Ellington

Economic James K. Galbraith argues in Salon that Bush wants a stagnant job market to "keep the help from getting uppity." He writes: "The transcendent economic issue this election year isn't the growth rate. It isn't the stock market. It isn't the budget deficit. And it isn't even the rate of unemployment. It's the number of people in this country who have decent work -- and the number who don't."

Previous Comments

ID

141111

Comment

This article is scary. One thing that I haven't read a whole lot about is Bush's immigration proposal. I hadn't realized how messed up it is. At its most benign, it's a really bad idea that nobody has thought through. At its worst, its an outright effort to undercut american wages and develop a group of workers who have no rights and can be deported whenever their employers decide to deport them. As Galbraith writes: "There is worse still. Bush made clear that this program is not just for workers presently in the country, as the press has mostly been reporting. It is not just for those who may soon arrive. No, it is far broader than that. Here's the president's speech: "If an American employer is offering a job that American citizens are not willing to take, we ought to welcome into our country a person who will fill that job." This program will permit any employer to admit any worker. From any country. At any time. The only requirement is that it be for a job Americans are not willing to take. But it is easy to create such jobs: Cut wages. Terminate the unions. Lengthen the hours. Speed up the lines. Chicken farmers have known this for years. Bush's plan is a blank check for every bad boss this country has." If you compare this with the analysis on the Creative Class, http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/politics/comments.php?id=2290_0_13_0_C, it seems we're working hard as a country to undermine our own economic foundations, for both low skill and high skill jobs. What's next?

Author

kate

Date

2004-01-20T11:48:31-06:00

ID

141112

Comment

"Bush wants a stagnant job market to 'keep the help from getting uppity.'" - that is the dumbest thing I've read in a long, long time. Bush's immigration policy and economic policy may be awful - maybe not - but when Professor Galbraith pawns off his policies as a Bush attempt to "keep the help from getting uppity," he sounds like a paranoid madman (judging from the short news brief and the posted comment, I assume this quoted comment is targeted towards Bush's immigration policy and economic policy, generally). You have to be way up there on the cynic chart to think someone from either party would want to "keep the help from getting uppity." Get real. It's hard to take someone seriously when they start an article with a quote like this.

Author

austinbulldog

Date

2004-04-04T20:44:41-06:00