Thread: Honoring Martin Luther King's Legacy (Jobs and Justice)

http://american-rattlesnake.org/2015...and-justice-2/

Today, as the federal government commemorates the legacy of one of the transformative figures in 20th century public life, it should not be forgotten that Martin Luther King struggled not only to achieve racial equality but also economic opportunity for disenfranchised citizens. One of the most dispiriting developments in the over four decades since Dr. King’s assassination has been the regression in labor force participation within this nation. Although the unemployment rate among Black workers might seem particularly distressing, the truth is that there are large swathes of what should constitute the American workforce, encompassing every ethnicity and race, which are facing chronic, unrelenting joblessness.

Although not the source of this nation’s lackluster economy, one of the contributing factors to prolonged unemployment among large numbers of Americans-particularly those who already face extreme hardships in finding gainful employment-is our government’s policy of sustained mass immigration, as well its tacit endorsement of employers who disregard federaland state immigration laws. While it would be presumptuous of me to claim insight into how Martin Luther King Jr. would view the current immigration debate-such as it is-it’s worth noting that as recently as 1991 his widow lobbied against congressional legislation that would have further hobbled American laborers.

So the notion that he would at least have expressed ambivalence over the political class’s exclusive catering to the interests of the Chamber of Commerce and Mark Zuckerberg, while ignoring the suffering of millions of economically and emotionally struggling Americans, is not that far-fetched. Neither is the condemnation of a President who has abandoned the community which made his election possible in favor of more promising constituencies. Is it too much to ask of a president who repeatedly and capriciously invokes the legacy of Martin Luther King to give some consideration to the misery his administration’s immigration policies have imposed upon the men and women whose futures King fought so valiantly for?

'Bama wrote about the effect of large scale immigration in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope. He said that the current numbers would depress blue collar wages. At a time when workforce participation is down, wages are flat, and even our STEM graduates have difficulty finding jobs in their fields, there no reason at all to accept people who will inevitably undercut Americans.

IMO we are paying illegals to colonize us, and we don't even need them. Americans used to do all the jobs that the Open Borders crowd claims that they won't do. Even field work. If their earnings had kept pace with inflation, field workers would be making $20/hr.

Originally Posted by vistalad

'Bama wrote about the effect of large scale immigration in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope. He said that the current numbers would depress blue collar wages. At a time when workforce participation is down, wages are flat, and even our STEM graduates have difficulty finding jobs in their fields, there no reason at all to accept people who will inevitably undercut Americans.

IMO we are paying illegals to colonize us, and we don't even need them. Americans used to do all the jobs that the Open Borders crowd claims that they won't do. Even field work. If their earnings had kept pace with inflation, field workers would be making $20/hr.

Americans are still willing to do all the jobs even the field work that illegal aliens and immigrants perform. Americans have always done this work, are still doing this work when they can be fortunate enough to find a job doing so when and wherever they aren't already filled with illegal aliens and immigrants through these massive international worker labor networks, and yes, if wages had kept pace, those hard jobs would be paying better, but even today, they pay pretty well with the bonuses. A lot of fruit pickers out west make $15 to $20 an hour.

And yes, you are so right, we don't even need them, we actually never did need them.