"I call these 'masters of the universe' events, and they're held all over the country in fancy hotels, ski lodges and beach resorts. On this particular evening, my wife and I found ourselves at a roundtable with the CEO of a large hotel chain on our left, and a large communications conglomerate on our right. The Republicans, we're often told, are the party of the rich and famous. Yet nearly everyone assembled at this dinner simply loathed Donald Trump. He was the focus of nearly every conversation. And then the hotel CEO announced, 'Trump has no idea how much his policies are hurting business. I mean, we can't keep people for $18 an hour in our hotels. If we're not paying $20, we're understaffed. And it's all because of Donald Trump's immigration policies.' Let's pause for a second to appreciate one of the wealthiest men in the world complaining about paying hard-working staff $20 an hour. The only thing he was missing was the Monopoly Man hat and cane. His argument, while vile, was at least intellectually honest: 'Normally, if we can't find workers at a given wage, we just get a bunch of immigrants to do the job. It's easy. But there are so few people coming in across the border, so we just have to pay the people here more.' This is why the American labor movement opposed immigration expansion for much of the past century—until recently, when many labor unions decided that being woke took priority over protecting workers. My wife is not a political person, and I've never seen her as animated by a conversation about politics as she was at this 'masters of the universe' dinner. 'OK,' she told me later. 'I can understand why you can't stand these people.'... Nearly every major business and financial leader in this country is a supporter of the Democratic Party. They love illegal immigration for the simple reason that their livelihoods are subsidized by illegal immigration—while illegal aliens themselves are subsidized by the taxpayer. It's a redistribution scheme from the poor to the rich. More immigration means lower wages for their workers and easier access to servants for their decadent personal lives.... Whenever I criticize the Biden administration's immigration policies, someone tells me I'm 'racist.'... It's not racist to refuse to do the bidding of America's corporate oligarchy, and it's not compassionate to create a crisis on both sides of our southern border."
Writes J.D. Vance (at Newsweek).
It's absurd that it's become so easy to manipulate people with the accusation of racism. Vance makes the point that Trump was fearless and stood his ground and that other politicians should look to him as a role model.
Posts
107 comments:
Do you have a "No shit, Sherlock" tag?
Cheap labor only makes you money if you're the only one doing it. The benefit always goes to consumers. The business can't keep it owing to competition lowering its price.
"It's absurd that it's become so easy to manipulate people with the accusation of racism."
Well, it works with the nice women of America. Even the bravest decided to abstain. There's only one way to make the manipulation stop, and that is for women to resist en masse. I don't think they will.
"Vance makes the point that Trump was fearless and stood his ground and that other politicians should look to him as a role model."
Which is fine but not enough. He did not follow through. He had no real plan and no adequate staff to execute it.
I prefer Vance’s spot on point that illegal immigration is simply wealth redistribution from the poor to the rich.
The veil didn't drop. It was never on.
That sort of casual racism and sexism is common to the rich and upper middle class, the kind that also insists they're the Good Guys fighting Cartoon Villains like Drumpf and DeathSantis.
My reaction to an accusation of racism is to wonder what vile thing are they trying to divert attention from.
Let's not forget the fact that illegal immigration is also a financial, social security and political ponzi scheme.
Since a bigger rube is hard to find after being fooled enough times, we'll just import them.
Since unfunded liabilities will fall on an ever shrinking proportion, we'll just get more.
Since more and more people see through our bullshit, we'll import a new electorate.
If you're not Howard or Inga with an IQ capable of grasping these extremely simple concepts, it becomes evidently clear why shouting about racism and equity tows the corporate line.
Stooges.
"But there are so few people coming in across the border, so we just have to pay the people here more."
How hard is that to understand?
100%
Everyone who says "who are you going to get to mow your lawns?" when pushing for illegal immigration is pushing for modern day slavery.
It's really odd many of these same people are pushing for $15/min wage.
AND THEN odder still when they say, "Oh, illegal immigrants pay taxes!" without acknowledging that they can then vote in most states.
