Fast on the heels of the revelations about Meg Whitman, The Nation exposes another hypocrite in the person of Lou Dobbs, who, it was found, employed undocumented immigrants even as he railed against them, even as he demanded jail time for the very act he committed.
The hypocrisy is rank, but surely not startling. We all know how deeply the undocumented permeate our society. Put simply, if you stay in a hotel, chances are that someone who served you in the hotel was undocumented. If you have work done on a home, or bought one new, chances are that someone who helped build it was undocumented. If you ate anything at all in the past ten years, chances are 100% that someone who touched the food before it got to your plate was undocumented. The undocumented are so ingrained in our society that we cannot eat without them.
This is the truth of how we live in America. Yet, somehow, we cannot allow ourselves to do the right thing by the people who feed us, take care of us and make us comfortable.
It makes you wonder why. How is it that we can live side by side with these folks, benefit from their misery, and do nothing to change it? Who benefits from this ugly status quo?
It certainly is not the American worker, whether native born or undocumented. Every time an undocumented worker is forced to accept bad wages or sub standard working conditions, pressure is placed on native born workers to accept less as well. Thanks, in part, to decisions like Hoffman Plastics, even joining a union is dangerous for the undocumented and if the person next to you on the line isn't in the union, then the unions are that much weaker. The undocumented do not have access to workers' compensation, disability, or any of the other safety net provisions that cover the native born worker.
For the native born worker, a large undocumented segment of the workforce means less pay, more competition for their labor, and makes it even harder to organize and fight for fair compensation and safety in the work place. For the undocumented, to speak out, to demand better wages or to get hurt on the job is to starve.
Again I ask: who benefits?
Well, if an undocumented workforce means weaker unions, less pay and less benefits for everyone, who could possibly benefit from that? Didn't I see something in the news recently about record profits being posted by large corporations, in large part because they were keeping costs down? Costs like pay and benefits.
I think I am beginning to see a pattern here.
Still, it is not the corporate interests who rant against "illegals." It is not they who have dehumanized the people who put food on your table. Even as they are the greatest beneficiaries of this nasty system, they remain oddly quiet about solutions, either pro- or anti-immigrant.
Instead, the role of attack dog has fallen to rabble rousers claiming to be populists. Pundits like Dobbs, Limbaugh and Beck all became millionaires, in part, by attacking the undocumented. Obvious sociopaths like Sherriff Arpaio in Arizona get their 15 minutes of fame by driving tanks out into the desert looking for "lawbreakers." And politicians like Meg Whitman and Gov. Jan Brewer think nothing of hopping on the hate bandwagon to rally the forces of fear against such easy targets.
So corporate interests benefit from the status quo, and they use the millionaire pundits, crazies, and opportunistic politicians to keep that status quo in place. No new news there.
What is fascinating is how they then turn the human beings most hurt by this system against one another. American workers are huge losers with this dysfunctional immigration system. But they are never encouraged to ask how we got here or how we can fix it. Instead they are fed rhetoric all day long about leprosy carrying illegals crowding the schools and hospitals and stealing "American" jobs.
After hearing this garbage day after day, with no rational voice able to get the same airtime, eventually the American worker begins to believe the myths. Good people, with no evil intent begin to attack immigrants and never ask who profits from their presence, or how we can fix the problem.
There are obvious historic corollaries here. When African-Americans had the audacity to demand to be treated like human beings, the monied interests that benefitted from their cheap labor used poor whites, also exploited, as attack dogs. When the insurance giants and their corporate buddies stood to lose billions in bloated healthcare profits, they relied on the unease of white middle class seniors to give birth to the tea party.
Thus, the status quo remains. Workers are pitted against each other in a downward spiral of low wages and bad conditions. And Corporate America posts record profits.
Meanwhile, Meg Whitman searches for a new nanny, Lou Dobbs will have to find someone else to groom his daughter's horses.
The only way out of this equation that I can see is to organize ordinary Americans against the special interests which keep the system rigged against them.
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We have destroyed Mexico with our open border . Many women have to fend for themselves as their men are not there to protect them.
No one thinks of this. By our greed we take the best that Mexico can offer leaving behind the weak, the infirm and the poor. Offering amnesty in 1984 has already struck a blow to the family units in Mexico and we don't care as long we can hire them at $4 or $5 bucks an hour.
