Tuesday, May 30, 2006
thought / question
Meandering among various blogs yesterday, someone said something that stirred up the earth around the seed of a question that's been germanating in my head for a while. (I wish I could remember who said what and therefore give credit where it's due, but I'm only sure it was someone on my sidebars or linked by one of them.)
One line of logic about why we should chuck legalize the 'illegal' non-citizens who are currently in the U.S. is that we need them because they willingly work really really hard at jobs the rest of us won't do, or at least we won't do them for low pay, and these non-citizens will work really really hard for very little money. Mind you, I'm not totally convinced all that is true, but for the sake of this particular thought-stream, I'll go along with the idea that there are hideously low paying jobs that lots of white and black Americans simply will not do and/or for those wages. But what happens in fifty or sixty years (or fewer?) when the currently illegal non-citizens work so hard that they have a fair amount of money? (Which is what always happens to the new guys on the block (a/k/a in the country), right? They work like hell, put up with disrespect and lousy working conditions, and then they become part of the middle class.) So . . . who scrubs toilets and cleans operating rooms and mows lawns then? Unless the fundamental structure changes somehow, won't there always be a 'lower' and a 'middle' and an 'upper'? Won't some new group of non-citizens have to come along and take up the slack? In which case, it can't end. In which case, what is the right (not just the practical) answer for now, in 2006??
One line of logic about why we should chuck legalize the 'illegal' non-citizens who are currently in the U.S. is that we need them because they willingly work really really hard at jobs the rest of us won't do, or at least we won't do them for low pay, and these non-citizens will work really really hard for very little money. Mind you, I'm not totally convinced all that is true, but for the sake of this particular thought-stream, I'll go along with the idea that there are hideously low paying jobs that lots of white and black Americans simply will not do and/or for those wages. But what happens in fifty or sixty years (or fewer?) when the currently illegal non-citizens work so hard that they have a fair amount of money? (Which is what always happens to the new guys on the block (a/k/a in the country), right? They work like hell, put up with disrespect and lousy working conditions, and then they become part of the middle class.) So . . . who scrubs toilets and cleans operating rooms and mows lawns then? Unless the fundamental structure changes somehow, won't there always be a 'lower' and a 'middle' and an 'upper'? Won't some new group of non-citizens have to come along and take up the slack? In which case, it can't end. In which case, what is the right (not just the practical) answer for now, in 2006??
Labels: blogs (others'), reflections
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