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US residents: What big domestic policy improvements have the american people won from congress in the last 30 years? (kbin.social)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

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Interpret improvements as you like. For me it's any large scale reforms or legislative packages designed to improve the country for all or see to the material interests of the majority without overly benefiting the elite.

Any big consumer protection, environmental, infrastructure, or other legislation from Clinton onwards that materially improved the lives of all?

Obamacare and the medicaid expansion comes to my mind. It has obviously improved people's lives but considering how broken the healthcare system remains, and that it was written by the insurance industry to undermine single-payer, it seems to me a mitigated win at best.

Gay marriage and marijuana legalisation but that was the courts and the states although i'm sure the federal government could've stood in the way had they chosen to.

I've only live here since the 2010s so that's all I can think of.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I would say that the legitimate process of seeking opportunities has been intentionally made to look illegal by waves of xenophobic policy from both Rs and Ds who have created an immigration system that's designed to generate workers without a legal foothold. If there was a functional way for people to seek the life they want, they wouldn't need to resort to fake IDs and hiding in trucks to get a job. But then industries would have to pay them legal wages.

A lot of people want to create a distinction between someone who's fleeing full-blown war or starvation vs someone who's fleeing poverty. I can't see how it is a crime to flee either. It is just a reality that humans will try to escape suffering, monumental suffering and everyday suffering - legislation and bureaucracy can accomodate or ignore that but it won't change it. So when we ignore it, we know that the black market will step in.

More broadly it suits the needs of capital to restrict the flow of labour as much as possible. Labour free to seek the best conditions means upward pressure on wages, lower margins and less leverage for capital.