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Trump supporters not simply angry white people

TO THE EDITOR:

I am writing in response to the article "Trump voting demographic reveals racial anxiety" by Greta Hallberg (published on April 12).

Greta characterizes Trump supporters as angry whites who just want to keep minorities down. However, Trump supporters are not innately angry people - they are simply tired of seeing our government fail time and again to address important issues, most notably immigration.

I am about as pro-free market as they come. I believe that people tend to act in their own self-interest, and this self-interest can create win-win scenarios through the free market. Greta makes the claim near the end of her article that American citizens have no reason to be upset that illegal immigrants are taking jobs because it is simply the free market in action. I would agree - if only this were true! The fact is, the market for labor is not a free market. If it were a free market, I would be able to set the price of my labor - that is, my wage - at whatever price I saw fit. This is not the case, though, as the state and federal governments keep the price of labor artificially high by imposing minimum wages. Illegal immigrants do not adhere to these minimums and therefore have an artificial advantage in the labor market.

In fact, the driving force of illegal immigration is the very fact that the labor market is not a free market. People choose to come to America illegally because they can do the same work for less than their law-abiding counterparts, all but guaranteeing jobs for illegal immigrants. It's not that Americans don't want the work (just ask the more than 17 million who are unemployed), it's that the law prevents them from competing in the free market. If the labor force were truly a free market, Mexicans would have little incentive to make the dangerous journey across the border in the first place!

As I said before, people tend to act in their own self-interest, which is not in and of itself a bad thing. Illegal immigrants are not "evil" for wanting to take advantage of a situation that benefits them. But, at the same time, we as citizens have the right to take action against this artificial advantage. Either everyone must play by the rules, or no one can.

Trump has tapped into a demographic that is sick of watching the rest of the world take advantage of America. Greta points to a Huffington Post article titled, "When You're Accustomed To Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression," suggesting that whites are threatened by equality. Actually Greta, equality is exactly what Trump supporters want.

Jeffrey Sadownick

sadownjr@miamioh.edu