Something Must Be Wrong With Me Today

I usually disagree with Glenn Beck, in fact I think he’s an insensitive jerk. However, he has written an opinion article that I think I mostly agree with. I have read it carefully, trying to find some hidden meaning. So far nothing comes to me. Something must be wrong with me today if I find myself agreeing with Glenn Beck.

From Commentary: Slavery alive and well in US by Glenn Beck:

"Jobs Americans just won't do."

I can't stand that line, but more importantly, I don't even understand it.

Americans spend months at a time at sea fishing for crab or drilling for oil; two of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Americans clean bathrooms, subway stations and crime scenes. Americans man toll booths, pave roads, embalm bodies and inspect sewers. Yet people really expect us to believe that they won't pick strawberries or oranges?

It just doesn't add up.

I’m in complete agreement with this. No argument from me about this.

Mr. Beck then says:

I know this will come as a huge shock to those who only like to hurl insults, but I think we should be issuing more work visas, more student visas, and more green cards. And I think we should cut the red tape and bureaucracy that's constantly blocking the front door.

Again, something I agree with. In the past I’ve called Mr. Beck a moron and a self-centered jerk. Am I missing something here? Is Beck talking in code or something?

This part from Beck confuses me:

So why don't they just hire Americans instead? Good question. Her answer? "This is a hard job."

I find it pretty hard to believe that there aren't a few college students who wouldn't want to drive around California and work outdoors all summer, but let's assume that's true. Let's even assume that none of the other 1.1 million Californians who were unemployed as of April are interested in the job either. Isn't anyone wondering why?

Well I'm not a labor consultant, but I am a thinker. Maybe the problem isn't that the job they're offering is "too hard," maybe it's that the wages they're offering are "too low."

No one paints the undersides of bridges for fun, they do it for the money. That's how capitalism works.

How capitalism does NOT work is when we collectively look the other way as companies exploit illegal labor for their own benefit.

The unspoken truth is that these businesses don't hire illegal aliens because they can't find American workers, they hire illegal aliens because they don't want American workers. And it has nothing to do with wages.

Illegal aliens mean no workers comp claims, no age, race or sex discrimination lawsuits, no healthcare premiums, no unions, and no demands for raises, vacations or bigger offices. In fact, illegal immigrants are the perfect employees because they're not employees at all; they're corporate slaves.

How can Mr. Beck quickly go from wages being “too low” to “it has nothing to do with wages”? I agree with everything Beck says about unions, healthcare premiums, etc. However, I think that wages are still a part of the equation here.

Next Mr. Beck writes:

Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell once said "Blacks were not enslaved because they were black, but because they were available." Can't the exact same thing be said for illegal aliens? They're available and we're allowing them to be exploited in the name of cheap groceries.

The Sowell quote is one of the stupidest things I have ever read. Blacks were enslaved because they were thought of as sub-human and ignorant. Blacks were not available, they had to be shipped in on slave ships.

I’m not sure what Mr. Beck means by this:

The problem with the debate over illegal immigration right now is that special interests have been successful in making us think with our hearts instead of our brains. We've been persuaded to believe that real compassion can only be achieved by following their agenda. But look where that's gotten us. And more importantly, look where that's gotten the people they're supposedly trying to help.

Perhaps this is where I am unable to decipher the code.

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