I never will understand why so many people failed to get the power of Trump: He fights. We said it, a few pundits reported it, the NeverTrump crowd mocked it but there it is in two words. Republicans congressmen and elected officials across the land could not emulate him though a few tried. They would throw up a fist but then the race charge would come and the room was never large enough for the back peddling that would ensue.
To fight means to have courage. Trump had it. That is the whole story. He was our Jupiter sucking in asteroids away from earth.
He fights. He fights. He fights. J.D. Vance finally seems to get what we smelly WalMart shoppers knew from day one.
It became somewhat de rigeur in the last few years to suggest that illegal immigrants should be housed with those that most advocate for their ability to flow through our open borders and that 'no human is illegal'.
This is exactly what should happen. If I was wealthier than I am I would absolutely pick these people up and dump them at Pelosi's front door. I would hand out fliers in Spanish telling them that Bezos Oakland property or Google HQ is a sanctuary site. I'd hand out tents so they can camp at Facebook. I'd bus them to NY and pay them to firebomb the New York Times.
Fuck the ever loving shit out of these people.
Academics, especially economists, used to understand the simple math undergirding Vance’s assertions. They all still know it’s true but telling the truth is a rare act nowadays for our elite thinkers.
"Everyone who says "who are you going to get to mow your lawns?" when pushing for illegal immigration is pushing for modern day slavery."
-- I like that the people who ask that assume that the average American has the money to get someone else to mow their lawns.
I mean, we can't keep people for $18 an hour in our hotels. If we're not paying $20, we're understaffed. And it's all because of Donald Trump's immigration policies.
Serious Question
Democrats DEMAND that the minimum wage be raised, to: A Living Wage
Can we tie a $15 minimum wage, to securing our border?
SERIOUSLY, President Trump's immigration policies (OBVIOUSLY) did more to raise the ACTUAL minimum wage that any other President..EVER
Don't believe me? Ask the Chamber of Commerce people that are funding the Democrat party
It seems that people who don't have a problem with uncontrolled immigration obviously think they, their children, and their grandchildren will be insulated from the downsides, because they won't be doing that kind of work.
So fucking smug.
I’ve got a now “elite” power couple as a part of the family I married into. They’ve been insufferable through covid. Insane fear levels and off putting for all to comply with their needs. They are major leftists and still have a Hillary sign in the front window of their home. Absolutely despised Trump and displayed tantrums at times. I would like to tell them that it’s fine if they want to align themselves with the people JD is talking about here. I prefer to take the other side.
Yesterday they began hectoring everyone else about getting vaccinated and how we all needed to do it despite knowing that certain family members have major hesitancy to get the shot. They even sent texts that threatened how our “ sociability” was affected if some of us were not vaccinated.
It’s a feature, not a bug. Heh heh
Davos, ‘nuff said
Did the idiot hotel magnate not realize who he was sitting next to?
Yeah, the Hillbilly Elegy guy is going to totally agree with you...
-- I like that the people who ask that assume that the average American has the money to get someone else to mow their lawns
Yup.
Stop using the word "elite". They're not. Half of them aren't even intelligent. They're connected. They have high-end educations, undergrads they got after 6 years in school and post-grads they managed to secure by the time they're 26. They've got money. The half that aren't intelligent are psychopaths.
They're not elite. We need to find some other word that describes this class of people.
Maybe we should call them the "Eloi".
That's just half the story. The same people prefer to hire lower paid skilled labor on H-1B visas: people with STEM degrees. Biden is going to reopen that floodgate as well.
If you can't control inflation with increased supply, how else can you do the math of massive government handouts?
Newsweek printed the truth??? Wow!!! All you have to do is open your eyes to see this is EXACTLY what is happening.
It’s equally true that accusations of sexism are almost always BS, delivered by wealthy women seeking to get over and shut people up.
J. D. Vance broke that passage into seven paragraphs.
Althouse has made Vance's seven-paragraph text into one long paragraph.
