Left Behind: The Jobpocalypse

Even though officially, the Great Recession is over and the economy is no longer contracting, most people believe the recession is still ongoing. They believe this because as the saying goes, “Things are tough all over.”

The sad truth is that many of the jobs that were lost in the first decade of this century are not coming back. Ever. They’ve been replaced by computers and cheap overseas labor. Some of them did what they were told is the “smart thing” and trained for other jobs in the “new economy.” And while a few of them have been fortunate, many of them merely end up with a pile of student loan debt and not nearly enough experience to get a job. The only “good news” — if it can be called that — is that while they were students, they did not actually count as unemployed. And some of them have discovered that regardless of the law, many employers consider them too old to bother hiring. It isn’t that they did anything wrong. They’ve just not been fortunate. No wonder there’s been a sharp rise in Social Security disability claims!

So in the middle of this truth, FactCheck.org insists that immigration doesn’t cost American jobs. In fact, the economic papers they cite tell us, their existence creates jobs and raises wages for “native” workers. They admit that illegal immigrants performing unskilled labor do drive wages (and opportunities) down for those at the very lowest end of the employment scale. Otherwise, the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants is largely glossed over.

Now let me make one thing perfectly clear. I have no problem whatsoever with the fact that people continue to come to the United States to create a better life for themselves and their families. My son has ancestors who arrived in this nation in the last hundred years; some of them did not speak English and some were fluent in multiple languages when they arrived. But you know what they all did? They followed the law. They did what was necessary to stay legal and become citizens.

Everyone benefits when the playing field is level: immigrants benefit when there is a clear and possible path to citizenship, and they benefit when they get minimum wage and a safe work environment; law abiding businesses benefit when unscrupulous employers are not allowed to undercut them with illegal laborers; communities benefit when there is not a group of people who are trying to be invisible to authorities, and when human trafficking is not tolerated (yeah that’s right, not all the illegals pick veggies and clean toilets); families benefit when a living wage and reasonable hours are the standard; everyone’s health benefits when agricultural workers have proper sanitary conditions; everyone’s safety benefits when construction workers are paying attention to their work instead of looking out for La Migra.

But the flipside of a level playing field is that the companies that employ us must be made to follow existing law, and they must respect that their profit depends on Americans having money to purchase their goods and services. We can only run our economy so long on selling cheap foreign made goods to one other. We have got to produce something of more lasting value than a cappuccino.

If you are so inclined, here are two bloggers who could use some monetary help, both long term unemployed. Just hit the “Donate” button.

In Closing: Doesn’t this look peaceful?; Doesn’t this look suspicious?; Government says there’s only a risk of “price pressure” (not inflation!) but Gold prices say **** that!; the truth about offshore drilling; Congress looking into whether it’s fair to use credit history for employment and insurance purposes (gee, I can’t imagine why somebody with no job might have lousy credit!!); Fannie and Freddie, too big to reform; Shinkansen; GOP to hold convention in Florida during hurricane season; Common Ancestor; next time some asshat talks about “tort reform” when they mean “damage caps,” just remind them of the Gulf Oil Spill; last word (I hope) on the aptly named TARP; the Maine idea; car dealers want to be exempted from proposed financial rules (waaah); duh, insurers stand to make a lot of money on health insurance reform; and history of the slider.