Quote: (02-07-2014 03:55 PM)thedude3737 Wrote:
I don't think any French bistro ever closed because too many ethnic minorities moved in. Every French bistro I know of are in neighborhoods that ethnic minorities are too broke to afford.
The example I pulled out of my ass, but the basic prediction is that when you import a lot of cheap labor that primarily benefits the upper classes, the result is an increased demand at the high and low end of the scale. You'll have an expensive 5-star restaurant and you'll have McDonalds, but you won't have a classy-but-affordable neighborhood cafe.
This article discusses the topic in terms of department stores:
Death of the US Middle Class
Talks about thriving bargain-bin stores and luxury department stores, but that old middle class standards like JC Penny are struggling. I'm certainly not ready to "blame immigrants" for this, not by any stretch, the reasons are almost certainly more complex.
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I do agree that it's largely ethnic groups that utilize public service like free parks and transportation, but you can't fault them for that. Most white people don't ride the bus in L.A. because it's such a shitty system, and they don't go to parks because they're too insular and would rather be hanging out at the Standard rooftop pool.
I'm not faulting THEM for anything, just making observations about consequences about the way the system works. If you're a longtime resident of a community and can no longer enjoy a public park because it's crowded with people who don't even speak your language, it's not racist to to be upset about that.
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You also have to look at the day to day interactions of the people when they interact with store clerks, food service workers and such. It's hard to describe how much nicer it is to interact with a cheerful teenage girl who speaks fluent English than a sullen adult who mumbles and barely makes eye contact. If you go to a grocery store in a small community in white middle America, you're more likely to get the teenage girl (though increasingly she will be overweight). If you go to a grocery store in big city immigrant neighborhoods, you're more likely to get the sullen adult.
I wrote a post about this a month or two ago. The most miserable people I see are white people in Whole Foods, so I stopped going. The most polite people I've seen at a grocery store are at my local Ralph's, in mid city, who are mostly black and hispanic (or mestizo or whatever the hell you want to call them. Brown)
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That's an exaggeration. Nobody HAS to work 80 hours, it's called jumping at opportunity and a strong work ethic. My guys working 80 hours a week make about 50k per year. Not bad for someone without a college degree and wasn't born here. That's about 5 times more than they'd make back home, depending if they're Mexican or Central American. That's also how much I've had to work at various points in my career to get where I am today, and now work 50 hours a week.
Again, I'm taking pains not to blame the immigrants themselves for anything. However, the politics concerns how to restrict, encourage, or otherwise cope with immigrants and potential immigrants. There are lots of friendly, hardworking people in the world, we can't import all of them to the US without suffering substantial social consequences. The simple fact of being an honest, hardworking man is not sufficient justification to allow immigration.
Anyway sorry to bump this thread, I wanted to respond to thedude3737's post since it was thoughtful and intelligent, just did not have the chance until now.