I'm not dead yet
But I'm close. Damn, last week was an ass-kicking. I think I slept maybe seven hours in seven days.
Maybe it's because I haven't seen the news in a week, but I'm feeling optimistic. Happy, even. Can America be all bad? If America is doing so terribly, why are record numbers of Mexicans braving the deserts for a chance to live in our worst neighborhoods, go to our worst schools and work below our already-too-low minimum wage? (Answer to rhetorical question: because Canada's too far away)
If you've managed to rationalize that everything that happened with Katrina was not the result of a massive governmental failure, here it is: more people are crossing the border now then they were before 9/11. We have even stepped up efforts to police the borders, yet more people now than in 2001 are sneaking across. The Bush Administration's Homeland Security and Patriot Act and War in Iraq have made us less safe than we were before 9/11.
posted by Marie Antoinette at 5:55 PM
10 Comments:
Hell, as much money as will be flooding the border areas, why should we blame Mexicans for wanting to get in on the feeding-frenzy?
I want some o' that!
I think it's just a coincidence..but I wonder...
One of the things that's got me pissed off is that the government isn't requiring many of the contractors to pay fair wages. Now, who is it that usually does our dangerous work for low wages? Illegal aliens.
Construction companies even import them, you know. So do landscaping companies. As in, they will go into Mexico and recruit people. I have no idea how common this is, but I do know people who have come over in this fashion.
I have the cheapest lawn service around...all Mexicans. I feel badly in one way because I know they can't be being paid well - yet the ethical dilemma remains - do I demand to pay more? Even if I did, would the money go to them or the boss man who's Irish and whom I've never seen?
That's one of those ethical dilemmas that I've never had. I'd say though, that if somebody is hiring illegals then they probably aren't that scrupulous to begin with, so he'd probably keep it if you tried to pay more.
"...then they probably aren't that scrupulous to begin with, so he'd probably keep it if you tried to pay more."
That's how I feel about tax-and-spend proponents in congress.
Heck, if someone is willing to work for a certain wage, then let them. It's proposterous to think that someone should pay more than what someone is willing to accept.
Like Mary-she knows that her work is being done by illegals, yet she supports the evil task-master, anyway. Isn't that just a little bit hypocritical? One of the current Senators from my state had a touchy time with accusations about his "help", during the past election when he won his seat in Washington
Theoretically, if people are willing to work for less that ought to be honky-dory. It's their loss, yes?
But in practice..going to Mexico to recruit people. That breaks about 1,000 labor laws and 10,000 immigration laws. If it were done on a large enough scale, it could ruin both ours and Mexico's economies.
Also, the thing about being illegal is that if somebody decides to screw you over, you have no recourse. If some recruiter told you that you'd get minimum wage for pulling weeds, and then they bring you into America and decide to only give you $4/hr, what are you doing to do about it? You don't speak English, you don't know how the system works, and if you piss somebody off they can call the INS on you.
I agree with you, MA. There are some real shmucks in all areas of life, aren't there?
d elrod, says: "Like Mary-she knows that her work is being done by illegals, yet she supports the evil task-master, anyway."
Wrongo
I don't know they are illegal immigrants any more than you know what they are. All I know at this point is I pay less with my lawn service than some other people pay, ergo the assumption that the workers are being paid a lower salary.
I also don't know if the lawn service is reporting all its income to the government, or if the boss man has changed his sheets this week either.
There are numerous things I don't know about my lawn service and its workers.
Suspicion deserves no action?
Delrod if your suspicious, why don't you do something? I think MB is right to ponder. It's not right to snap to judgement.
On the note of paying for labor on the cheap..what about the US Govt giving tax breaks and incentives to US corporations that Globally Oursource (India, Ireland, Mexico...Bangladesh...) their work. I.T. guys that used to make a good living, pay their taxes and feed their families are having to change careers or go on the dole b/c NO ONE pay's for US workers if they can get their IT done overseas for 1/10th the cost. It's legal and condoned by this administration.
Is that good for the American Economy? Will that worker be a drain on the welfare system? Will they get angry and go shoot up a MacDonalds?
Nothing is even created here anymore. The corporation is God. The Shareholders are GODS. If they can cut the bottom line and do it on the cheap they do. Corporate facism is alive and well and in the seat of power in the US.
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