Someone asked me how can you tell the difference between the elite and regular people who've worked hard to succeed? My answer is this: The elite fail upwards. They're the Dr. Faucis and Psakis of the world, who despite, for example, utterly failing during the AIDS crisis and in previous positions, still manage to do better. We probably all know the well-off kid who never held down a job, coasted through college, and landed a cushy gig. The true elite fail upwards; you occasionally will get an Anthony Wiener or Harvey Weinstein or Mark Sanford, an elite who eventually got smacked down, but they usually have to do something egregious for that to happen. Not like a regular person who might lose their job for missing a quarterly goal. The true elite fail upwards.
Well, Althouse, are you starting to realize how you’ve been had? Or do you plan to remain ignorant?
I was looking for a clip from Bringing Down the House that talked about Mexicans with leaf blowers but couldn't find it. Now I'm just watching clips. That movie couldn't get made today.
How hard is that to understand?
Well it’s way past Farmer’s grasp of economics.
Great stuff from JD Vance - very courageous in these times to come out as pro-American worker.
Think about that, it takes great courage (at substantial personal risk) ... to advocate for people born here, for a couple generations or more in most cases, over foreign people!
America needs JD Vance in the Senate. He nails it.
"J. D. Vance broke that passage into seven paragraphs."
I'm sure he didn't. That's Newsweek. It's the on-line convention to start a new paragraph after every sentence or too.
I put it in one block to force myself to edit it down as much as I can. I agree that this block is too chunky visually, but I'm trusting you to handle it. It's a convention used in books.
Purge anyone
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2021/03/18/witch-hunt-calif-bill-may-exclude-conservative-christians-from-police-departments-n1433573
Lenin said capitalist will sell them the rope to hang them.
"Illegal immigration" is a euphemism for "invader". When you let the invaders run rampant, you allow your country to be destroyed from within. Those that support this action are traitors.
I'm sure he didn't. That's Newsweek.
I'm sure that J. D. Vance did not write that as one long paragraph.
Do you have Vance's book? If so, verify that Vance himself writes such long paragraphs.
You have the advantage of reading a text as normal-size paragraphs. Then, for your own convenience, you smash the paragraphed text into one long paragraph that is hard for your blog readers to read.
I am sure that I am not the only reader here who simply does not read these epic paragraphs that you like to present.
They are ellipses that cover the broad themes of the discussion
The open borders has always been alliance between Rich Republicans who want cheap labor and Democrats who want voters. You'll notice its one issue that the NYT and WSJ are in complete agreement. The real puzzler isn't that well-to-do Democrats like Biden and Pelosi favor open borders and cheap labor busting labor, its why the average Democrat does. Why is the average Democrat in Minnesota, Colorado, or New England so in love with massive legal and illegal immigration? They certainly don't gain anything by it.
One answer is they're simply morons who vote Democrat because they identify as Democrats. Iow, they will vote D, no matter what the D's actually do. The other is they someone benefit from all the cheap labor and union busting, but I've never figured out how.
Everyone seems cool with the massive corruption, vote fraud, unrequested demographic change, and globalization because their housing prices and 401K's are going up. I wonder what the reaction will be if those things take a massive hit. Probably anger, and then dumb acceptance. And continuing to vote for the same ol' same ol.
Yeah I assume it's Newsweek too. One of their paragraphs fits into a smartphone screen nicely. I'm sure that's not an accident.
This.
The democrat party are the party of the rich. The mega rich - and they want illegal entrants as underpaid staff while they get richer... and the D-party gets more votes.
