571
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

While some contractors dismiss the plan as political rhetoric, many say they can’t afford to lose more people from an aging, immigrant-dependent workforce still short of nearly 400,000 people.

Both presidential candidates promise to build more homes. One promises to deport hundreds of thousands of people who build them.

Former President Donald Trump's pledge to "launch the largest deportation operation in the history of our country" would hamstring construction firms already facing labor shortages and push record home prices higher, say industry leaders, contractors and economists.

"It would be detrimental to the construction industry and our labor supply and exacerbate our housing affordability problems," said Jim Tobin, CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. The trade group considers foreign-born workers, regardless of legal status, "a vital and flexible source of labor" to builders, estimating they fill 30% of trade jobs like carpentry, plastering, masonry and electrical roles.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] ToastedPlanet@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 35 minutes ago

The idea has also drawn skepticism on logistical grounds, with some analysts saying its costs would be “astronomical.”

This is like being skeptical that Nazi Germany would send people to death camps because it would be too expensive.

Bryan Dunn, an-Arizona based senior vice president at Big-D Construction, a major Southwest firm, called “the idea that they could actually move that many people” out of the country “almost laughable.”

Societies have been able to move millions of people around since they developed railway systems.

What's almost laughable is the state of denial people are in.

Last year, the state’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, enacted a series of restrictions and penalties to deter the employment of undocumented workers. Many immigrant workers hastily left the state even before the policies took effect, with social media videos showing some construction sites sitting empty.

This is the best case scenario in theory. Immigrants would flee to safety before the US government could harm them. However, in practice, where can they go? Many people already come here because their home countries are too dangerous for them.

This gets to a broader point. I've seen a lot of discussion in the past about trying to flee the country if things go wrong. There isn't going to be anywhere to flee to that's any safer if the US becomes a christo-fascist dictatorship. The EU is going to have to fend for itself against Russia. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan will be on their own. Unrest in North America, South America, Africa and Asia will only get worse. We are seeing a global rise of fascism along with dictatorships becoming bolder and more willing to challenge the international order. Anyway we slice it, the only good outcomes involve fascists staying out of power.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 minutes ago

People simply don't care. The amount of times people talk about fleeing the country vs even changing their local government is completely out of whack. People don't try, expect to move somewhere else and not try and not have their problems follow them.

[-] stupidcasey@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago

Yeah.. IM no fan of trump but the reason housing is so expensive has nothing to do with needing more houses.

[-] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

I'll be so glad when this election is over and he can just lose the rest of his criminal cases and get sentenced, or have his final Big Mac Attack and dodge justice forever.

[-] rekabis@lemmy.ca 20 points 6 hours ago

The ONY REASON why immigrant labour is needed is because too much of the profits flow to the Parasite Class at the top.

It used to be that America could build affordable family homes for decent-sized families using well-paid American citizens. This was possible because those Americans were actually paid well enough to afford homes of their own; most of the value of their labour actually came back to them. Plus, most building materials weren’t beset by Greedflation and the need to keep obscene amounts of wealth flowing into pockets that were already overstuffed without more wealth than the person could spend in 100 lifetimes.

America could return to that time, where even the lowest-paid workers make enough to be within a stone’s throw of affording their own home. All it takes is a political leader willing to do the politically painful job of taxing the fuck out of the Parasite Class - including treating any loans taken out using stocks as collateral as “income” to be taxed, regardless of the destination of those funds.

That, plus a metric arseload of other things such as making corporate ownership of homes illegal and making “investor ownership” of homes beyond about 3-5 homes similarly illegal. Because not only do these parasites suck up the supply of homes, preventing renters from getting off the rental market, but they are also the primary players jacking up rents to unaffordable levels, seeking to squeeze every possible dollar out of hard-working Americans. Let these parasites find a real job if they want to continue earning money.

[-] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 1 points 2 hours ago

All it takes is a political leader willing to do the politically painful job of taxing the fuck out of the Parasite Class

I don't think it works that way.

I'm not trying to say that would be a bad thing, it would be great. I think, though, that what really has to happen is strong unions fighting for their fair share.

