The PC Rampage and its Consequences for Public Dialog
April 6, 2006 3:03 amI feel compelled to continue to plead for a dialog concerning illegal immigration that extends beyond the bombastic PC oratory that is projected, oftentimes, by members of American society that do not suffer from the economic impact that the constant influx of cheap labor manifests.
Economists, as they always do in respect to contentious issues, have taken a manifold of positions regarding the benefits or detriments of illegal immigration. However, I can state that the economists who support the opening of the border with Mexico appear to deploy justifications, such as, immigrant labor forces those without highschool degrees to further their education, so to ascend to employment niches that require technical skills, and, accordingly, pay better.
This type of rationalization on the part of those who advocate an open-border with Mexico seems to me, at least, to be as callous, if not more so, than those who want to establish legislation, making illegal immigration a felony. To compound the effects of this rhetoric upon popular-opinion, media sources are parading small to middle sized business owners, who claim that they would not have a work force without a stream of temporary labor.
Never do the interviewers query the petite capitalists as to the amount of income that they extract from their operations on a yearly basis, in order to assess whether a rather severe reduction of the profiteering conducted by the owners of the modes of production might provide for the opportunity to attract American citizens to assume these labor capacities by offering a living-wage. Therefore, from the failure to disclose such pertinent information, the population is proferred a tilted narration, including only limited content, in regards to the multiplicity of aspects that demand consideration, when externalizing the experiences of the people who stand to either profit from an open-border or descend deeper into financial distitude.
Further, not once have I observed an interview with a member of the African-American urban communities, in order to reveal the negative effects that this constant injection of bodies into the unskilled labor-market has upon their earning potential as well as their ability to even procure a job. I, over the years, have worked in various warehouses, as a teamster, and I can testify, from my own experiences, that the individuals who take these jobs have families consisting of dependents, and so forth.
This is why I become infuriated when I read yet another inflamatory essay by a member of the New-left establishment who claims that any opposition to illegal immigration is an embodiment of a racist, white-supremist ideology. What do these people know about the effects of illegal immigration? They exist outside the deplorable conditions in which the people, who must compete with this continuous exportation of another country’s underclass, live.
Additionally, the rhetoric, consisting of platitudes and hyberbole, expoused by these brave defenders of illegal immigration, who have nothing personally to lose, are conspicuously absent of empirical content. Rather, this discourse consists of ridiculous generalizations that reduce the complexity of this issue into a dichotonomy between those who embrace multi-culturalism and diversity and those who are reactionary in the sense that they are endeavoring to preserve some crystalized conceptualization of American culture, which, as most of us who side with the American wage-earner, know not to exist in the first place.
This issue should have nothing to do with cultural or ethnic considerations. Quite simply - and it would be ostensible, as well, if not for the obfuscating discourse emanating from brave, white-middle-class activists who triumphently blow their horns of self-righteousness - this social-problem is comprised of multiple concers; one of which is the plight of the American wage-earner and his or her further exploitation resulting from the strange marriage between the New-left and the neo-conservatives, who chime in harmony as they advocate a policy that will further saturate the American labor market, allowing both the Mexican elites and the American corporate-elites to continue to fill their pockets.
If you enjoyed this post,
Subscribe to the Free Midwest Populist Party Newsletter
Please consider a donation of $1 or more
to help keep this website active.
Spread the Word:
One Response to “The PC Rampage and its Consequences for Public Dialog”
I would like to thank Russell Cole for his insightful and even handed commentary. Having lived in Southern California for 35 years, I can directly address some of the issues Mr. Cole has brought up.
The influx of both legal and “illegal/undocumented” low skill workers into Southern California has most definitely depressed wages for other lmedium-low skill workers. Twenty years ago many trades, such as drywall work, were done by native born Americans living middle class lifestyles (owned a house, etc.) Today, almost all that work is done by recent immigrants at wages barely above the California minimum.
As Mr. Cole has alluded to, this has created stress in race relations between African Americans and Latinos. Many African Americans are moving to other parts of California or even to the South. Cities, such as Compton, thought of in popular culture as African American, are now actually over 50% Latino. Meanwhile the “educated class” (such as myself) prospers, with rising wages and inane home values. The “wage gap” is bigger than ever.
I could go on, but its time to go.
John Johnston
John Johnston
Care to comment?