In the covid year, 2020, black unemployment shot up above ten per cent. Harrisbiden should have kept the border closed till that rate fell. Xi does not care. Neither do the Dems. They are too busy attending critical race theory seminars. In these they learn that any policy that disproportionately disadvantages the black community is racist and supported by racists. These Dems go home and talk over their new insights, smiling proudly at their remorse while under their policies black unemployment remains disproportionately high and black schoolchildren enter their second year without school. Moreover, the black community is disproportionately unvaccinated which, looking ahead, means schools in black communities closed for longer periods and employment for adults more difficult to obtain. And this will mean - what? In March 2022 this will mean more seminars, TikToks, Emmys, movies, Renegade podcasts etc., on how "we" were being racists in March 2021 and how in March 2022 "we" are remorseful and insightful and just generally full - but it does not mean policy changes now nor will it then. For Dems, talk is as cheap as Mexican labor.
Guilt and stupidity.
"Writes J.D. Vance (at Newsweek)." For how long??????????????????????? "Not very" is my guess. Harshing it's mellow, doncha know. Not "with the PROGRAM".
Why yes.
The arguments for illegals have always been promulgated by the business class.
The business class is now Democrat. Why? Because Democrats want illegal immigration.
There was a nearly 3 year experiment of cutting illegal immigration (and corporate taxes) that increased working class wages and median household income to a record high, and more than 10% in less than 3 years.
That was a problem. So now the Democrats installed Joe to make sure no working class person ever gets an inflation beating raise again.
Wow. Reading that is just a breath of fresh air, isn't it?
One of my lefty friends told me that our cities would cease to function if not for the illegal immigrants willing to do low level jobs, and that’s why she is ok with it. She works in a large city. There is no concern about the human trafficking, the child rape, the drugs, the terrorists, etc., just that the city people need their hotel rooms cleaned, the restaurants providing interesting food, and the subway staffed. Legal immigration apparently is not inclusive enough.
"Who will rake the sand traps?" Mike Bloomberg D
Blogger Breezy said...
One of my lefty friends told me that our cities would cease to function if not for the illegal immigrants willing to do low level jobs, and that’s why she is ok with it.
About ten years ago, the illegals in LA decided to stay home for a day to show everyone how the city could not function without them. The traffic improvement was so striking that everyone was trying to get them to repeat it before I left.
Indeed
https://the-pipeline.org/the-battle-of-tinhorn-flats/
.
Here's a dirty little secret, Academia and Tech love unfettered immigration as well. The liberal granting of student visa allows research universities to use inexpensive foreign grad students to do much of the bench work which shows up in the papers of superstar academics.
I bet Ann saw this at UW
Interestingly most of those "captains of the universe" likely didn't start their own business, but succeeded to the title of CEO, via climbing the organization. Working the angles.
One of my lefty friends told me that our cities would cease to function if not for the illegal immigrants willing to do low level jobs, and that’s why she is ok with it. She works in a large city. There is no concern about the human trafficking, the child rape, the drugs, the terrorists, etc., just that the city people need their hotel rooms cleaned, the restaurants providing interesting food, and the subway staffed. Legal immigration apparently is not inclusive enough.
>>
I'm old enough to remember the days before unfettered illegal immigration.
Lawns got mowed. Hotel rooms got cleaned. Restaurants were open. Food was harvested.
These illegal importing people are just modern day slave drivers/traders. Not surprisingly mostly Democrats, that is their historical specialty.
Fuck them.
"The Republicans, we're often told, are the party of the rich and famous. Yet nearly everyone assembled at this dinner simply loathed Donald Trump. He was the focus of nearly every conversation. And then the hotel CEO announced, 'Trump has no idea how much his policies are hurting business. I mean, we can't keep people for $18 an hour in our hotels. If we're not paying $20, we're understaffed. And it's all because of Donald Trump's immigration policies.' Let's pause for a second to appreciate one of the wealthiest men in the world complaining about paying hard-working staff $20 an hour...."
Dedicated democrats STILL DON'T CARE.
This is my biggest beef with the 'Wall Street Journal.'
They are a pro-business publication, and unlimited free/cheap labor is good for business.
If it were up to them the border would be open...
My family has a small business that depends on manual labor.
We have paid a fortune since Trump was elected to the point where we will probably have to close shop in a year or two.
