Author Topic: Billionaires try to convince Americans it's good to import foreign workers, increase immigration  (Read 672 times)

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Offline pjohns

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What do America's billionaires have to say about our importing foreign workers?

From the Bangor Daily News (in Bangor, Maine): 

Quote
Billionaires buy whatever they want. And not just mansions and Teslas but elections and legislation. The recent Supreme Court decision lifting caps on campaign contributions gives them even more power. The libertarian

Koch brothers have already pumped millions into this year’s elections. But Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Rupert Murdoch and George Soros are no less guilty of buying our political system, and all of them, from libertarian Koch brothers to liberal Soros, are united in one cause: Bring in more foreign workers, increase job competition, and allow “market forces” to drive down wages.
 
Since 2007, political lobbies spent a whopping $1.5 billion to expand immigration, according to the watchdog Sunlight Foundation. A mind boggling array of Washington power brokers are behind that money: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, American Immigration Lawyers, National Association of Manufacturers, National Restaurant Association and others. A few years ago, former Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, sent me a 12-page list of Washington lobbies working for expanded immigration. Talk about David and Goliath.
 
But how do you convince Americans that it’s good for us to import millions of new foreign workers? Create a media blitz based on slogans, misinformation, political theater and guilt...

But that is just an excerpt.

Here is a link to the rest of the story, outlining the "hows":  http://bangordailynews.com/2014/05/05/opinion/contributors/billionaires-try-to-convince-americans-its-good-to-import-foreign-workers-increase-immigration/?ref=comments


SPQR

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Its not just billionaires. The LDS leadership support the legalization of undocumented workers and I support the leadership.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57822496-90/church-citizenship-common-immigrants.html.csp
« Last Edit: May 07, 2014, 07:45:40 am by SPQR »

Offline pjohns

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Its not just billionaires. The LDS leadership support the legalization of undocumented workers and I support the leadership.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/57822496-90/church-citizenship-common-immigrants.html.csp

I would be careful about using the euphemism, "undocumented workers"--which sounds like a mere technical violation of the law, rather than an actual flouting of it--in place of the more accurate term, illegal immigrants.    

Offline massadvj

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Great.  Let's demonize billionaires.  We don't get enough of that from the left.

Trade always makes both parties richer.  If I have lemons and you have sugar, by trading we can both have lemonade.  That's the way economics works.  We have excess production capital and Mexico has excess labor.  It doesn't take any convincing for me to know that trade improves the situation for both countries.

Perhaps someone can name a successful country with closed borders and trade restrictions.  North Korea?  The old Soviet Union?  Every successful emerging economy in the world is succeeding because they are plugging into the global economy.  And make no mistake.  The market for labor is global, and sticking our heads into the sand will not change that.
« Last Edit: May 08, 2014, 01:49:56 am by massadvj »

SPQR

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I would be careful about using the euphemism, "undocumented workers"--which sounds like a mere technical violation of the law, rather than an actual flouting of it--in place of the more accurate term, illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants undocuments what ever.Its still the same You say Patato, I say Potato. Anyways, the church supports the position, and I take the church's view on this. Especially due to the church's history with the Mexican government over the last 150 years. The fastest growing segment in the Church is in Mexico and in Latin America. In Mexico, there are about 11 temples and one under construction.The church is a prolific builder of temples as temples hold a key place in LDS theology. There are 143 operating temples (which includes 2 previously dedicated, but closed for renovation), 13 under construction, and 14 announced (not yet under construction).
« Last Edit: May 08, 2014, 02:33:31 am by SPQR »

Offline speekinout

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Once again, we got what we voted for. Years ago, we used to have guest worker programs (called bracero programs on the West Coast). I know about them, because when I was young, teenagers worked beside these foreign workers during the season. The owners of the companies that used these workers weren't multi-millionaires; they were just small business owners.
This wasn't work that anyone expected to support a family with - except maybe for the few supervisor positions. But it was good work for the foreign workers (mostly from Mexico on the West Coast, and from Jamaica and Barbados on the East), and for the teens.
We decided that this was exploiting the workers, so we shut down the programs. Now what? It seems we're using the same workers, but instead of having employment agencies bringing them in for the season (and taking them back home afterward), we're making them find a way to get here - usually illegally - and making it hard for them to go back home after the work is done. We'll keep them on welfare instead.
IOW, we still have a need for this kind of labor, but we refuse to admit it and deal with the issue. We'd rather fuss about the problems that not dealing with it cause.

Oceander

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Something like the old Bracero programs, on a broader scale, would be a very good idea and would take a lot of pressure off the illegal immigration avenue.  Coupled with robust, and enforced, information tracking - e.g., a requirement that a visa-holder check in with the local immigration office every 6 months or 1 year, and every time they change jobs - would make it much easier to locate, and manage (e.g., deport) those who are abusing the system without having to go on wholesale witch hunts to try and ferret out the few illegals from the many legal residents and citizens of hispanic descent.

Offline pjohns

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Great.  Let's demonize billionaires.  We don't get enough of that from the left.

Trade always makes both parties richer.  If I have lemons and you have sugar, by trading we can both have lemonade.  That's the way economics works.  We have excess production capital and Mexico has excess labor.  It doesn't take any convincing for me to know that trade improves the situation for both countries.

Perhaps someone can name a successful country with closed borders and trade restrictions.  North Korea?  The old Soviet Union?  Every successful emerging economy in the world is succeeding because they are plugging into the global economy.  And make no mistake.  The market for labor is global, and sticking our heads into the sand will not change that.

Given your perspective, a reasonable solution--it seems to me, anyway--would be a vibrant guest-worker program--not our looking the other way while our law is openly flouted. 

Otherwise, we have no national sovereignty remaining.

And what is really left of a nation once it loses its national sovereignty--irrespective of any other considerations? 

Offline massadvj

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Given your perspective, a reasonable solution--it seems to me, anyway--would be a vibrant guest-worker program--not our looking the other way while our law is openly flouted. 

Otherwise, we have no national sovereignty remaining.

And what is really left of a nation once it loses its national sovereignty--irrespective of any other considerations?

Yes.  It is not the federal government's job to artificially inflate the labor market.  Doing so has more negative consequences than positive.  For one thing, it hinders our global competitiveness.  For another, it exacerbates the economic divide between us and our neighbors.  A robust guest worker system would be a good thing.

In theory we have a unique federal government in that its primary function should be to protect citizens' rights and defend the country.  The government could do a far better job defending our border if it was not so concerned about the employment market and instead focused on true security threats.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2014, 12:54:09 am by massadvj »

Offline speekinout

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Something like the old Bracero programs, on a broader scale, would be a very good idea and would take a lot of pressure off the illegal immigration avenue.  Coupled with robust, and enforced, information tracking - e.g., a requirement that a visa-holder check in with the local immigration office every 6 months or 1 year, and every time they change jobs - would make it much easier to locate, and manage (e.g., deport) those who are abusing the system without having to go on wholesale witch hunts to try and ferret out the few illegals from the many legal residents and citizens of hispanic descent.

The old bracero programs had all of those enforcement mechanisms built in. The guest workers were recruited by private companies who had contracts to supply workers to the farms or resorts or whoever needed seasonal workers. They were responsible to the feds for making sure that everyone they brought into this country left when the job was over. They did that by withholding a significant part of the workers' salaries (usually at least 50%) until the worker checked in back in their home country. They also provided housing and transportation in and out of the country.
Getting rid of those programs was a truly awful thing - that didn't help us, and it didn't help the guest workers.