Some of the crews building the border wall got paid in advance. Now that Biden cancelled the wall, it is free money. The workers didn't break the contract, so they don't have to pay it back. But it isn't real money, it is tax money.
What did you do today?
- Thread starter havasu
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I'm just under two hours to the border so just about every trade/company/industry has to adapt to that perverse competition from Desperados who will work any time, any place, under any conditions for essentially anything you want to pay them.
Try organizing unions or running a totally LEGIT operation given those circumstances--------in ANY aspect of business.
It's only different by degrees and types of perversions as you move north from our border with the Third World to the rest of the country where Eastern Europeans, Asians and ANYONE ELSE who really wants to work comes here for what's left of the American Dream.
Most of the roofers in my area are Hispanic. No flooring guys YET here. Springfield , Mo. is full of them.
You wonder how many people pulled up stakes and moved to the border because of a guaranteed job building that wall.
....and then to be told sorry, you're fired. Biden canceled your employment.
Somebody owes the workers for the disruption of their life. I'd hope the big contracting companies were compensated for the materials they purchased and the machinery they purchased to build this wall. I can see cranes costing a couple hundred thousand dollars or more. Imagine being a company that purchase half a dozen of those and dozers and other equipment knowing you had a guaranteed long-lasting job.
....and then Biden abruptly canceled the contract.
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I'd guess 80-95% of our union and even higher percent of the nonunion flooring contractors are either from South of the Border or their family came from there to America just the same way my Serbian ancestors came primarily for decent paying work.
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I don't mind them if they won't work for nothing. About 10 years ago we were getting $4.00 a yard and they were charging $1.25 yard there.
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There's a reason they're ALLOWED to swarm across all our borders, settle here and work. Its because they increase DEMAND for all consumer goods and increase the SUPPLY of labor.
Wages are kept in check and cost of living.........aside from labor goes up. Labor is a huge component of the official government measure of INFLATION. So while health care, college, food, energy and housing prices go up you can hire an immigrant to paint or carpet your whole house for less than an American was charging in 1980.
It's really simple math and sleazy politics.
MikeAntonetti
Well-Known Member
Nice to see base done properly on rounded corners.
Slavery never died man, it just evolved.
Really odd, all the crawling around on the floor, I thought pain in my knees and hips would plague me, but my feet ache so bad I can't sleep.
I don't mind immigrants moving here as long as they do it legally.
Once they do it legally, they need to realize what they're doing when they accept substandard pay.
What might look like a $200,000 income to them, looks like a $25,000 income for the rest of us.
I understand employers liking employees that will accept low wages. I just wish they had some morals somewhere deep in their soul.
You ain’t gonna like this but here goes:
Are you American Indian? If not then your ancestors came here from somewhere else once upon a time and they no doubt went through the exact same **** as we’re talking about right now. The term ****** came from Hunky. People were talkin **** because they were pissed off at the Hungarian’s, Hunkies/ Honkies, coming here and working for cheap just like the ‘Mexicans’ are doing right now. You think the Hungarian’s gave 2 flyin shots bout you being pissed off? Nope. They came here for opportunity, which they found. The Irish, Italians, Germans and pretty much every group that ever emigrated here went through the same **** but they still came here. You gonna say that they had no morals? Or maybe they were living in such **** conditions back in their home country and coming here, being **** upon by the locals, is still better than what they had going for them back home. I’m sure someone in your family went through the exact same ****, you just weren’t around then so you don’t know.
Secondly, do you know just how hard it is to become a legal American citizen? Look into it. Uncle Sam just ain’t handing out the ol ‘Murica card that easily. In fact I’ll place money that if you were to try and take the citizenship test right now that you would fail. A lot of these ‘Mexicans’ WANT to become citizens. It ain’t that easy.
What you or I view as peanuts is a days or weeks wages to these people. I just bought a $200 saw blade. That’s a months wages in El Salvador and that’s if you’re lucky. I don’t like cheap labor driving the going rate down any more than you do but the reality in the big picture is that these people are humans looking for a better way of life. I moved across country, in my OWN country, and I got called a foreigner. I didn’t even haggle on the price of my house. Paid cash. Yeah, I’m ruining the local economy too. You think I care? Nope. Because it’s better than where I came from.
Installers used to talk. We would sip our coffee while waiting to be loaded up in the morning and shoot the ****. Do you talk to the ‘Mexicans’? Do you even acknowledge them as human beings. I do. Not very well because I don’t speak Spanish but I try. I like the vatos. I say welcome them in and talk to them. You just might inspire them to raise their rates as well as make your own community, and country, a better place. The fact of the matter is that they are here to stay so you might as well help your self by helping them. Or at least stop shitting on them. Or you can stay bitter and be part of the problem.
Now the Russian’s, they’re rude, they can go **** themselves.
MikeAntonetti
Well-Known Member
Bout time you bought a PCD blade. And I thought you were an NRA member, National Racist Association.
Hey Randy, youtube.com/c/AdrianEmmaJeanGalliardMusic/
Actually my ancestors were NA and Irish. The English hated both and took both their countries.
That is just mean
My ancestors on my dad's side were Scott-Irish. Mom's side was German and Hungarian. The process of becoming a citizen is incredibly expensive, time consuming, full of long waits, lost paperwork, major headaches, etc. The citizenship test is one I doubt any of our legislators would pass. Immigrants are fleeing poverty and dangerous conditions trying to find better lives just like my ancestors did. But instead of being welcomed, they are now being treated like garbage. They are desperate because they don't want to starve so they end up hiring smugglers. For the Hispanic people it's the Coyotes. For the Chinese it's the Snakeheads. They take huge risks because the smugglers will often take their $ and kill them. There boats with fish-holds stuffed with 50+ people trying to come over from China going to Guam. When the smugglers saw Coast Guard ships they rounded up their human cargo, zip-tied their hands behind their backs, and threw them overboard. Although, one ship managed to roll up to a port at Andersen Air Force Base and let people loose and the idiot AF people were too f***ing disorganized to even notice. Most of the immigrants had TB by that point so it was a public health risk.
