As a small business owner, I have found that many jobs are not such that Americans won't do them; rather, many jobs are such that Americans *can't* do them. Cleaning a toilet and making a bed is no longer unskilled labor. Rather, apparently, it takes a Phd. and extensive training. Most kids are too busy on their GD phones or whatever. I've even heard that Mexicans are getting that way (now that we've shipped so many jobs down there and raised their standard of living). If you want the old fashioned, hungry work ethic, you have to go further south, to Guatemala.
But if you obey the law, as I do, you just end up doing a lot of the work your own damn self. If you raise wages (mine are above the going rate around here) to attract talent, you have to raise the cost of your goods and services and people don't want to pay. And even then, there is no guarantee you will get a good worker as you lose business.
So, I'd take a hungry immigrant with a work ethic over your typical lazy-ass American who hates me anyway. Do I owe my fellow Americans anything? Maybe. Maybe something. But I don't owe them a living unless they want to work for it. And if they are disrespectful, inconsiderate and dishonorable, then I don't owe them S just because they are American.
That said, I have found some American gems, but they are slim pickins. And I do believe immigration should be legal.
In the end, supply and demand applies to labor and human life itself. The more people you have, the cheaper they become. If you open markets up to billions in India, China and Mexico, then the value of Americans drops accordingly. It will level out when American workers are living like and making the same wages as the Chinese worker. And when we are trashing our land and air and water like they are.
Every argument about free trade always has both parties agreeing to the mantra "Well, yes, there will be some winners and losers."
So, are you going to be a winner? Maybe if you are invested in emerging markets. Otherwise, I bet you'll be a loser.
The answer is not necessarily isolationism. The answer is FAIR trade. And make those fking winners pay in. After all, "free trade" is not their right UNTIL the treaty is signed. So, we should negotiate and say:"How much of your winnings can we take from you if this goes through before you decide to take your ball and go home? Well, we won't take *that* amount, but we will get a whole hell of a lot closer to it than we have been!"
Tax those winners to pay for their externalized costs that the rest of us bear. And if they try to hide their winnings over seas, strip them of their citizenship and deport their illegal, un-American, un-patriotic ass to whatever country it is they are hiding "their" loot in.
End rant.
