So I watched an interview on Morning Joe - sadly this is what's on MSNBC in the mornings - and I came across an author who stated after many interviews most Americans agree on the issues. She did the hard work of not doing many interviews as much as spending a lot of time with different people with different views and drilling down. Quality over quantity - that doesn't happen over the phone in a few minutes.
I was surprised that her conclusion is we aren't far apart as what the problems are as much as how to solve those problems. According to her the divide is how to fix the problems. I want to talk about one in particular, immigration. According to her the fear is losing their jobs and economic opportunities. The right makes it about color but the underlying fear is losing work. Exacerbated by inflation - which by most signs point to greed by CEOs.
I think we have an advantage to speak to the core of the issue first. We should be vocal about racism, very vocal. But we miss the issue if we don't speak about the core problem - being replaced by an immigrant for work.
Personally, I believe the cost of goods and services in America is kept low by immigrants. And before that slaves. And at other times, wage and benefit suppression. Corporate towns. That's a huge part of the equation.
Throw in greed by CEOs and their first line of defense "but the shareholders, people's 401k". I am a shareholder as is anyone with a 401k or retirement plan. Fuck the shareholders. I'm tired of that being the justification for so many egregious wrongs committed by companies to workers.
The problem remains, how do we keep the cost of goods down? Because Republicans know a lot of their corporate backers want to keep production cheap and profits large. Immigrants are great for that. I think the opportunity to open a new front is here.
What do you think? Maybe cap CEO pay and limit stock compensation to force them to invest in the companies to make them profitable and keep the costs low? Innovate? More employee boards and unions? It's not like these CEOs are going to go anywhere else.
I think before we talk about fairness for immigrants - Americans want to know that they aren't gonna lose their jobs and their homes to them first. We make that part of the conversation and we salve some of the fears out there. The unease.
The right wins when they talk about punishment because it looks like they are tackling those who would take your jobs and homes. Playing the fear card is a giant part of this. I don't think while it's ABSOLUTELY TRUE, saying "immigrant take the jobs most Americans don't want" is enough.
What kills me is these same CEOs who back Republicans know throwing out immigrants would absolutely price them out of the market and they do it anyways. This is America's dirty secret.
The question is what to do about it?