Rand Paul Says Immigrant Workers Are Taking Our Jobs Because Americans Lack A ‘Work Ethic’

[DonViejo]

Whenever the subject of poverty and the economy come up, Republicans often like to blame the poor for being lazy and unwilling to better themselves. At the same time, they like to complain (as Donald Trump is doing right now) that American jobs are being lost to foreign workers. Oh yeah, and on top of all of it, there are the conservatives who also love to stereotype immigrants as lazy, especially Mexicans.

Combine all of these contradictions together, and you’ll get the usual range of talking points from conservatives about how Americans are lazy – as well as the lazy immigrants who just come here to get welfare handouts, but somehow are taking our jobs at the same time. Now Rand Paul is jumping on the bandwagon by blaming Americans for lacking a work ethic.

In an interview last week on EWTN (the world’s largest religious broadcasting company), Rand Paul stated that not only are immigrant workers a problem, but American workers are at fault.

Via Right Watch:

When EWTN anchor Raymond Arroyo asked the Kentucky Republican about the 250 Disney employees who were let go after training their replacements who came to the U.S. on temporary visas, Paul said the U.S. must “look very carefully at how many people we need.”

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/rand-paul-says-immigrant-workers-taking-jobs-because-americans-lack-a-work-ethic/?

[tecelote]

1. Americans had a work ethic but we shipped it overseas.

I remember when McDonalds was a kid's first job. Now it's their career.

A work ethic requires pride. When young people with degrees are forced to work in fast food restaurants, you can't expect much pride in their work to show through.

[HughBeaumont]

8. All this costly education with very little to no ROI due to no liveable wage jobs . . . .

. . . only means we're going to have the most educated shelf stockers and burger grillers on the planet.

It also brings up another GOP pearl of wisdom: their incessant want to raise the retirement age further and further.

Exactly how are young people even going to get started if the older ones are never allowed to retire (either because they have no pension or they just flat out can't due to lack of finances)? This represents a bottleneck.

[CBGLuthier]

2. Says a guy who works 3 days a week at an extraordinary salary and with benefits for life

doing a shitty job and barely breaking a sweat.

Fuck him and his entitled ass.

[pampango]

3. Great post. 1%'s complaints: lazy American workers, lazy immigrant workers (who

just come here to soak up welfare benefits).

What's a 1%'er to do? What's a GOP candidate to do? If you keep those 'welfare-seeking' immigrants out you're left with 'lazy' American workers. If you let the immigrants in, they will be an expensive burden on society, and they bring more of the 'diversity' that you and your GOP base are so afraid of.

All the 1% knows for sure is they don't want a 'European/Scandinavian' scenario. High immigration, strong unions, effective safety net and high wages. What a 1%'ers nightmare that is. 😅

[fredamae]

4. Prove it, Rand...

Unless you're thinking of Congress...then Never mind
Seems we may have a few "outsider" Lazy, Do nothing Takers there as well

[Vinca]

5. Tell that to people working 3 jobs to get by.

In any case, there's an easy solution to the "immigrant" problem. Criminally charge employers who hire undocumented workers and put their behinds in jail. After one or two business owners go off to the big house, the problem will be solved.

[Fred Sanders]

12. There is no "immigrant problem".....the problem is xenophobia.

If one can get three jobs, maybe the problem is the wages paid and not "the immigrants"??

[Vinca]

15. If there are 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, that is a problem.

What is or is not xenophobic is how it is resolved.

[flobee1]

6. Its not our work ethic

Its that we want to get paid a fair salary and not be worked like dogs. I still believe american workers can build anything better than any other worker in the world, but we dont like to be cheated

[tanyev]

7. Wow, he really is going Galt.

[HughBeaumont]

9. There's one thing for sure about the GOP candidates . . . .

They really, really can't do this "campaigning" thing very well, can they?

I would think the way to get American workers (voters) on your side . . . . would probably start with NOT insulting them by blaming them for something beyond their control.

[UTUSN]

16. You said what I was going to say. n/g

[Javaman]

10. okay, so the trend in repub candidate circles is the message, "bash Americans".

I think they should move on to canons, because the guns they are using to shoot themselves in the foot aren't big enough.

[Fred Sanders]

11. Anti-immigrant rhetoric combined with an appeal to nationalism and patriotic pride. Sound familiar?

[Taitertots]

13. Rand Paul "Fuck the American worker"

You're all lazy douchebags for refusing to work like slaves.

[madville]

14. You just don't see whites and blacks doing some jobs around here

In my area 25-30 years ago all the farms, roofing, landscaping, pine straw, concrete, construction, etc was white and black people of all ages. What are those blocks of white and black people that used to perform those types of jobs doing these days? Because you certainly don't see white or black people performing those jobs around here anymore.

I would say 90%+ of those positions now in this area (Florida), are Hispanic immigrants. I did construction and roofing when I was 16-19 years old, it's hot, backbreaking work that I certainly wouldn't do now.

[Glitterati]

18. Just like the white kids here won't be gutting chickens at Tyson

Not gonna happen.

[haele]

19. My husband did in the 1990's because that was the best of the worst jobs around.

Of course, he was in his late 20's, early 30's with an ex-wife and kid in rural Alabama, child support payments, no other family to help, and he couldn't just leave the county like most of his white peers for "better work" because he wanted to be part of his daughter's life. It paid 1/3 more than retail, and the hours, though tough, would give him afternoons and evenings with her.

He will freely admit that there were no other young white workers on the line jobs and few older white workers in their 50's. Even in a depressed area of Alabama, in the 1990's there developed the expectation that one shouldn't be working "those types" of dirty work jobs - that a lower paying retail job at WalMart or Radio Shack was somehow classier than working a chicken plant.

He thought it was odd, because when he was growing up in the 80's there, there wasn't that expectation; hard work was still the way to get ahead, and retail was for pin or mad money, not for keeping a household.

I think much of this attitude came from a false reality of how a "good life" was portrayed on TV and in the media in general. It's a very adolescent understanding of the way the world works.

The corollary would be in raising a child; no matter how well you teach them, once they hit puberty, their peers will influence them more than you can. The trick is to expose them to the right peer set early, give them lots of coping tricks and skills that boost their confidence during that time and hope that holds through to adulthood.

If you let TV or other mass media raise your kids, you've lost from the start. They don't know how to cope, they don't know the difference between "need" and "want", and they resist making choices that aren't shortcuts; they don't understand that they need to know why there's a rule before they decide to break it. They become uncurious, reactionary - and directionless.
And that's how the people who make money selling useless shiny objects want their customer base and workforce to be.

Haele

[Paladin]

17. Says the doctor's kid who's never had a tough economic day in his life. (nt)