually don't remember much about the show because it didn't impact me much (blasphemy, I know!). And I am aware of who Alex Jones is and have watched his downfall with much pleasure... and I am not lactose intolerant! So bring on the cheese!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And the only thing that stands between the working class and the billionaire class is conservatives. Conservatives are the billionaires' personal army of mind-washed morons who would rather kill us all than to disappoint their boss.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

Loyalists, the irony is something like half almost certainly will scream-tell you how much of a patriot they are.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Reminds me of how the poor white small farmers in the pre civil war south, were being destroyed by slave owners and their mega plantations with unpaid slave labor. And instead of getting pissed off at the plantation owners and aristocracy that was hogging all the wealth, they fought and died for those same slave owners who were destroying them. All because they were told that if blacks were equal, that would somehow make white men lesser.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

I will not forget how Elon forced everyone but work visa immigrants (who didn't have their Green Cards yet) to stay at Twitter. As an immigrant (and now naturalized citizen) to Canada who also grew up in Dubai (where I was not a citizen either, despite being born there) I felt the pain of the precarious situation that they were. This also made me hate Elon far more than I did already.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

But the billionaires are white, so we can’t get mad at them. /s

[–] andrew_bidlaw 4 points 1 month ago

That's also the key to understanding russian pre-war chauvenism against middle-eastern and asian immigrants. Construction businesses can buy and kill everyone who disagree with them abusing foreign workforce for pennies, and the problem is migrants themselves somehow, them reduced to animals living in stationary train sections and working 12h shifts only to send their income home. That's to no one's surprise they aren't well-integrated into society.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

But, what about the Bentleys? They need someone to buy them. Also, what about the private islands? Who is going to price out the indigenous people? Did you think about that? What about the private planes to visit their friend Jeffy? He'll get lonely.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

but when the wages are low shareholders earn more!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

…who encourages illegal workers by emphasizing the bean counter bottom line so heavily that hiring cheap migrants is reinforced in order to pad profits. Then, the billionaires with the media empires and outlets stoke prejudice and fears against migrants.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

There's just no way to know! 🤷

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Michelle Baker is spot on!

[–] Lightrider -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Your comment record is a copy/paste fiesta.

Fuckingcopypastas

[–] Lightrider 1 points 1 month ago

I'm a simple kind of man.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago

If those migrants are in your field then I'd say they both probably do. And depending if the worker pays taxes and whatnot... It's not the same level of harm but it's not no harm either

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"Wants to pick apples." Come the fuck on. I agree with the point that billionaires are the true threat, but treating migrant labor like it's fulfilling their life dreams is racist and gross. They undoubtedly want many things, but they're desperate and they're being exploited. Let's not insult them further by pretending they want to be treated that way.

[–] lastunusedusername2 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is not at all what the original post is saying.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sure it is. They could've said "wants to make a living" or "is willing to do hard labor", but they didn't. They framed it as just "picking apples", and that it's what the migrant "wants" to do while focusing on the problems that affect them. It might not be what they meant, but it's absolutely what they said.

[–] lastunusedusername2 2 points 1 month ago

This is such a ridiculous thing to hallucinate and focus on.