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The War Inside 7-Eleven

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81–90 of 122 posts

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#81
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US was founded on immigration. > Can't let everyone in. Why not?

Why dont you ask the native Americans about that.

Are you drawing a comparison between what the US did to Native Americans and what immigrants might do to us? That is such a dangerous, slanderous, ignorant comment that I really have to question your motives.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#82
post #48
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fascism is the bonding of state and corporate power ... only if you define "corporation" the way Fascists did: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm > In the last half of the 19th century people of the working class in Europe were beginning to show interest in the ideas of socialism and syndicalism. Some members of the intelligentsia, particularly the Catholic intelligentsia, decided to formulate an a…

It's fascinating that "fascism" today means nothing like what it did originally, even though the definition hasn't changed -- the definition of the words in the definition changed! "Fascism" is a bad word simply because Mussolini came to power when Fascism was popular in Italy, and Nazism became "Fascist" because Hitler allied with Mussolini.

No, "fascism" is not unpopular simply because of that association. It's unpopular because its core principles as stated by its own proponents - authoritarianism, nationalism, violence as a tool of policy (which the "fasces" visually represents) - were already in disrepute at its founding. It was meant to be a bad word to those who believe in democracy, globalism, and non-violence.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

==The pie hasn’t grown for four decades [1], and the middle class has been hollowed out [2]. The existing system must be fixed before more burden is placed on it.== Your first chart doesn't show a stagnant pie, looking at GDP numbers disproves that theory. The pie has absolutely grown, corporations have just chosen to keep more of it. The problem is that you are connecting these things directly to immigration and the…

> The pie has absolutely grown, corporations have just chosen to keep more of it. Then the pie has not grown. You're simply advocating throwing more people on an already broken system. > Wasn't your entire point that we are just hiring immigrants to do this work instead of building robots (your Wisconsin dairy example)? My argument is that automation should be prioritized over subjugating illegal immigrants who have…

But we're not talking about illegal immigrants who have no recourse here. We're talking about opening up immigration so that these people, and others, can come in and do these jobs that as of now only go to illegals, while also receiving the benefits and protections that come as a legal immigrant. That seems to be exactly what you want, so why are you against it?

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US was founded on immigration. > Can't let everyone in. Why not?

Imagine if the entire population of Bangladesh were suddenly added to the state of California. You’d quickly become the third world because no country could handle that sort of influx. Just the act of building enough schools would bankrupt the state. Not to mention any other social services — and the only benefit to the country initially would be simply millions of unskilled workers — which would drive wages to near…

That's not realistic. Even remotely. There won't be some sudden influx because getting to the United States alone is hard. For most people, it'll be a transoceanic flight which is not very cheap at all.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, selectively enforcing laws to benefit one side in a business relationship is fascist.

Pretty sure ICE will enforce the law against anyone reported to them.

Yes, I'm pretty sure they would, but if they've gone out of their way to prioritize 7-11 corporate's requests, or prosecute them more aggressively than they would in general, then they're colluding in discrimination. And none of that absolves 7-11 corporate for calling them in selectively.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The pie has absolutely grown, corporations have just chosen to keep more of it. Then the pie has not grown. You're simply advocating throwing more people on an already broken system. > Wasn't your entire point that we are just hiring immigrants to do this work instead of building robots (your Wisconsin dairy example)? My argument is that automation should be prioritized over subjugating illegal immigrants who have…

But we're not talking about illegal immigrants who have no recourse here. We're talking about opening up immigration so that these people, and others, can come in and do these jobs that as of now only go to illegals, while also receiving the benefits and protections that come as a legal immigrant. That seems to be exactly what you want, so why are you against it?

