[partiallypro]

Obviously not all of those laid off met the new criteria for what Microsoft, et al were/are looking for, but there's no way you convince me that -probably- a majority of them do. The system is so ripe for abuse. I'm not sure I agree fully with the "if you're laying off people, you can't do X" aspect, but I do think sometimes it is cheaper for companies to lay people off, especially those with certain benefits, and hire immigrants than it is to move the original employee around the company. This very obviously happens, all the time.

While I understand from a purely capitalistic view that it makes sense, but Microsoft and others are multi-trillion/billion dollar companies, and they are skimming every last dime while also hurting Americans. The system needs heavy reform, this current change isn't close to enough. To me the rightward shift, especially among college aged men, is partially because of things like this. You can preach that the "replacement theory" is all nonsense, but if you're trying to convince people that have seen their friends or themselves literally replaced at the job with non-Americans...well, it's obvious they are going to start to lean into those ideas.

So much of the right-wing surge could be thwarted by simple policy reforms and it seems like no one wants to do it, or is too beholden to corporations, etc to do it. It's a bit baffling. I've always said politics is a pendulum and it should come as a shock to no one that a problem that is constantly ignored or written off will eventually swing back hard the other way. I think we're seeing that. I think that's why compromise is more important than purity a lot of the time. Unfortunately there will not be much compromise for a long while now.

[leosanchez]

> So much of the right-wing surge could be thwarted by simple policy reforms and it seems like no one wants to do it

I am not sure if you are talking about just USA or entire west but this can be said for most western countries.

[partiallypro]

I believe it applies to the entire West, and explains why there is a surge in "right wing" parties. I believe it could easily be fixed with reform, but everyone on the "left" is too scared to do it but in doing so they are conjuring something worse. Even those who I've known that used to be "open border" have started to shift away from that idea. That's not going to go away until the problems are at least addressed in a meaningful way, and honestly more so in Europe than the US where integration is generally easier and more common.