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And it gets even deeper. Not just the USA they destroyed, the war on drugs and the never ending wars in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, etc adds to the problems. We destroy countries with our policies so the citizens have no choice but to flee to the USA.
Correct, we depose democratically elected governments overseas and replace them with authoritarian governments friendly to Big Business. That way we can steal that country’s natural resources and/or exploit the local population for cheap labor. Better yet, if some of the population flees to America, it helps undercut wages here at home. It’s a double-win for Big Business.
This from a guy who's uncle (really his entire family) is the chief architect of the 1965 Immigration Act - the one thing that has contributed more than anything to destroying the middle-class.
Actually, immigrants have actually ADDED to the economy and growth. Entrepreneurship is pretty high with recent Americans. Come to Silicon Valley and you'll see. Heck, I've done well BECAUSE most of my clientele are immigrant families.
Bigger factors that have hurt the middle class include regressive tax policies, weakening of labor unions, deregulation of the finance industry, and outsourcing --- none of which have to do with immigration policies.
Anything to stoke your nativist screeds doesn't necessarily lie with the facts and truth. Sorry, mate.
Reagan destroyed the middle class when he broke the unions. Pure and simple.
Nope....membership has been on the steady decline since the 50's.
It certainly has declined since the 80's (20% then, 10% now), but to put it on Reagan is just silly.....
I wish he had busted them up even more than he did though......he just messed up the air traffic controllers, hardly a powerful union.
You can hardly call 10-20% of the country's workers the 'middle class'
Nope....membership has been on the steady decline since the 50's.
It certainly has declined since the 80's (20% then, 10% now), but to put it on Reagan is just silly.....
I wish he had busted them up even more than he did though......he just messed up the air traffic controllers, hardly a powerful union.
You can hardly call 10-20% of the country's workers the 'middle class'
Union membership peaked in 1979 with 21 million members. Today it's the lowest it has been in the private sector since 1932. The air traffic controllers was the first hit. Many more followed. Automation, shipping jobs overseas and outsourcing finished the job. Who gained, who lost? It's pretty plain to see. Record profits for corporations and 50 years of wage stagnation at best for most middle class workers. The whole concept of job security, pensions and workers getting a fair share of the profits they generated disappeared with the unions. I retired with a pension in 2005, and stopped working as a contractor in 2008, but over thirty years all of my raises combined were less than the rate of inflation. So in spendable dollars I was making no more the day I left than the day I was hired. The last annual raise I got was 2-1/2% back in 2004 while the CEO awarded himself a $66 million bonus for the year.
Back in the 80s and 90s there were protests all over against trade with China.
They were accused of being business hating liberals against "free trade" by the chamber of commerce and big business types.
The protesters were right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobspez
Reagan destroyed the middle class when he broke the unions. Pure and simple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverkris
Not to mention weakening of unions and hollowing out of industries/outsourcing.
Correct.
All of the “liberal vs. conservative” stuff is a distraction.
Life is not a war between “liberals” and “conservatives,” life is a war between labor and big business. The sooner we Americans realize this, the sooner we can rebuild the middle class.
Not to mention weakening of unions and hollowing out of industries/outsourcing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by silverkris
Still crying about that? My heart pines for you.
Actually, immigrants have actually ADDED to the economy and growth. Entrepreneurship is pretty high with recent Americans. Come to Silicon Valley and you'll see. Heck, I've done well BECAUSE most of my clientele are immigrant families.
Bigger factors that have hurt the middle class include regressive tax policies, weakening of labor unions, deregulation of the finance industry, and outsourcing --- none of which have to do with immigration policies.
Anything to stoke your nativist screeds doesn't necessarily lie with the facts and truth. Sorry, mate.
No policy, or economic factor exists by itself in a vacuum in any real world economic system. A lot of things happen to create varying effects.
Surely immigrants can add to an economy. But at the same time they can take away. A lot of immigrants are not even employed, or they are employed via taxpayer funding which only exists to employ them. They also probably end up needing further welfare.
Some immigrants are massively developing neighborhoods and provide a service/product that caters to people outside of their communities. They do add something. But that can be done through legal migration. Dont need illegals for that.
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