Over at CNN.com's front page, the link to Lou Dobbs' column reads "Dobbs: Middle class victims of illegal immigration". That's always the way to get America's attention: Invoke the sacred Middle Class. The reason for this is because in America, we're all middle class. Really. Don't believe me? Go ask any American whether he'd consider himself "Poor" or "Rich" or what, and I guarantee you that unless he's currently sitting in a cardboard box over a sidewalk grate or on the deck of a 125' yacht anchored off Cabo San Lucas, he'll say "Neither, really. I reckon I'm just middle class." This is maybe the only nation on the planet where the guy in the $500,000 house with a new Benz in the driveway and the single mom making $8/hr at the Food Lion and living in a single wide will both sigh and turn up the volume to listen in when the TV announcer says "A new threat to the Middle Class!", thinking he's talking to them.
Look, Lou, illegal immigration may be wreaking all manner of untold havoc here in the Land of the Handout, but the true middle class, those folks schlepping their way through the 40-hour grind in cubicleville to keep up with payments on their '02 Camry, are among the least affected. It isn't them losing out on lucrative careers in the chicken-plucking and fruit-picking fields, after all. And when their teenagers say they can't mow the lawn because the grass clippings might inflame their new nose-piercing, it ain't someone named Sven or Yoshi that they turn to for lo-budget landscaping services. That adjustable rate mortgage dragging them under? It would be twice its already bloated size if the bricks and shingles had been toted about the jobsite by someone making union scale instead of by Jorge and Roberto.
Illegal immigration is distorting lots of things in this country, mostly because we keep deploring them out one side of our mouths and promising them free stuff out the other, but leave the already-suffering middle class to its real miseries, like another season of American Idol, and quit trying to scare them with the Brown Peril, okay?
Dobbs obviously subscribes to the old political addage, "If you aren't getting anywhere with your issue, scare sombody."
ReplyDeleteYes, illegal immigration is a problem. That's illegal immigration. No nation worthy of its salt should be unable or unwilling to control movement across its borders.
But immigrants - those who do what almost all of our parents did in getting here in the approved manner, are what built this country and what will continue to ensure our future strength and growth.
Sure, build the fence and stop the blatant border violations. But we need to keep legal immigration legal and accessable.
Did you catch any of Dobbs' "special" this weekend on CNN? "The War on the Middle Class"?
ReplyDeleteWe all know who's responsible that war, don't we? The eeeeeevil RICH (who are all, of course, Rethuglicans!)
A more biased piece of crap I've never seen. It's a mere coincidence that Lou's book (and special) have come out at election time.
Right?
"ain't someone named Sven or Yoshi"
ReplyDeleteWell, you never know... quite a few Peruvians sport Japanese names :)
Politicians and Journalists are very similar in that they both tend to be about as dumb as a bag of hammers, and when it becomes apparent that no one is paying them much attention (as it always should be), they go for the proven method of garnering said attention, rapid application of the 'fear' factor.
ReplyDeleteI hate them all.
anon => me, btw.... blogspot was being a pain and switched off the "blogger" radio button.
ReplyDeleteI join you in your disgust of political, reactionary blathering. However, here in California, I wonder how much lower my middle class tax bill would be if it weren't for the estimated 10 billion dollars per year of social services and unreimbursed hospital charges attributed to illegal immigrants.
ReplyDeleteWell there was that Peruvian President Fujimori, and I know an Asian (Chinese) American dude with the Germanic name of Hans.
ReplyDeleteGood point Tam, I read Dobbs' rant yesterday and found your eloquence on his scribblings to be right on the money.
ReplyDeleteWhat Dobbs never will understand is that illegal immigration follows the laws of supply and demand. We have a large demand for cheap labor, and Mexico has a large supply of folks who work cheap. They are doing us a favor by coming to us to meet our economic demand. We are going about trying to dry up the supply by building fences and manning the border, which is the bass-ackwards way of stemming the flow. Here's why:
1: The current illegal immigrant situation is an example of Capitalism at it's finest. What's the big deal? Once market forces swing past equilibrium, the situation will reverse itself.
2: If we want to put a dent in the illegal immigrant problem right now, we would be better off spending our time and effort shutting off the demand by stringing up by their toenails those who illegally hire undocumented workers. For every illegal that crosses the border, there is some shady outfit flying the Stars and Stripes out front and paying illegals to work out back.
If the CEO of any outfit that hired illegals got a $2M fine and spent 1 year in the Pen for hiring illegals, I can assure you that the demand for illegal labor would dry up quicker than you can say Tyson Foods.
The problem is those who hire illegals also vote and contribute to campaigns (on both right and left). So, we string up the immigrants by their toenails instead. They don't vote, so who cares?
"1: The current illegal immigrant situation is an example of Capitalism at it's finest. What's the big deal?"
ReplyDeleteThe big deal is that socialism is mixed in with it. Not only have people that once made a decent living in construction and roofing lost their jobs (somehow I don't think patting them on the back and saying "it's for the greater good, you were increasing the rate of inflation" is going to do them any good), but taxpayers are forced to foot the bill for things like the illegals health care, schooling (where they take teaching time away from other kids and cause huge problems with the "no child left behind" nonsense), and uninsured accidents. The States also get the worst "immigrants". Mexican doctors aren't beating feet to set up shop here. Whilst the first generation that comes over may work hard and only engage in petty crime, their kids soon enough see that they don't have to work to get handouts. When people don't work they find ways to get into trouble, hence the increasing violent crime rate and property thefts. Importing a second "ready-made ghetto" isn't exactly a swuft thing.
It's best to look at the whole picture rather than one small piece.
Tam, baby, stick to guns.
ReplyDelete" Tam, baby, stick to guns."
ReplyDeleteBuddy, this is my blog, and I'll talk about what I want.
Thanks for reading, though. :)
Re: Tam, baby, stick to guns.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I said it. And, yeah, I know it's your blog, which I enjoy to read. It's one of my favorites. My point was that your expertise seems to be with firearms. Illegal immigration is an issue which is raging, and I read about it on many sites. I come here for a respite from such concerns, and to keep up with you and the gun-world. You are a joy, and I wish you the best.
Brown peril? Why aren’t people up in arms about immigrants from India? They’re brown, and some are FAR darker than your average Mexican. Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Indians speak English, are professions with good careers, cause virtually no crime, and generally don’t cause any disruption in my life. The fact that we pay for all the doles illegals consume might have something to do with the reason why it’s an issue. The Indian doctor who grosses 400k/yr is probably a tax contributor because his income is relatively high and it’s also being taxed, the Mexican lettuce picker on the other hand is making closer to 10k and his income is under the table. Govt services costing what they do, it doesn’t take much for illegals from Mexico to be a net economic drain on the nation as a whole, but that shouldn’t stop various corporate interests from profiting while we pick up the tab. This is not capitalism, not even close, just a socialist transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the corporations.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry, even though I own stock in many fortune 500 companies the difference I make in dividends or increased share price will not come close to the amount my taxes are going to go up. While I am for ending doles to illegals, as are just most people I talk to about the issue, it seems that Congress doesn’t care what we think. A few months back CNN, Fox, and NBC all did polls about illegal immigration and in all of them over 70% of Americans wanted the govt to beef up border security and do something about the issue, the interesting thing is that politicians weren’t jumping all over the issue to take advantage of that. It has been a long time since this was a govt of, for, and by the people. We’ve long ago been sold out and the only difference is that now they govt doesn’t even feel the need to pretend they care what we think, they’re beholden to other masters that want the illegals to come.