For as long as people are looking to elect "the leaders" to fix things, things are going to stay unfixed. As soon as they take for themselves the political and economic power, within structures of power that are not political parties, they can have a real seat at the table, instead of finally finding someone else to send on a voyage to the great white father to come back to them with the right caliber of benefits secured.

It's been happening, the last few years. It's grand. And obviously, not having political leaders who want to return us to the days of feudalism or Nazi Germany as enforced with terrifying modern technology would be a nice boost to being able to get that done. But I think it has to come from unions and citizen activism in order to really come true in the right way. That's how it happened back when things really were okay in the country.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

That's a problem across all types of business.

If you are cutting wages or laying off people, there is less overall ability to pay for things. You're basically cutting your customers ability to pay.

Even if your employees aren't your target market, they probably buy stuff from the people who are your customers.

 

This psychotic race to the bottom among business owners is just shooting yourself in the foot with extra steps.

[-] ragepaw@lemmy.ca 31 points 7 hours ago

This is proof they don't understand the endgame here. The only (legal) type of slavery left in the United States is prisoner labour. It is not a coincidence that the right wants to make so many things criminal. It's also not a coincidence they want to keep poor people desperate because it makes them more likely to commit crime. It's not a coincidence they support minimum sentences.

More crime, more free labour, more for profit prisons selling services.....

[-] microphone900@lemmy.ml 4 points 4 hours ago

This is exactly what I've been thinking lately. And on top of already existing laws, make new ones that criminalize currently normal things. Hell, the South enacted new laws after slavery ended and only applied them against Black Americans. Why stop there, why not increase penalties for certain crimes from misdemeanors to felonies and make 3 felony convictions mean a life sentence?

The only part I disagree with is the for profit prisons part. 8% of prisoners are in private prisons which is 8% too many, but 92% are in publicly funded and operated prisons. And those publicly operated prisons sell the services of their trapped slave labor for so many more things than stamping license plates or road work. Not only do they fight fires and clean up after natural disasters, they also make kit (armor, helmets) for the armed forces, they pick crops, they manufacture white goods (washing machines, refrigerators)(I can't find a link specifically mentioning appliances and I'll update this it I find one), and so much more. Shoot, some cities' budgets would be blown up if not for the availability of publicly held prison slaves.

[-] Zink@programming.dev 2 points 5 hours ago

Well if they can keep income inequality growing, there’s a big pool of wage slaves to draw from with much better optics.

[-] CgH10N4Co2@lemmy.cafe 7 points 5 hours ago

Translation: Builders would rather go broke than pay anyone a living wage.

[-] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 6 points 6 hours ago

Almost all trump related policies will drive up costs for the consumer. He's only worried about lining the pockets of his rich friends, not making daily life for the average family more affordable

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 12 points 8 hours ago

during the 2016 election cycle, the national association of home builders pac gave $361,500 to democrat campaigns and $1,820,000 to republicans (83.4%).

for the current election (reported so far), they are even more unbalanced at 85.9% republican.

^source

remind me again, mr tobin, which political party wants to deport your 'vital' workers?

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 13 points 8 hours ago

Pretty much.

I walked by a construction site when I lived in California, I heard everyone speaking Spanish.

I walk by a construction site now that I live in Indiana and I hear... everyone speaking Spanish.

I'm guessing that at least some of them aren't citizens.

[-] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 hours ago

Don't need to be a citizen to pass eVerify. I'm working with six natural born citizens, one naturalized citizen, three green card holders, three work visa holders and a "dreamer"

[-] 4lan@lemmy.world 11 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Anytime you come across someone shitting on immigration ask them who built their house.

I've been saying this for years, the American dream is subsidized by cheap labor from South of the border. Without them we would be doing far worse

Not to mention illegal immigrants are half as likely to commit crime as American citizens

[-] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

Not to mention illegal immigrants are half as likely to commit crime as American citizens

It's like Umberto said in The Ranch: "We live in fear everyday. 5 miles over the speed limit and it could ruin our life"

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

“We live in fear everyday. 5 miles over the speed limit and it could ruin our life”

Almost every time I was stuck behind a slow person on the L.A. freeway, they were Latino. I guessed that was why back then and I still do.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2024
571 points (97.8% liked)

News

23190 readers
2918 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS