this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2024
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[–] cabillaud 22 points 14 hours ago (8 children)

When i see this kind of posts, i tend to ask myself : does being on the left wing mean you're ok with illegal immigrate workforce being exploited in your fields and farms ? Just so you have cheap products AND go easy on your consciences ?

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim 13 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Most people on the left are in favor of giving the immigrants we all rely on official status, giving them the same legal protections as other workers. That can be through making the legal immigration process easier or a guest worker program.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Immigrants are good. Exploiting them is bad.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

That sounds like all the more reason to be for legal immigration and against illegal immigration.

[–] RustyEarthfire 28 points 12 hours ago

All the more reason to be for legalizing immigration and against illegalizing immigration.

Focusing on the immigrants rather than the system puts the blame in the wrong place, and obfuscates solutions to the problem.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The GOP won't pass legislation for more legal immigration. Our economy relies on immigrants, so it means that we are reliant on illegal immigration to function.

What I don't understand is why Republicans are against having a permanent legally exploitable underclass which is what we currently have.

[–] aceshigh 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

“They’re taking away our jobs!” ? Although I think it’s about power - if you’re not reliant on other countries, then you don’t have to take other things into consideration. You can be selfish and do selfish things.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

But having illegal immigrants do hard work for basically nothing is the selfish thing.

[–] Smoogs 5 points 12 hours ago

You seem pretty confident that’s the end goal of the politicians.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 13 hours ago

only when it allows you to do cheap gotchas on the right /s

[–] yabai 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The US built itself up on immigration since the beginning, and most impactfully over the past hundred years with "brain draining" the rest of the world. "Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" and all that. I don't think it's a stretch to say most of the US's success comes on the back of these immigrants with 40% of Fortune 500 companies being founded by immigrants or children of immigrants.

But the economy has changed since that poem was inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. The US has become primarily a service industry demanding skilled laborers, relegating manual laborers to the lower class along with the illegal, and often unskilled, immigrants.

So you're a blue collar American living in Appalachia, vying for the same factory job that your dad and his dad held and were able to afford a middle-class lifestyle. Except now groceries are getting hard to afford, fueling your truck hurts, and your new neighbor is a programmer who wanted a country home to relax in and work remote and finds your accent charming. You know you're now at the bottom of the ladder, and you think the illegals willing to do your work at half the price are the cause. So deport all the imigrintz! Bring back white America! Make America Great Again! /s

I don't have all the answers, but I think we should continue to restrict unskilled immigration and continue making it risky for companies to hire illegal immigrants, while offering a path to legality for those having been here for 5+ years. Raise the minimum wage, effectively securing a better lifestyle for those at the bottom (immigrant and native). Make some better/strategic investments in Central American countries so that people there have a better lifestyle and it isn't worth it for unskilled labor to immigrate. Hell, build some manufacturing capacity so we're less reliant on China.

Everyone prospers, America continues brain-draining, and the world keeps turning.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

Not risky. Suicidal. They find you have "illegal" immigrants working for you? You get a fine so big you have to close your business from prison.

The other option: legalize all those immigrants and they become the owners of the business.

[–] Clinicallydepressedpoochie 4 points 13 hours ago

Well we certainly can't be for open boarders. pauses for the gasps and pearl clutching

[–] [email protected] 4 points 14 hours ago

It is like that but it’s not always like that. Hispanic workers at a food factory a friend of mine worked would talk about hitting up blueberry picking season as a side gig in the summer.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

when you get past your cryptic pseudo-profound wink wink question, what exactly are you trying to say?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

I mean, that's specifically why I'm left wing. I don't want to pay people a fair wage. I want to exploit people on my farms and the left will fight to ensure I can.