The American government has made this possible creating a source of cheap labor at Mexico's expense. To encourage this is to help further destroy Mexico and it's fine people whom I love.
Do the organizations such as Human Rights Watch even care that the open border has lead to the robbery, murder, rape, and even sale of women and children for sexual slavery. No they do not! There is no money or power to be gained in caring for the victims of our border policy that live in obscurity, poverty and fear. Clearly this writer, Gabe Gonzalez, seems not to care either.
Again thank you.
The US is one of the economies that have benefited from other cultures, mostly foreign, but it's not unique. All major empires did, at macro level, just like all of us do at micro level. Can any economy, leave alone the US, function minus such illegal workers? Even here, one might not employ a foreign national, but we do employ child labor. Isn't that just a variation of this theme?
Hypocrisy is so deeply ingrained in the human condition that it would be near impossible to start highlighting specific cases. If the question of what you're doing about it was posed back to you, how would you go about answering it?
Back to my point, years of ignoring the situation has made it almost impossible to hire any company that doesn't employ hispanics. How is anyone to know their true status? Apparently, it is standard practice to forge documents such as a driver's license, and social security card. What about the person who actually owns that ss#? You almost have to be a private investigator to dig deep enough to catch them.
So what is one to do? Should no one purchase a house in the United States because at some point someone will have hired an illegal to do part if not all of the work and therefore strip an actual licensed professional from a job?
Before the influx of illegals, who do you think did the jobs you now say only illegals will do? Picking crops, working in hotels, maids, housekeepers and gardners,( well, maybe lawns were done by kids wanting extra money)
Why is it no one defends the immigrant who waits his turn to come here honestly? How fair is it that only people close to our borders get the benefit of illegal entry without repercussions?
Be that as it may, I believe my piece very clearly says that workers don"t win under the current system, the only ones that do are millionaires and corporations. So why not attack them instead of the people they lured here?
And I would venture to guess that your life was better when there was more equity in pay, and coporations didnt have so much power. So why blame the undocumented?
But that makes the rest of us a bunch of hypocrites, and makes all of the people that followed to rules to get here fools!
Either close the borders and prosecute employers who keep hiring illegals while talking out of both sides of their mouth, or allow those that are already here to come out of the shadow and work legally, with all the inherent benefits and obligations, including tax obligations.
At any rate, stop exploiting them and the country you claim to love so much, all you Patriots out there.
NOSMAVAN.
As to your defense of Ms. Whitman. My response is a pretty straightforward "Oh come on...". That is to say, you honestly think she didn't know her maids status? Or ever wonder? A woman that was so much a part of the family that Ms. Whitman asked her to "not tell the children" when she was fired?
This sort of sticking our head in the sand when it benefits us, and then screaming about law breakers the rest of the time, is exactly what got us here. We have to do better as a country, act with more integrity. Or this will never be solved.
I think what this revelation really proves is not that Dobbs is a hypocrite but that the reality of 12 million undocumented workers means that it may now be impossible to know if anyone coming to work for you via a contractor is or is not undocumented. It begs a solution not more rhetoric.
Do you refuse your McDonnald's burger because the man or woman on the grill just may be illegal? Did you ever ask? Do you even care?
While it makes good press to point the finger at Dobbs because of his vocal stand on the issue, the fact is that every American is just as responsible for our immigration problem just by virtue of buying a bag of tomatoes or grapes grown in the US. We invited them then treat them like dirt because it is politically acceptable to do so to any minority.
NOSMAVAN
I watched "The Last Word" and kept waiting for Lawerence to ask the pertinent question if he (Dobbs) had employed these people personally. Dobbs should have asked if you should boycott a grocery store because they sell strawberries and watermelon. I don't think guilt by association is the validating factor. It should be incumbent on the employer of that particular employee for do the background research and bear the responsibility. Seems like kind of a stretch. I was waiting for Dobbs to be exposed but it didn't seem to be the case........but maybe next time!!! lol!!!
That's it, no representation (unless they have relatives who vote), no legal status, no rights. Easy to smother under outrageous requirements, waiting periods, fees with no recourse. No compulsion to be treated according to law.