I feel that I have sufficiently explained my thesis through my other comments.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

==The pie hasn’t grown for four decades [1], and the middle class has been hollowed out [2]. The existing system must be fixed before more burden is placed on it.== Your first chart doesn't show a stagnant pie, looking at GDP numbers disproves that theory. The pie has absolutely grown, corporations have just chosen to keep more of it. The problem is that you are connecting these things directly to immigration and the…

> The pie has absolutely grown, corporations have just chosen to keep more of it. Then the pie has not grown. You're simply advocating throwing more people on an already broken system. > Wasn't your entire point that we are just hiring immigrants to do this work instead of building robots (your Wisconsin dairy example)? My argument is that automation should be prioritized over subjugating illegal immigrants who have…

> Then the pie has not grown. You're simply advocating throwing more people on an already broken system.

I'm not sure where you get this idea, but the growth of US GDP is evidence that the pie has grown. The reality is that corporations are keeping a larger percentage of that pie than ever before. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Secondly, I am not advocating for anything, I am just trying to understand your stance.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#88
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should be the idea, but the brand has requirements. When you go to a McDonalds and order a burger you know what it will taste like. The reason you know that is McDonald's requires all franchises to do quality control. I don't know the exact arrangement, but probably the franchise is not allowed to source their raw materials elsewhere. If a McDonald's burger doesn't taste right they will take action up to taking…

>(but after 30 years you can sell your franchise and get the equity back - enough to retire on). If the franchisee doesn't own the land or building, it doesn't sound like they have any equity. All they have is the licensing agreement with the brand, which I'm sure has an expiration date, but all the power rests with the brand. Unless there's a clause in the franchising agreement that forces the brand to only license…

The devil is in the details. There are thousands (more?) of different things you can franchise. Each has different terms! Some are outright scams. Some are great deals. Some are in between where your skill as a business manager is the largest factor.

Owning the land/building is often a negative for a small business - you want to focus on managing your business not maintaining your building (an accountant can explain other reasons why renting is usually better).

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it breaks your economy and social fabric (super simplified for the sake of fitting a decent reply into one short HN comment). We're at the lowest level of unemployment in decades, and wages are barely moving up. Bringing in large amounts of unskilled workers (remember, skilled workers get in on merit) would only delay wages rising (or those unskilled workers are going to be working under the table in jobs lik…

Immigration is at generationally low levels, I don’t see how you could blame it for lack of wage increases. What about the stagnant minimum wage, record corporate profits or union busting; might they play a role? “American society” and “our values” are by-products of immigration, how would more immigrants ruin that?

I'll give you a firm example. I'm close to a town of 20,000 in rural Minnesota, and the biggest employer is a well known turkey company. Their plants used to be staffed with primarily native (and being in Minnesota, white) people. It was menial, hard labor but it paid well because of that. By the 90s the plant was primarily staffed by illegal Mexican immigrants, and now it's almost entirely Somalians.

The jobs are repetitive, mindless, and it's cold, wet, and loud in there. The pay is barely above minimum wage. If the company didn't have access to those immigrants that are happy for any work at all, they would have been forced to raise those wages long ago. If people in the plant were paid, say, $15 an hour, the hourly workers in the office next door sure wouldn't be happy being paid the same amount. Their wages would have to be higher, which would mean the salaried folks would also want to be paid more.

That town is a perfect microcosm of how the massive amount of immigration our country has seen has kept wages stagnant.

Re: The War Inside 7-Eleven

#90
post #81
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why dont you ask the native Americans about that.

Are you drawing a comparison between what the US did to Native Americans and what immigrants might do to us? That is such a dangerous, slanderous, ignorant comment that I really have to question your motives.

Is it?

Our ancestors tried to annihilate natives in almost totality (physically first, then just culturally) - why is it a shock that some Americans would be afraid of the same thing happening to us? I mean one of the hallmarks of American culture is subsuming the culture of the newly arrived into our own - it not unconscionable to think that some Americans think all peoples/cultures have that same impulse.

I'm generally pro-immigration, but you need to have immigrants that want to be Americans, not people who want to bring their culture with them and pass it down. That means people who understand freedom of speech, democratic values, and largely either speak, or are willing to learn english.

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