Fortunately it is a side business. The people who will survive in our industry will be uniformly wealthy beyond anything you can imagine. They won't care if they lose money. We do care.
One more thing, once wages are up, it's very difficult to bring them down again.
I hope the ever-Trumpers don't throw this guy to the curb on some bogus purity test - or lies filtered thru by the corrupt left.
President Trump only supported what the majority of Americans 'thought' was the governments goal. In all dealings America should make a deal in the best interests of its citizens.
That's what everyone thinks.
But in reality, taxpayers are funding the rest of the world. President Trump set about to correct the injustice.
Just one example, but there are more.
NATO. Why was the US footing the majority of the bill? To protect the nations of the North Atlantic? Why were the other Nations not contributing the agreed to amount? Why did America continue to be apart of something that refused to follow its agreed to charter?
This is elementary stuff. President Trump said enough. ALL will honor the treaty or the United States withdraws.
President Trump set about to bring into align dozens of these treaties and agreements to best serve its citizens,and not bend to other nations.
This is not isolationism. Its full foreign engagement. The only difference, President Trump represented the people. Not foreign powers.
I've been to a few of these "masters of the universe" events due to my academic pedigree and to making some counter-intuitive (but correct) predictions in my professional sphere. I also have a background that has a lot of similarities to Vance's.
Vance's anecdotes are consistent with my experiences. These crowds are overwhelmingly populated by Democrats, to the point that out of the many hundreds of people I've met at such events, I can count on two hands (just barely needing the second hand) the number whom I suspect could be closeted conservatives or Republicans.
As others have said, it's not just about hotel workers, either. There will never be enough H1B visas available to satisfy the desire of this crowd to reduce the costs of hiring programmers, scientists, and technologists while insisting it's really only about innovation and diversity.
Everything about that is EXACTLY what the Left is doing now. They don't care about the middle class, or working class....only themselves, and the illegals they are letting into our country at a rate faster than ever before, whilst offering them free healthcare, free education, ect...ect... They work for ILLEGALS now, not us. We are just the sucker paying for it all.
raaaaaaaacist!
Trump was absolutely right to deter illegal border crossings. Personally I think it's racist to have differing standards in immigration that obviously favor Mexicans and Central Americans over, say, Africans, Europeans and Asians. It's racist to not rigorously enforce the border.
It's understandable that rich open borders advocates often dress up their self-interested beliefs as high-minded anti-racism. As Vance says, they get richer at the expense of the American underclass, and they get to feel superior in the process. It feels good to do charity and get rich while doing it.
It's like progressives who are very generous and charitable with the taxpayers' money. Oftentimes they either work in government or they've established "private NGO" middlemen organizations that skim some money before dispensing it.
Unity....so great under Biden, isn't it?? (snark) Is this the normal people actually voted for?
"I'm sure that J. D. Vance did not write that as one long paragraph."
You say that as if I had asserted that he did. I didn't. I said I print quotes in the block form for MY purposes, which I state, and then I add that longer paragraphs are a convention in books. Books generally. Deal with it.
" Then, for your own convenience...."
How the hell is it a "convenience" to me? I am choosing a look. It's my aesthetic. I get that you find it harder to read. Why not click through to the article if you want the form you find easier to read? This blog isn't here to spoon feed you.
No one on the Left will listen to Vance. He's persona non grata. Preaching to the choir with this.
Newsweek, shockingly, publishes some damn fine Right-side commentary now. I have no idea how that happened.
So, Democrats have gone woke, and say to poor folks:’Get money and power by becoming a victim, or get handouts from your neighbors, distributed by the professionals who won’t stand up for speech, rule of law nor the concept of citizenship. The new religion is ideologues all the way down.’
The Republicans follow along, conserving less and less of what really matters, saying to poor folks:’Climb the existing hierarchies with hard work and fair play, like the military, your job, and the law, but know that knowing the right people, getting money and having connections is more important, Also, if you’re religious, don’t get the stink on me and we can’t protect you from the woke either.’
