Is The President About to Abandon American Workers?
Ina free society, consumers vote on marketplace options with their earnings. Andthey tend to patronize businesses that support their values. Accordingly, thebulk of corporate America generally tends to want the same thing as everydayAmericans: peace, stability, prosperity.
Butcorporations exist to make money and when tempted by easy profits, theirinterests may diverge from those of society as a whole. One place where thishappens is on the issue of migrant labor.
Laboris usually the biggest cost to any company. If you cut labor costs, youincrease profits, making both stockholders and creditors happy. So, Americancompanies love anyone who is willing to perform competent work for entry-levelwages. The easiest way to recruit low-cost workers is through immigrationprograms.
Theprimaryinterest of foreign workers is getting to, and remaining in, theUnited States. If an Indian or Chinese tech worker can get an H-1B visa, he/shehas a pathway to a green card and U.S. citizenship. Substandard wages are asmall price to pay for that opportunity, so most foreign workers will gladlyaccept jobs at the low end of the pay-scale. It’s simply the price of admissionto the U.S.
Thisis a dangerous mix. It leaves American workers sandwiched between two powerfullobbies, both driven by the desire for a return on their investments: U.S.companies addicted to cheap foreign labor and foreign workers eager to accessthe largest, most stable economy in the world.
So,who’s watching out for the American’s who want to make our nation great bydriving its economy?
Theworking class thought its champion was PresidentDonald J. Trump. And it had reason to believe the president. As the WashingtonExaminer put it, Mr. Trump tapped “into the idea of theforgotten man: working-class Americans who felt ignored by their politicalleaders and left behind by globalism.” And he backed his words up with actions:renegotiating bad trade deals, discouraging companies from shipping jobsoverseas and firing up the American economy.
Butis Mr. Trump still the one billionaire industrialist who’s holds the interestsof those who work for a living firmly in mind? Maybe not. In his 2019 Stateof the Union address, he called for the admission of legalimmigrants to the United States “in the largest numbers ever.” And during his speechto the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., he stated,”We need an immigration policy that’s going to be great for ourcorporations.” He also expressed hisview that “we need workers to come in.”
Onlytime will tell if the president who convinced American workers that he couldmake their country a great industrial power again has abandoned them and jumpedon the globalist band wagon. But one thing is certain, if he begins to championforeignworkers over the Americans, Mr. Trump will lose all credibility withthe voters who put him in office.