the other can disappear tomorrow and nothing would change

Not true. People would be living in less fear, and the world would be a far better place.

Not that I disagree with the point generally, but there is a difference of scale here.

There are around 22k ICE agents. At 150k, that's 3.3b for the first year, and then 2.2b in following years.

There are around 4m teachers in the US. To raise them all from 55k to the 100k that ICE agents make (ignoring the hiring bonus) would cost 180b/yr. Two orders of magnitude greater.

I'm not saying it's not worth it. I'm also not saying that ICE agents are good. I'm also not saying this disparity is justified.

I'm simply saying that the analogy, as given, implies that if we had the money to pay ICE agents 100k+bonuses, then we should have just paid the teachers that much instead. But that's not how the math works. And just because the argument feels good emotionally doesn't mean it's accurate. And the truth shouldn't need a lie to drive it forward. There are plenty of good, factual arguments to make, and this isn't one of them.

The money is always there. I spent a decade at a job where they constantly told us there was no money for pay raises, constant pressure on employees to cut or manage costs, shitty schedules, etc.

Then there was a hiring boom. They were throwing money at recruits like crazy. Better pay. Huge signing bonuses that were more than I made in an entire year.

The money is always there. It’s for the shareholders. Not you.

This, and also teachers disproportionately consider their job too important to do to quit completely when mistreated.

Which the dystopian profit machine takes advantage of to mistreat the shit out of some of the most important and laudable people in the world.

If anybody's tempted by those numbers, remember Trump's track record of not paying people.

they are terrified of everything. there's nothing more affraid in life than a racist right wing fascist turd.

What have y’all been reading lately?

I just finished The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, which I thought was an incredible read. I would recommend anarchists and communists (and really everyone) read it for a pre-historic and historic view of social organization and freedom. What I thought was one of the more interesting concepts they developed was that in pre-contact North America, individuals had three essential freedoms that we have either lost or had greatly diminished: the right of movement, the right to refuse orders, and the right to create new social realities. (I’m slightly paraphrasing their exact language here, already returned the book to the library) They also go pretty deeply into the impact Indigenous North American societies had on European Enlightenment thought. If any of that interests you, I highly recommend it.

I also just finished The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which is much shorter but a very lovely examination of gift economies and viewing nature as a gift economy. Solarpunk people, this is probably up your alley.

In developed countries teachers unionize. They have fair wages, ample benefits, lots of vacation. Their job is still very hard but they somehow feel more valued.

It's always been that way. No money to pay for teachers, no money to pay for universal healthcare, no money to pay for public infrastructure projects...

But will happily burn 100s billions a year on the military and enforcement agencies.

The money is in keeping you down, not helping anyone up.

This holds true for almost any "modern" and "civilized" country, not just for the United States.

Join ice. Take the money. Be incompetent. Profit

The other can disappear tomorrow and nothing would change

Not true. If you get rid of jobs that are actively making the world worse, things will almost certainly get better, at least in the short term.

You could sign up and gum up the fucking works from the inside.

Read the books

Kinda hard when the education system fails to teach you how to read.

I seem to recall hearing they weren't even getting those bonuses, so I had a little poke around on the internet.

It seems that the $50k sign on bonus only goes to retuning agents that were retired, and paid in $10k chunks, most of which went to taxes.

Despite the government's attempts to keep the exact details of the offer secret (for instance, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, another DHS agency, placed an asterisk on the $50,000 bonus without seemingly clarifying what its terms are), reports suggest that only retired employees returning to the job are eligible for the bonus and that it comes in $10,000 chunks.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/unpacking-rumor-ice-agents-arent-152800052.html?guccounter=1

I completely agree with the message but had to snicker at “populous”.

power always seems to instill a firm belief in one's own immortality.

I mean, I need a job, and I'd love to be a mole while I'm at it.

We truly don’t have what they’re offering ICE agents after looking at the way the federal deficit has grown under Trump.

Just remember that those ICE agents are a bunch of obese, untrained, unprofessional federal agents that continually break laws.