[ClearCase_guy]

Heck, I remember growing up in the 60s and seeing MANY TV shows where middle class Americans had maids and whatnot. The Brady Bunch, Maude, Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Hazel, etc.

TV isn’t exactly a reflection of reality, but the notion that families had servants wasn’t bizarre.

Poor people need a home, need access to food, need some spending money. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if a lot of two-income families had servants again. One problem is the do-gooder labor laws which would force any servant to cost a family about $150,000 — for healthcare, social security, retirement package, workman’s insurance, etc.

I don’t see this sort of thing related to immigration at all. A lot of low-skill Americans should be employed as domestic servants rather than just be supported by taxpayers.

[hanamizu]

Heck, I remember growing up in the 60s and seeing MANY TV shows where middle class Americans had maids and whatnot.

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Yes, there were lots of them on TV shows from the time. But I had some really wealthy friends in the 60s (in SoCal) and none of them had live-in maids. Let alone a whole servant family. I was struck by the guy in Mexico. He drove a Chevy (a lot more expensive there because of tariffs) but didn’t seem to be dripping with wealth. He made a “middle-class in US” salary, but it went a whole lot farther in Mexico.

My wife’s ex in-laws had a full-time cook in Cairo, IL, but Cairo was a pretty much southern town. I imagine middle class whites in the South did utilize black cooks and maids, long after the practice died out elsewhere.