Reply #9: The are not the same statements

[union_maid]

"I am white. Desegregation hurts me by replacing my high-paying job with a lower-paying job given to some black person who'll work for a smaller wage."

The goal of desegregation was never to provide a cheap labor force for companies. In fact, the lack of equal opportunity in the workplace provided very cheap labor in certain jobs.

"I am male. Gender neutrality hurts me by forcing me to compete with women."

Same as above

"I am straight. Not starving all gays to death hurts me by creating a surplus of labor that will at best force me to work for a lower wage and at worst will get me fired.?

Gays just stayed in the closet if they were working in fields where their sexual orientation didn't permit them to be open. Gays will not be moving into any area of the workforce. They were always there.

"I am a Californian. Giving jobs to Southerners hurts me by replacing my high-paying job with a low-paying job in Mississippi."

It's difficult and disruptive, but Americans have always moved to where the jobs are when necessary. It's not always a good thing, creating booms in a new area and then leaving higher taxes and more problems for those areas when the boom is over, but we do it.

All the groups mentioned above were meant to be full members of the workforce. The same goes for peopele who immigrate to this country with the intention of staying here. They do work harder for less for a while, oftentimes, but their goal is to reach equity with the rest of our society. None of those situtations were meant to stack the playing field against Americans making a decent living. They were meant to include others in the game on an equal basis.

Most of all, though, this is a different situation than we've ever had before. More jobs are more portable to all corners of the globe than ever were before. Many in farming moved to manufacturing when agriculture became a harder way to make a living. When that industry started to sputter in this country, the tech industry was already underway and it wasn't such a huge stretch for engineers to retrain and many of them did. There was a nasty recession, but that solution was available so there was hope. It offered a lot of jobs for both the white and blue collar people who might have looked to manufacturing in the past. Now, there's nothing. No new industries on the horizon, let alone in place that can't be moved offshore. We have a new problem and it needs to be looked at in a new way. Could and probably would go on for way too long, but it's time to get ready for work.