General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: What I would like explained to me [View all]freshwest
(53,661 posts)Their middle class was being wiped out just before NAFTA by the same forces demanding it and all the others be signed. They were seeing what we've been seeing, that upward mobility from education was no longer working. Many with college degrees had to leave behind their careers to come here and do menial labor to support their families. It was a myth that those immigrants were stupid peasants, just as is being claimed about the Chinese and Americans now.
When Reagan signed for amnesty for those who'd fled north to the USA from Mexico, it was beginning of a flood. Because things did not get any better. When I was teenager, Mexico was a fairly decent place to live with a middle class. And those of us in America were living in a highly regulated economy which gave us the freedom to speak out minds and demand better.
When Reagan removed those regulations, and the manufacturing base was sold off, that great theft began under the blinders of rightwing religion and appealing to bigotry of all kinds. Not that those getting rich in those days cared, it was put out for the stupid voters always willing to stab their breathren in the back. Americans were programmed to destroy the country.
Business and wealth has never seen a national boundary, resource or person it respected more than its abililty to make a quick buck. So you can see where we're headed if Americans don't vote the repigs out of office and replace them with progressives.
But no one seems to have any interest in doing that because they think that bitching is going to change things.