09/04/2014
Fast food workers nationwide are on strike and police are arresting people all around the country as they protest for higher wages.Police handcuffed dozens of protesters who blocked traffic in dozens of cities across the country on Thursday in their latest attempt to escalate efforts to get McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast-food companies to pay employees at least $15 an hour.
The protests, which were planned by labor organizers for about 150 cities nationwide throughout Thursday, are part of a campaign called "Fight for $15."
Since the efforts began in late 2012, organizers have switched up their tactics every few months to bring attention to the protests, which have attracted spotty crowds. Organizers previously said they planned to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience on Thursday, which they predicted might lead to arrests.
[Fast-Food Protestors Cuffed at Higher-Pay Rallies, by Joseph Pisani, Associated Press, September 4, 2014]
The response from Conservatism Inc. has been predictable, with Erick Erickson among others charging that minimum wage workers are those who "failed at life" [Fast food protests fire up debate, by Debbi Baker, San Diego Union-Tribune, September 4, 2014]. But why is it somehow a "right-wing" position to defend companies who pay garbage wages to serve garbage food?
More importantly, fast food companies are a critical component of the open borders lobby. At all parts of the supply chain, from the meat processing plants to the "restaurants" themselves, the industry wages demographic warfare on the historic American nation on all fronts.Why do Americans need to defend these profiteers right to subsidized cheap labor? Why are grassroots conservatives constantly told to defend their enemies?
There are compelling arguments why patriots should WANT a high price of labor. As Ron Unz pointed out in The American Conservative when he argued for increasing the minimum wage,
Even on the highly contentious and seemingly unrelated issue of immigration, a large rise in the minimum wage might have a strongly positive impact. During the last decade or two, American immigration has been running at historically high levels, with the overwhelming majority of these immigrants being drawn here by hopes of employment.[xii] This vast influx of eager workers has naturally strengthened the position of Capital at the expense of Labor, and much of the stagnation or decline in working-class wages has probably been a result, since this sector has been in greatest direct competition with lower-skilled immigrants.[xiii]Some conservatives might say that this would actually cost low paying jobs. Good! That would reduce the need to import cheap labor and fuel developments in robotics and technology. It’s far less damaging than having to import another million helots whose low wages must be subsidized by government benefits.Not only would a large rise in the minimum wage reverse many years of this economic “race to the bottom,” but it would impact immigration itself, even without changes in government enforcement policy. One of the few sectors likely to be devastated by a much higher minimum wage would be the sweatshops and other very low wage or marginal businesses which tend to disproportionably employ new immigrants, especially illegal ones. Sweatshops and similar industries have no legitimate place in a developed economy, and their elimination would reduce the sort of lowest-rung job openings continually drawing impoverished new immigrants. Meanwhile, those immigrants who have already been here some time, learned English, and established a solid employment record would be kept on at higher wages, reaping the same major benefits as non-immigrant Americans within the ranks of the working-poor.
[Raising American Wages … by Raising American Wages, November 19, 2012]
As American workers are constantly being displaced by immigrants, shouldn’t patriots be thinking of a better economic model than a constant flood of resentful servants? And wouldn’t a better way to appeal to black voters be helping them secure better paying jobs instead of embarrassing pandering?
Here’s hoping the strike succeeds — and that a Republican confuses the MSM by taking up the cause.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.