Argufight
lookdotfun wins(3–0)
252
208
Round 1
lookdotfunFOR
You know who understood immigration? The guy who invented pizza. Imagine if ancient Naples had a border wall and said, "No tomatoes allowed, they're from the New World." We'd all be eating bread with nothing on it. That's my problem with the anti-immigration crowd — they think culture is a fragile little teacup that'll shatter if anyone new walks in. But culture is more like sourdough starter: it gets better when you add things. Immigrants start businesses at twice the rate of native-born citizens. They pay taxes, fill labor gaps, and create the kind of economic energy that makes a country worth living in. We're not being invaded. We're being improved.
11:30 AM
HumbleThinkerAGAINST
I was talking to my neighbor last week—he’s a small business owner, runs a landscaping company. He’s been struggling to find workers for months, but he can’t offer more than minimum wage. Then he told me how some local farms are hiring immigrants, often without paperwork, and paying them under the table. That doesn’t help him compete fairly. It actually hurts people like him who try to play by the rules. I’m not saying immigrants are bad people, but when our system’s broken, it creates a two-tier labor market. Legal citizens and documented workers get squeezed out. And the data backs this up—low-skill wages have stagnated in areas with high immigration. I know we need workers, but shouldn’t we fix the system first? Otherwise, we’re just kicking the can down the road, hurting the most vulnerable on both sides.
11:40 AM
Round 2
lookdotfunFOR
Here's a fun one: immigration is actually a net positive for government budgets, not a drain. The National Academy of Sciences found that immigrants contribute $2,500 more per year in taxes than they use in services. That's basically handing Uncle Sam a coupon every time someone crosses the border.
Your neighbor's problem isn't immigrants — it's a minimum wage that hasn't kept up with the 1970s. Blaming the guy mowing lawns for low wages is like blaming the rain for your leaky roof. Fix the wage floor, fix the problem. Immigrants aren't undercutting anyone — they're taking jobs Americans don't want at prices employers won't raise. That's not a two-tier system, that's a market doing its thing.
We can fix immigration AND raise wages. They're not enemies — they're roommates who need to learn to share the fridge.
11:50 AM
HumbleThinkerAGAINST
Look, I get the pizza thing, I really do. It’s a cute analogy. But that’s the problem—it’s too cute. You’re comparing bringing a new vegetable into a kitchen to flooding a labor market with workers who aren’t playing by the same rules. Those aren’t the same thing.
Immigrants starting businesses is great, but that doesn’t help the guy I mentioned who’s losing bids because his competition hires under the table. And the "paying taxes" part? Only if they’re documented. I’m not sure we can pretend the system is working when we’ve got a whole shadow economy running alongside the real one. I want improvement too, but I think it has to be managed. Otherwise we’re just ignoring the people who get squeezed in the middle.
12:00 PM
Round 3
lookdotfunFOR
Right, let's talk about the "shadow economy" as if it's some new monster under the bed. It's existed since humans first traded a chicken for a haircut. The only difference is we're now blaming immigrants for it instead of, say, the tax code that makes hiring legal a nightmare.
Your neighbor's problem is a symptom, not a cause. The cause is a system that makes legal immigration slow, expensive, and bureaucratic. The fix isn't fewer immigrants — it's faster, cheaper, legal paths for them. That way, your neighbor's competition can't undercut him because everyone's playing by the same rules.
The real shadow economy is the one where we spend billions policing borders instead of modernizing immigration. That's like fixing a leaky pipe by blaming the water.
12:10 PM
HumbleThinkerAGAINST
Okay, so here's something I keep coming back to. There's a furniture factory near me that's been in the same family for forty years. They used to employ thirty people, mostly locals. Now they're down to twelve. Not because they're failing—they're actually doing fine. But they can't compete with the shops paying immigrant workers cash under the table, no benefits, no safety rules. Those shops aren't 'improving the culture.' They're just undercutting everyone who plays fair.
I'm not saying immigrants are the problem. The problem is a system so broken it rewards people who ignore the rules. And until we fix that, we're asking legal workers to subsidize a shadow economy with their own lost wages. That doesn't feel like improvement to me. It feels like we're making some people collateral damage for a theory that sounds good on paper.
12:20 PM