General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Free traders will never answer this... if immigrants are needed here... [View all]Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Twelve million legal residents in the US is TWICE the number of Americans that you say work abroad. TWICE. That was intellectually dishonest move #1 on your part: you tried to downplay the severity of the difference between the number of Americans working abroad, and the number of people coming here for a job.
Then you didn't count the illegal immigrants at all in that figure. You know, the ones that the employers want the most because they can REALLY shaft them with crappier wages and crappier working conditions. Intellectually dishonest move #2 on your part.
As for the economic impact: the impact of immigrants, especially in farming, is that employers use them to keep wages down and working conditions hellish.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45246594/ns/business-us_business/t/why-americans-wont-do-dirty-jobs/
Farming is not held to the same workplace regulations as other types of work. This kind of bullshit you read above is allowed in agriculture. Why? Because agriculture uses immigrant labor, which they then bully into keeping quiet about their wages and working conditions. Complaining means you lose your job.
The economic impact of immigration is that too many immigrants are being used as a weapon to enable workplace abuse and crap wages. That is true and undeniable across the board - from agriculture to meat packing, factory work and textiles. Apparently, you're ignorant of that. Or you're just being intellectually dishonest.
You're right on one thing - it's not a zero-sum game. It is, in fact, a negative-sum game.
As I posted in another thread, we need to renegotiate NAFTA and require livable wages and the right to unionization in the US, Canada and Mexico, in order to put an end to this.
Do you oppose this solution?