Now we’re really in the weeds, the rough waters, the rapids, Whitewater. But that’s because we’re getting to the heart of our economy, and that’s an ugly sight. That’s something the Powers That Be don’t want us looking at, because it’s horrible and, if you knew the truth about it, you’d probably have a lot of trouble going to work to keep the System chugging along.
So, where were we? Oh yes, I was talking about how working-class folks hate competing with immigrants for jobs. It’s been easy for middle-class people to look down their noses at the Joe Six-packs who’ve long made this complaint. This is because middle-class folks haven’t had to compete with immigrants for jobs. Once I got a taste of that competition, my Liberal values quickly abandoned me, as I detailed in a previous essay.
It's not a pleasant issue to wade into because, like turning over a rock, you tend to find some gross shit underneath. You’ll find racism and xenophobia in spades. That’s why people on the Left shy away from this problem. But it has to be confronted and dealt with, because it’s at the root of our political crisis. Nor do I think the grossness of it is an accident or coincidence. That helps keep it out of the spotlight.
It may be hard to believe for younger generations, but blue-collar jobs in the US used to pay really well, offer great benefits and had great job security. You have to go back about 50 years to find this time in history, but it was a given for many Americans that they could go straight from high school to a factory job and spend their entire working life there. It’s not a fantasy or an ahistorical re-imagining of the past (like many other MAGA claims). It was a reality for tens of millions of Americans.
That’s why so many White people are pissed-off these days. Even though most of them can usually make ends meet, they’ve fallen a long way from where they and their ancestors used to be. Their communities have also disintegrated, leaving many of them lonely and desperate for help when they hit a rough patch.
Now imagine the anger they feel when they see immigrants doing jobs that used to be done by them. When I see Latin American roofers, I’m impressed by their work ethic. But, if you’re working-class, you might have a different reaction. You might resent their work ethic for lowering the bar for your own pay, benefits, job security, working conditions, etc. Those blue-collar jobs pay much less now, and whom do the Joe Six-Packs blame for that? Obviously, the employers, but they can’t discipline corporations via politics, because both parties are in thrall to Big Business. So they direct their anger at the only convenient targets: the immigrants.
If the immigrants weren’t there, companies would have to employ native-born people, or so the thinking goes. At one of my old jobs, they brought in people from India to do work that Americans could’ve easily done, simultaneously undermining and reinforcing the hypothesis in the previous sentence. It just goes to show how far companies will go to hire immigrants. Of course, they’re only able to do that because the government lets them, issuing visas for the workers. Even though the Market demands that employers seek out the cheapest labor, this boils down to government policy (as all economic issues do).
The Hormel factory in Austin is a perfect case study. A strike by the workers in 1985-86 led to many of them being replaced by immigrants who were paid less. Before that, the jobs had been well-paying with great benefits and security. Now, they’re not. The unions were broken, and many workers were replaced with immigrants. The immigrants are pawns in this game, but they take the brunt of the abuse because they’re the most vulnerable and the consequences for attacking them are the least.
Is the employment of immigrants in the US the cause of the working class’s impoverishment? No, it’s just a symptom. The American Empire’s internal and external proletariats are being pitted against each other, while my people, the American middle class, have reaped the benefits in cheaper goods and services. But, unless we restore the strength of organized labor and enact more protectionist economic policies, the Market will come for our jobs and wealth next.
No comments:
Post a Comment