I wonder if the gentle souls that call some immigrants criminals have ever in their lives faced an immigration bureaucracy, or have realized how easy it is for a government agency to turn somebody into a criminal simply by requiring something that is extremely difficult to supply for that person, or simply by not providing timely service (such as Identification that is required by the govt.) while said person stews and loses job opportunities, the possibility to rent and sign a contract, etc.
Though I admit that a person that enters a country without heeding any law should have it difficult, at the very least because she is undocumented. A person who wants to do things right and pay taxes, or amend such a previous situation should have all paths open, not obstructed by bureaucracy.
"The only way out of this equation that I can see is to organize ordinary Americans against the special interests which keep the system rigged against them."
Mainly by abolishing most immigration bureaucracy and letting persons and companies sign contracts as they see fit, as long as they are legal.
"Mexico enacted a controversial law on Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging government-financed treatment for drug dependency free of charge." AP (Aug 21 2009) The New York Times, retrieved Oct 7, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/world/americas/21mexico.html
There is no serious war on drugs as long as an addict who wants help cannot find an immediate opening in a rehabilitation program. Instead, what we have is support of the "war's" infrastructure. That's lots of money paid to keep the cost of drugs high and support a hugh crime syndicate that unstabilizes countries all over the world. Can you imagine how much better it would be to spend that money on education -- not drug education, improving our schools and making college more affordable?
If you want to reduce the violence. and in the process cut the legs off of the cartels then legalization is the answer. If Merck, Pfizer and Lilly made these drugs and standatdized the dosages there would be fewer overdoses and fewer bad effects from aldulteration. Do you know that ecgonine is extracted from coca using fuel grade kerosine out in the open jungle ? Can you imagine the impurites that end up in cocaine by that alone ?
Decriminalization, legalization and harm reduction programs is the only rational approach that will begin to solve the drug problem.
Just like my mom, the people making these complaints don't want these jobs nor do they know anyone that could survive on the wages illegal immigrants are, crazy as it sounds, happy to earn.
That they are in the country illegally is a completely legitimate complaint that warrants discussion, but please stop making the ridiculous argument that these people who are working the very worst jobs, have no job security, no benefits, and are paid even less than minimum wage for the privilege are stealing jobs because it's simply not true.
So they work anything they can get into and if using a stolen SSI card means they get above min wage they will do it. seen it TO MANY TIMES.
Just as you have the right to control who does or does not enter your home, a country has the right to decide what the rules are for any one to enter and for how long they are allowed to remain. Entry for employment is also not the "right" of anyone who is not a citizen and who has been breaking the law by remaining illegally.
The US has rules, (also known as LAWS) which are enforced by the INS.
It is said that the US is "unpopular" in the rest of the world. Permit me to wonder why the dream of so many is to live there, and to go to the extreme of breaking the law to do so. My gut feel is that the "unpopularity" is in large part due to jealousy of US democracy and the fredoms that it provides.
What does this tolerance of deliberate disregard for the laws of the country say to those who entered the legal way, perhaps waiting years for the opportunity? Does it mean they were fools to wait?
Sorry, but in my book, breaking the law is a crime. If you enter illegaly you commit a crime, and sorry but you have to return whence you came.
BTW, I am not a US citizen or resident of the US.
many people are here with pending status that has little hope of getting straightened out (because there is no more INS). most of these people are paying taxes in the meantime so that they will be copacetic once their number comes up. others are trapped here by blocked borders, and no other place of refuge after a lifetime of underpaid work for greedy hypocrites.
there are solutions which work in everyone's best interest and that don't require sympathy.
Legalize marijuana, and put an end to the smuggling from Mexico, produce a taxable cash crop and regulate it like tobacco and alcohol.
i'm not saying you are wrong, i'm saying the point is mute.
This is the same man who was then shown on tape as demanding jail time for those people who hired undocumented landscapers!
Dobbs is hypocritical beyond belief ~~~ and he is calling O'Donnell (no relation to that other one) a hypocrite for bringing it up!
I bet if these illegals were from Syria or Pakistan or Afganistan, you sympathizers would feel a little more insecure in saying they should be left alone.
And Mhelle, can you please quote the sentence from my post where I said anything suggesting that I am one of the "sympathizers" or that "they (illegals, wherever they are from) should be left alone?" That was a wild leap that you took ~~~ obviously you didn't read my words or comprehend them, because you made an assumption about me that just isn't there.