Many people justify expulsion of millions of undocumented workers on the basis of the ‘costs’ to the government for educational and medical services and they warn against admitting so many uneducated and untrained workers.
But this is the same elitist philosophy which undervalues labor. These are many of the same people who still refuse to admit the contribution to the economy of millions of slaves.
The wealthy landowners were more likely to lament the costs of feeding and housing his slaves than totaling the value of their labor.
America is yet to admit that having so much free labor not only benefited the southern agricultural economy, but also the northern industries as well.
Today, as many as 12 million undocumented workers are making a substantial financial contribution to this country.
And while we gladly enjoy the low-cost of the agricultural products many of them harvest for us, we’d rather talk about the costs of educating their children or treating their illnesses.
But that kind of thinking has implications in other areas of our capitalist economy. And the middle class is finding that their attack on illegal aliens may also soon, if not already, befall them.
For example, we don’t flinch anymore when our major industries layoff thousands of trained workers. Entire regions of the country have been decimated by such layoffs and plant closings, all in the name of greater efficiency and raising production. All the while these industries pay management and stockholders higher and higher bonuses and dividends.
How long can an economic system which undervalues labor survive. It may take a while, but eventually, the labor of China, India and other parts of the Pacific Rim will be used up. How then will capital survive without its twin, labor.
Perhaps we will all be replaced by machines.
Think about that the next time you want to send the young father mowing your lawn back to Latin America.
