Thread: Buy American Our government at work

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I don't want to knock the point of this very interesting thread off course, but .... if I might, I'd like to mention the construction trades and the changes that have taken place in that industry in recent years.

I'm speaking of what I see in my part of the world but I'm sure it applies in other places as well.

People bemoan the fact that Mexican workers have taken over and, in doing so, have denied US workers jobs they should rightfully be getting.

That has to be B.S. in its purest form.

Let me quote Uncle Bob here: "It's like that phrase often attached in the illegal alien discussions; "They're doing the jobs Americans won't do!". That's dead wrong though my expression of it doesn't sound very different, it is vastly different from a motivational point of view. I say, "They're doing jobs that Americans DON"T HAVE to do."

Where I live (Northeast Tarrant County, Texas) the economy has done pretty well when compared to other areas, and it's rare to see anything other than Latinos doing construction work.

Or landscape work.

Or working on highway projects.

You name it. They can and will do it, and believe me, those people are GOOD and getting better! They show up for work as soon as they can see in the morning and don't quit until they can't see in the evening. I have seen them working on rooftop jobs when the temperature is bumping 110 degrees. When I got so dang old and feeble I couldn't do a decent job of caring for my own luxuriant lawn (one acre of red sand on top of solid sandrock and covered with grass burrs) a Mexican man and his wife appeared at my door and asked for my business doing yard work. This is the second year they have been with us and we are very pleased with them.

In case anybody should ask, no. I didn't ask to see a "green card" and I pay them with green money. If people ask me why I didn't find an American couple to do the job, well, the answer is simple. Nobody like that showed up looking for work, but Miguel and Ana did.

So I'm a bad citizen.

After Hurricane Katrina did it's thing, conditions in New Orleans were horrible. Thousands of workers were needed to do a lot of hard and unpleasant manual labor. Who responded? The Mexicans. Many of those folks took a liking to the place and stayed there. Now a lot of New Orleanians are upset because the newcomers are "destroying the genial atmosphere and traditions for which the area is famous".

As a former three-year resident of New Orleans (I still feel a fondness for the place), I'll suggest that a new society with a strong work ethic has come in and is replacing a society without a work ethic.

I have several friends at CHR who know my address and phone number. I ask that they keep that information confidential because if they don't I'll probably be hearing from the New Orleans mafia.

Jim