I guess you haven't been exposed to the trend of middle class housewives cleaning other people's houses during the day. We used to call this being a "maid." It is an example of the downward economic mobility of the middle class. I personally know several neighbors who have been doing this for several years.
People who put down working class Americans by accusing them of not being willing to work (and this includes most prominently President Bush!) really must despise vast segments of the American populace and think nothing of accusing them of being lazy, irresponsible louts who cannot be trusted to take care of their own families. With that attitude about the "masses" how long do you think they will lend their support to our system of self-government which relies on the integrity, self-reliance and decency of the ordinary peopson? Basically, Bush is giving the finger to working class Americans and telling them they are not worthy or capable of governing themselves.
Americans will work when they can get a livable wage. They always have and they always will. Business wants to be able to substitute illegal immigrant labor at home and third world labor abroad for American workers because they want to pay the lowest wages availabe world wide. They have no allegiance to America or to our society. They scream loud enough for subsidies, favorable tax treatment, etc. and demand government protection in terms of courts, police departments and armies to protect their investments, but they observe no sense of oblilgation to the system or to the fellow citizen who has facilitated their enterprise.
Presidents and Congress have betrayed ordinary Americans on immigration and "free trade" for decades and have enriched themselves in the process of destroying the middle class. This issue is more important than deciding whether we have an amnesty program or not. It is about whether the desires of the vast majority of Americans can be expressed in public policy when opposed by the ruling elites in the Presidency and in Congress. If a President and Congress can deny for decades to the majority of the American people a policy they want -- enforcement of our immigration laws -- then we have already lost democratic self-government in America and have no business trying to establish democracy abroad when we don't even respect it here at home.
The growth and retraction of the servant population is always a useful yardstick of how widely based prosperity is.
In the poorest of countries servants are cheap and plentiful. In the richest of countries they are scarce and expensive.
They also want the taxpayers to provide for medical care for their imported labor, to provide schools, subisidised housing, food stamps etc ... They also use the perspective of the future American citizenship as a compensation for the wage lower than the living cost. In addition they cause a large expense by the government and by the families to support displaced American workers.
This was an excellent post! Thank you!
Nope
They don't accuse blue-collar folks of 'not being willing to work.'
Rather, after the blue-collar has been laid off from a job going to PRChina, they accuse the blue-collar of Not Going To Med School for further training in a Viable Profession--that is, wearing a tie.