On Apr 18, 2006, at 12:43 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> Marta wrote:
> <blockquote>
> During World War II when there were less able bodied men in the labor
> force, the disabled employment rate improved greatly. The reason for
> that was that there were fewer people in the country to take the jobs
> and so employers would hire disabled people. When soldiers returned
> home many disabled people lost their jobs to the able bodied once
> again. We have never regained that level of employment.</blockquote>
>
> The Sandwichman has proven that it's a myth that advocates for shorter
> work hours are believers in the "lump of labor" idea, but the fire of
> a "lump of labor" does burn intensely among those who are weary of
> immigrants!
It is the reserve army of labor at work here. Illegals are part of the reserve army just as unemployed disabled persons are. It just so happens that disabled are less valued for their labor power than able bodied illegals.
>
> The same setback happened to women and gay men and lesbians after
> World War II -- the setback that was due more to McCarthyism than to
> the return of able-bodied "straight" men -- but they have more than
> made up for that setback and advanced further since then. We have to
> do the same for the disabled.
No it had more to do with the idea that MEN support the family and therefore should have the jobs. That, however, did not apply to disabled men.
>
> The US economy, still the biggest in the world, can make jobs for most
> who want to work and European-level benefits for all who can't work or
> are unemployed for various reasons, if we had a labor movement as
> powerful as Europeans'. To get there, new Latino immigrants -- a
> significant number of whom learned a thing or two about left-wing
> organizing at home -- will be indispensable.
"Can make jobs" and will do are two different things. You know that full employment isn't a goal in this country. Marta
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