So, where do folks turn?
Seems everyone who explicitly and doesn’t explicitly want power is trying to figure this out.
elite - usages
1) self-referencial
asshole
a) catagorizing self via economics
rich asshole
b) catagorizing self via social strata
smug asshole (also: pompous asshole)
c) catagorizing self via the polital
total asshole
d) catagorizing self via sociol issues
unbearable asshole (typically a combinaton of smug and total)
2) catagorizing others
subservient asshole
@wendybar said
“Is this the normal people actually voted for?”
Oh.....they’re just getting warmed up, I predict it will get much more “normal”
To the point that the dimwits attending these gatherings will be saying “ what the fuck just happened”
The AOC’s of the elite want to punish these people for their wealth. As Tucker pointed out, why raise taxes on them if not to punish them.
It’s not like we pay for all this spending with tax proceeds....that is a joke.
JD goes on...
What's so disgusting about the charge of racism is that it takes something good about the American people—their compassion for their fellow citizens—and warps it in service of our corporate overlords. Who cares about American solidarity if your hotel chain share price goes up a few pennies, right?
The people who echo those talking points should be shamed and dismissed. It's not racist to refuse to do the bidding of America's corporate oligarchy, and it's not compassionate to create a crisis on both sides of our southern border.
"This blog isn't here to spoon feed you."
I like feisty AA : )
“Crisis?....what crisis?”
"This blog isn't here to spoon feed you.”
I blame the influx of low grade commenters on the links from the center of low grade comments, Instapundit.
It's a convention used in books.
Now THAT’s funny! Some Althumor.
- Krumhorn
It's a convention used in books.
Now THAT’s funny! Some Althumor.
- Krumhorn
NATO.
Why was the US footing the majority of the bill? To protect the nations of the North Atlantic
a) protect from WHOM?
b) nations of the North Atlantic... Like Turkey? Or Romania?
WHY is ANYONE footing the bill?
People on this blog have been stating the same thing for years. But he went to Yale Law School, so maybe its credible.
@Lucid-ideas is right, “elite” is the wrong word.
They’re all in a club and you’re not, and their main purpose in life is to figure out new ways to exert power and control over you.
Isn’t this now obvious?
Matt Sablan said...
"Everyone who says "who are you going to get to mow your lawns?" when pushing for illegal immigration is pushing for modern day slavery."
-- I like that the people who ask that assume that the average American has the money to get someone else to mow their lawns.
*************
I like that you think Americans rich enough to own a (likely mortgaged) home (67%) are too poor to pay anyone seasonally to take care of it. AND that those who do own their homes all have lawns needing mowing.
Cute.
It’s not just businesses. The liberal gentry’s two-professional-workers family model depends on cheap immigrant labor to supply nannies, gardeners, cooks, and maids.
Allegations of diversity. Take a knee. [Self-]Abort.
Around 60% of American adults are overweight. Eat less. Eat better. A little fitness would help digest the diet. Increase capital. Fat is beautiful is a comorbidity, past, present, and progressive.
Ann Althouse at 10:03 AM
Deal with it.
I do deal with it. Like many other readers, I do not try to read the long paragraphs that you concoct for your aesthetics or purposes or whatever you call your weird justification.
Ann Althouse at 9:04 AM
It's the on-line convention to start a new paragraph after every sentence or two.
I would not call paragraphing a "convention".
I would call paragraphing a "best practices" for readability.
"Why is the average Democrat in Minnesota, Colorado, or New England so in love with massive legal and illegal immigration?"
What makes you think they do?
"The democrat party are the party of the rich."
Both major parties in the U.S. are parties of the rich.
THAT ANECDOTE MAKES FOR A POWERFUL AND POPULIST ARGUMENT. YOU HAVE TO FIGURE BIG TECH LIKE COMCAST VIEW UNLIMITED LEGL AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AS FUTURE SUBSCRIBERS $$$.
I blame the influx of low grade commenters on the links from the center of low grade comments, Instapundit
Ever-Trumper purity over there. Trump is god. no one else can be trusted. Not sure how that is going to work out - other that a big wink and nod from the democrats. Thanks, buddies!
Both parties - but the Democrats are the real wealthy-king makers /power brokers now.
Cheat the vote schemes + They have the tech oligarchs to censor actual news that proves Biden and his family are crooks.
JD Vance is considering running for US Senate from Ohio (he and many others are considering it). Peter Thiel has donated $10MM to a PAC for Vance to endorse the move. I also endorse it. Without the $10MM.
Calling me a racist gets you exactly nothing these days. I am out of fucks to give on the topic. If you think America is sytemically racist and you made your money in the country, then walk the talk- give away all the income you don't need to survive on- essentially your net savings- to charities dedicated to helping ethnic minorities. If you don't do that, then you are a hypocrite.
I will have to take a closer look at Vance than I have done to date because this excerpt is over the target.
In montana the big-lawn mowing, the tree cutting, the roofing, roadwork etc is still done by young anglo guys.
Pretty amazing if you ask me. I hope it lasts.
"Pretty amazing if you ask me. I hope it lasts."
It won't, but enjoy it now...
Kate said...
No one on the Left will listen to Vance. He's persona non grata. Preaching to the choir with this.
Vance doesn't need anyone on the left, nor does any Republican. He needs a slightly larger than normal slice of the apolitical majority. This is a good way to get it.
If you recall opposing immigration is what set Trump apart during the primary. Every single other candidate supported amnesty. Someone who could credibly support immigration restrictions without easy caricature as a racist or Trump's other negatives would be a strong candidate.
There is a big multifamily housing development (at least that is what it looks like in the early stages of framing) being built where the old Museum of Science and Energy used to sit here in Oak Ridge. I pass it every day on the way to the gym. All the workers look Hispanic to me (there are about 20 of them working where I can see from the nearby street), but maybe that is just my own prejudice at work- maybe all of them are just deeply suntanned native Tennesseans.
"All the workers look Hispanic to me..."
A friend in CA works construction jobs...really big ones like building Amazon warehouses or Walmart retail stores.
He is ready to retire, but he says he is often the only white guy (other than some supervisors) on the job sites these days.
The only reason he is there is because he is an expert at doing a very technical job and would be tough to replace.
"All the workers look Hispanic to me..."
In Phoenix, Gringos used to be able to make a decent living pounding nails. Effective take home pay crashed a decade and a half ago, with the influx of illegals. It is nice - I got maybe $2k of auto body work done for $500, in a parking lot.
If we have anyone like that here, let me suggest moving up to NW MT. The concrete guy is out a year now. Ditto the painters. The plumber promised to fix a leak. Five months later it still hasn’t been done. Very few Hispanics in the area, and none appear to be illegals. The ones you think might be Hispanic inevitably turn out to be indigenous Indians. Everyone seems to want to move there, except for the tradesmen we need to build the new houses.
But Slo Joe's main concern--watch the tonguebath with GS--is that we don't have everything arranged yet, that the newcomers might run into poor conditions, that we might fail their expectations in some way.
Narr
American citizens are just Muggles, I guess
rhhardin said...
Cheap labor only makes you money if you're the only one doing it. The benefit always goes to consumers. The business can't keep it owing to competition lowering its price.
Seriously? You never took an Econ class past Econ 1?
If what you were claiming was true, since they are all facing the same situation, they'd all be facing the same price raises, and none would be be any worse off.
In an "ideal world" they would cut their prices. In the real world, they're not. Which is why they're so pissed that Trump made them share some of the wealth with their workers
"Cheap labor only makes you money if you're the only one doing it. The benefit always goes to consumers. The business can't keep it owing to competition lowering its price."
First of all, in the real world, many businesses are monopolies or quasi-monopolies. There is only "Competition" in the most general sense.
Second, businesses set prices based on maximum revenue. People learn this is in Econ 101, and then act like it doesn't exist. The have this crazy idea the companies figure out how much it costs to produce a product/service then add X% profit and sell it.
It doesn't work that way. If they can maximize revenue at price $X, they sell it for $X. And if the consumers are used to buying a product at $X, and they can lower the costs via lower wages, that means Higher profits. That's what the game is: Profit.
Only a fool things Businesses want to compete and exist to give consumers the best product at the lowest price possible. Businesses exist to make $$ for the owners. They'd sell sand for $100 a cup - if they could do it.
"Cheap labor only makes you money if you're the only one doing it. The benefit always goes to consumers. The business can't keep it owing to competition lowering its price."
This is mostly true in the long run, but in the short run prices have a certain stickiness as buyers are used to them and thus continue to pay them without much thinking about it. Travelers, for example, may just accept the price of a hotel room so long as it's similar to what they paid last time (or to what they're used to paying for comparable accommodations).
Competition is never perfect (if it were it would ruin most vendors, as only the supplier with the lowest costs could survive). One of the reasons price competition is because it takes time to produce things, and thus time for price signals to affect what and how much is produced. And, even in the Age of Internet, it takes time and effort for buyers to compare prices, with the result that the comparison is usually incomplete.
Further, only some markets (such as hotel labor) are local; many have become global. And in a global market, labor prices can change in one location without necessarily changing in others.
I love the way Vance paraphrases his subject, the evil, rich lib. But even that not completely accurate retelling (i.e. paraphrase) still needed some more juice, so Vance carries on w/ additional ways of restating the original paraphrase.
Althouse tells us to be on the lookout for manipulation.
Got it.
I love how eager Sprezzatura is to suck up to the rich, and screw over the less powerful
>>In montana the big-lawn mowing, the tree cutting, the roofing, roadwork etc is still done by young anglo guys.
In my admittedly limited experience, the same is true up in the White(!) Mountains in New Hampshire, where I've had the roof redone, I think, three times (killer intense southern exposure destroys the roof), the deck twice, a fair amount of interior work, and some landscaping.
Not so much in Boston, but maybe not nothing. When I did up my (new-construction) apartment about 15 years ago, a fair number of (I hope legal) non-Anglos. But the electrician working on his own, who did great work and was by far the best bargain, fit the bill. Also the kid who did some off-brand "California Closets" type work.
I later redid the crappy little apartment I had lived in for about 25 years, but I can't attest to who did the actual work on that project.And I'm pissed that they swiped the stepladder that was the only thing I wanted to keep.
--gpm
Milton Friedman said you can have open borders or a generous welfare state. You can't have both.
Are we going to die trying?
The Democrats do support paying $15-20 an hour.
They just voted to mandate it, but the Republican Party, which supports freedom and businesses and workers having the right to compete, supports job creators, opposes raising the minimum wage, voted against it.
Someone who could credibly support immigration restrictions without easy caricature as a racist or Trump's other negatives would be a strong candidate.
You won't find that. It's too easy to caricature any candidate that way. Except possibly someone who is himself or herself Hispanic. And even then, Ted Cruz wouldn't cut it.
"Everyone who says "who are you going to get to mow your lawns?" when pushing for illegal immigration is pushing for modern day slavery."
Sharon Osborne's name came up here a few days ago. Remember when her daughter got cancelled for saying, "Donald Trump, who is going to clean your toilets?"
Unknown said...
The Democrats do support paying $15-20 an hour.
No, the Democrats support paying illegal aliens $5 / hour under the table, while keeping American citizens from being able to get jobs that might let them build a life without government dependence
No, minimum wage is not a "living wage". it's not supposed to be.
You earn a living wage by acquiring and demonstrating skills that prove that your work is worth that much. The point of driving the minimum wage up is that it keeps people from ever getting on the path of getting the skills they need to earn a living wage.
Because the Democrats only love poor people who are dependent upon the "social workers" who are the foot soldiers of teh Democrat army
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