At least a large subset of the rich do want immigrants for cheap labor, but they also want them to be terrorized and forced into a legal limbo to have a completely “disciplined” workforce. Some are just so racist that they don’t want them, of course.
yes this is what those idiots miss, is that “banning immigration” doesn’t equal zero immigrant labor. It just means the immigrant labor is illegal, accepts terrible conditions and pay and will be deported the moment they make any trouble, ask for a raise, attempt to unionize or are no longer needed.
This means it will drive down total wages and conditions for the average worker even further than widely legalized and protected immigration, which at least has the floor of minimum wage + payroll tax + basic benefits + worker/labor protections from regulators (in theory). Without that floor, their wages and conditions will deteriorate even more rapidly.
Just like the existence of a slave class in the early USA made life worse for free workers, this does the same thing. Now you are competing against slaves and people making $1/hour instead of other workers that you can unionize with.
precisely this. i worked in a meat factory in a very small town in the middle of the sticks and was absolutely floored to find that the vast majority of workers were Hispanic when you NEVER saw them around town.
These guys avoided me like the plague too. They absolutely would not talk to me or even look at me if they could help it. A kid who was probably a couple years younger than me tried to help me as I fumbled around with a machine and then he was promptly ripped a new asshole by a couple of the older guys on the line. He never so much as even looked at me again.
At the time I had no clue why. Looking back I realize it was because they were all likely illegal and did not want to take even the slightest risk that a whitey found out and blabbered to anyone. And this was over 20 years ago.
it was one of my desperate bottom of the barrel phases… it paid better than walmart and I had an apartment with my first girlfriend so i wanted us to have money, but it ended up driving her away in the end because i always smelled like meat
At least a large subset of the rich do want immigrants for cheap labor, but they also want them to be terrorized and forced into a legal limbo to have a completely “disciplined” workforce. Some are just so racist that they don’t want them, of course.
yes this is what those idiots miss, is that “banning immigration” doesn’t equal zero immigrant labor. It just means the immigrant labor is illegal, accepts terrible conditions and pay and will be deported the moment they make any trouble, ask for a raise, attempt to unionize or are no longer needed.
This means it will drive down total wages and conditions for the average worker even further than widely legalized and protected immigration, which at least has the floor of minimum wage + payroll tax + basic benefits + worker/labor protections from regulators (in theory). Without that floor, their wages and conditions will deteriorate even more rapidly.
Just like the existence of a slave class in the early USA made life worse for free workers, this does the same thing. Now you are competing against slaves and people making $1/hour instead of other workers that you can unionize with.
Slavery with extra steps
precisely this. i worked in a meat factory in a very small town in the middle of the sticks and was absolutely floored to find that the vast majority of workers were Hispanic when you NEVER saw them around town.
These guys avoided me like the plague too. They absolutely would not talk to me or even look at me if they could help it. A kid who was probably a couple years younger than me tried to help me as I fumbled around with a machine and then he was promptly ripped a new asshole by a couple of the older guys on the line. He never so much as even looked at me again.
At the time I had no clue why. Looking back I realize it was because they were all likely illegal and did not want to take even the slightest risk that a whitey found out and blabbered to anyone. And this was over 20 years ago.
meat factory is such a grim phrase
it was one of my desperate bottom of the barrel phases… it paid better than walmart and I had an apartment with my first girlfriend so i wanted us to have money, but it ended up driving her away in the end because i always smelled like meat