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Jeff C's avatar

Your assumption is wrong, I am in the workforce in a senior leadership technical position. Fortunately, my industry hasn't been affected by this as it requires US citizenship and often a security clearance granted by the US government.

We do just fine and don't require a single "guest worker". We have great, honest, hard working people, all of them citizens. I'd suggest that maybe the reason you cannot attract quality workers is that you pay them substandard wages and expect unreasonable commitments. We expect forty hours worth of work where they do their best. And we pay them for it.

It makes no difference if what Vivek said was true. None. This guy was a Democrat a couple of years ago, he doesn't get to dictate MAGA. He's an elitist son of immigrants who by fortunate circumstance took advantage of the best America had to offer. He has zero standing to trash American culture (even if it's true) and then tell people they deserve to be replaced. That's what he said and it was so tone deaf I doubt he'll actually be part of the administration for long.

Lisa - instead of you trashing young people who don't live up to your inflated high standards you might want to try actually listening to them. They are pissed that a couple of generations ago a milkman working forty hours a week could raise a family and buy a home. Now it's unlikely they will ever be able to buy a home regardless of how hard they work And they are right to be angry. Their birthright was sold out by types exactly like Vivek, condescending arrogant elitists with no cultural ties to the country. And you snarkilly complain about "the kids these days"?

Seriously, this is exactly why people cannot stand Boomers (or people that act like them). They think they are something special when in reality they just happened to come of age exactly when America was booming and before it was sold out from under the following generations. The answer is not to replace these people with foreigners with no connection to the country but to listen to them.

Edit: Adding to this that Elon's own Space-X cannot use guest workers because the work they do is governed by ITAR which requires US Citizenship. They have zero trouble attracting talent and are changing the world, but they also pay well.

The median salary to buy a home in the US is $99,000. That's about $48 dollars an hour. What are you paying these assembly people you complain about, $15-$20 an hour? No wonder they don't they don't feel like they are part of something.

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Lisa P's avatar

Trump was a Democrat a couple of years before 2016. Vivek didn't say we deserved to be replaced. He said if we don't demand higher standards of the people in our society, we are not going to out-compete China. I agree with that. And whining about it might make people feel better, but it doesn't fix the problem that we have. A couple of generations ago, the industrial capacity of Europe and Japan were still being rebuilt after complete obliteration during WW2. That's why a milkman was able to raise a family and buy a home (which would be considered a tiny home by today's standards). I'm not a Boomer. I grew up in the 70s-80s in one of the poorest states in the country. I've seen nothing but improved living conditions in my region of the country for most of my life. But none of us expected to be able to be able to buy a home while we were in our 20s. $24 an hour is entry level pay here. The young ones usually don't show up the Monday after payday, and it's worse after our quarterly bonus payout day. Two young workers living together (as in married) at $24/hr could buy a $99,000 house, both with only high school diplomas. That's a lot better than my parents first home, a single wide, in 1963. Did I mention the part where half of our new hire candidates can't stay of drugs long enough to pass the initial drug screen? I live in B'ham AL, so it's cultural I guess. Are we allowed to talk about that? Here's a chart of nonfarm job openings. If you weren't affected by it at work, you should consider yourself lucky. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/JTSJOL

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