Quote Originally Posted by Jimaz View Post
Total duration 16 minutes: 20/20 Diane Sawyer My Reality: A Hidden America

It becomes fairly obvious that the immigrant "problem" is nothing more than a diversion. Immigrants didn't suddenly, magically acquire the motives and means to destroy the American middle class. No, only forces at the helm could have managed that gargantuan task. But their faces are never shown.

"Play no attention to that man behind the curtain." says the man behind the curtain.
I did watch the Diane Sawyer link. It contained no reference to immigrants. It was pretty much a discourse on the fact that middle class Americans' living standards are in decline; they cannot afford housing, college, etc, and are not saving for retirement. I agree and also agree with you that there is are metaphoric men behind the curtain tilting the table in their own favor. It contained no mention that under Obama the 1% increased its share of the national economic pie at a faster rate than even under Bush.

One weak spot in the Sawyer article was that in the 50's we lived in 1,000 sq.' homes. Today, as the article pointed out, the average new house built is 3x that size. In that vein, our one car was simpler that our two cars today. We have electronic everything, campers show up with Dodge Rams pulling large trailers and 1.5 kids instead of a Chevy with a tent and 3 kids. In short, things today are fancier and more costly. That is our own fault. Women going to work was often liberating but drove up the prices of housing based on what banks lent based on combined incomes; a score for bankers.

Where I disagree with you is that massive immigration, legal and illegal, as well as bad trade policies disadvantaging the U.S. $350B/yr with China and $70B/yr. with Mexico, in my opinion, are policies designed by those guys behind the curtain for their own advantage. Although such trade agreements hurt our national balance of trade, they reap huge profits for the owners of import corporations. Importing Buicks from China will not generally benefit people in Detroit or Flint but are great for GM stock holders. Hiring cheaper overseas labor is very profitable for owners but not so good for U.S. UAW workers.

Expanding the domestic labor pool is also great for profits because the greater supply of labor drives down the cost of domestic labor. It is the domestic equivalent of sending work abroad. There are other beneficiaries of massive immigration including teachers, social workers, and landlords. Again, supply/demand comes into play as a larger population increases demand and prices of housing. Cheaper foreign labor does most of the roofing while demand drives up house prices. Social service and infrastructure costs associated with all the additional cheap labor are billed to the middle class. Profits are privatized while costs are socialized. What's not to like for the 1%?

I'm amazed at how well the corporatist 1% behind the curtain package immigration and their hatred of tariffs. They own the media giants and recently the billionaire owned social media has been imposing a 1984 worthy censorship to go along with one sided corporate owned news. Censorship has also been privatized. My Facebook page is riddled with public service propaganda articles like Now This. Its sort of an electronic version of loudspeakers blaring out propaganda at every North Korean street corner.