The ones that didn't get tossed overboard or let free were taken to camps where they were kept as slaves. My father and I used to drive around the island together to look for camps where they might be holding people. I actually guessed right once-- place I pointed out turned out to be where they were holding immigrants prisoner. In addition to the perils of smugglers, they face exploitation from employers and people pretending to be lawyers. Dad caught some jerk who didn't have a law degree or license advertising himself as a lawyer and charging hundreds of $$$ to fill out paperwork-- paperwork that it was illegal to charge more than $15 to help fill out. He caught wind of the scam, went out and told all the immigrants in the area in Spanish what was going on. Had the guy charged for fraud, and had a bunch of immigrants come in so he could help them with their paperwork for free.
At one point he had the system streamlined so it was only taking 3 to 6 months to process applications for asylum, citizenship, etc. But then Meissner got appointed as Commissioner of INS and she did everything she could to destroy it. Slowed down productivity, ordered them to do retroactive screening (which is how the hijackers for 9-11 got in), had all of the rule books destroyed under the pretense it would all be put on computer (it never was) and fired almost everyone who still had knowledge of the laws. Things got worse after 9-11. They decided to cut down on personnel and got rid of supervisory positions around the country and made it so everyone had to report directly to DC- which created a bottleneck. Then the reorg happened where they laid off their longtime workers and made them re-apply for their jobs at lower pay. Tanked morale. Made it so a process that once took 6 months now took upwards of 8 years. Took a friend of ours over 10 years to get her family over legally. She had to spend thousands of $ because they lost all the paperwork when the reorg happened. In other words, what was once INS is now a major clusterf****.
Anyway, I don't blame the immigrants. I blame the a-holes who exploit them and refuse to pay decent wages and who don't want to pay SUTA, FICA, or follow safety protocols & meet OSHA standards. That is one of the times where I agree with asset forfeiture. They use their vehicle to transport illegal aliens? It now belongs to the US Govt. They housed immigrants in their home or on their property? Time to move out and hand it over. They had illegals working in their factories? Now it should belong to the US Govt. But then, US Govt is so f***ed it can't figure out what to do with stuff. I get excited talking about immigration-- my father was in INS for 30 years, taught immigration law at FLETC, and wrote the Deportable Alien Control System (DACS).
Back on topic, I went down to the workshop and saw someone's been in there messing with stuff and moving things around. They scratched some paint off the door and unwrapped it from the moving blanket. Not sure who it was... Might have been my brother. I'll have to ask him. Found some wood I can use to mount my monitor to the wall. Need to plane one of the boards but planer trips the breaker every time I try to use it. I may have to settle for sanding it and giving it a coat of paint.
The ones that didn't get tossed overboard or let free were taken to camps where they were kept as slaves. My father and I used to drive around the island together to look for camps where they might be holding people. I actually guessed right once-- place I pointed out turned out to be where they were holding immigrants prisoner. In addition to the perils of smugglers, they face exploitation from employers and people pretending to be lawyers. Dad caught some jerk who didn't have a law degree or license advertising himself as a lawyer and charging hundreds of $$$ to fill out paperwork-- paperwork that it was illegal to charge more than $15 to help fill out. He caught wind of the scam, went out and told all the immigrants in the area in Spanish what was going on. Had the guy charged for fraud, and had a bunch of immigrants come in so he could help them with their paperwork for free.
At one point he had the system streamlined so it was only taking 3 to 6 months to process applications for asylum, citizenship, etc. But then Meissner got appointed as Commissioner of INS and she did everything she could to destroy it. Slowed down productivity, ordered them to do retroactive screening (which is how the hijackers for 9-11 got in), had all of the rule books destroyed under the pretense it would all be put on computer (it never was) and fired almost everyone who still had knowledge of the laws. Things got worse after 9-11. They decided to cut down on personnel and got rid of supervisory positions around the country and made it so everyone had to report directly to DC- which created a bottleneck. Then the reorg happened where they laid off their longtime workers and made them re-apply for their jobs at lower pay. Tanked morale. Made it so a process that once took 6 months now took upwards of 8 years. Took a friend of ours over 10 years to get her family over legally. She had to spend thousands of $ because they lost all the paperwork when the reorg happened. In other words, what was once INS is now a major clusterf****.
Anyway, I don't blame the immigrants. I blame the a-holes who exploit them and refuse to pay decent wages and who don't want to pay SUTA, FICA, or follow safety protocols & meet OSHA standards. That is one of the times where I agree with asset forfeiture. They use their vehicle to transport illegal aliens? It now belongs to the US Govt. They housed immigrants in their home or on their property? Time to move out and hand it over. They had illegals working in their factories? Now it should belong to the US Govt. But then, US Govt is so f***ed it can't figure out what to do with stuff. I get excited talking about immigration-- my father was in INS for 30 years, taught immigration law at FLETC, and wrote the Deportable Alien Control System (DACS).
Back on topic, I went down to the workshop and saw someone's been in there messing with stuff and moving things around. They scratched some paint off the door and unwrapped it from the moving blanket. Not sure who it was... Might have been my brother. I'll have to ask him. Found some wood I can use to mount my monitor to the wall. Need to plane one of the boards but planer trips the breaker every time I try to use it. I may have to settle for sanding it and giving it a coat of paint.
