California Is Dying

[Ron61]

Wes,

Mexico is not a state and is a different country as is all of the others where the immigrants pour into the U.S from. As for the Okie comparison, that is way off. For one thing they were looking for work, not free handouts and were treated like dirt. They also spoke English and never demanded the country change it's language and customs to theirs. Go into any of the few clinics left here now and all you will find is illegals getting treated while any citizen sits there all day and is ignored. Everything must have a label on it that is in at least 4 languages.
The other thing is that this country is only so big and only has so many people to pay taxes to care for these free loaders. Our economy is as bad or worse than any other in the world and you think we should just keep taking care of these people? If they want to go through the process to become citizens, which used to require they learn our language, then I have no objection.If they can have free drivers licenses and citizens can't then why do you wonder why people are getting tired of this crap?

Ron

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Wes,

Mexico is not a state and is a different country as is all of the others where the immigrants pour into the U.S from. As for the Okie comparison, that is way off. For one thing they were looking for work, not free handouts and were treated like dirt. They also spoke English and never demanded the country change it's language and customs to theirs. Go into any of the few clinics left here now and all you will find is illegals getting treated while any citizen sits there all day and is ignored. Everything must have a label on it that is in at least 4 languages.
The other thing is that this country is only so big and only has so many people to pay taxes to care for these free loaders. Our economy is as bad or worse than any other in the world and you think we should just keep taking care of these people? If they want to go through the process to become citizens, which used to require they learn our language, then I have no objection.If they can have free drivers licenses and citizens can't then why do you wonder why people are getting tired of this crap?

Ron

I apologise if I'm thinking too far out of the box here, again, but most of the time that is all I have to offer the Lounge; a different angle. I admit, I don't have the answers either. Words fail me, I don't always say it very good, and my sense of humor sometimes sucks.

I know, "Mexico is not a state and is a different country as is all of the others where the immigrants pour into the U.S from...", but I kind of ponder why all of us, including me, look at the two invisible boundary lines, in the dirt, as entirely different.

I know both major political parties pander to the potential votes and I was already shocked after the first Reagan amnesty blew smoke in the face of the immigration law.
Would Reagan do it today? My guess is that politics is politics.

Like you, I am particularily irritated by those that would come here, even from other states, looking for handouts and accommodation, rather than work like most Okies. A few years ago, we used to have several hobo's bumming a ride on the trains to get to Minnesota. At the end of every month, they would collect a check.
It only stopped when the both the RR and us guys clamped down after the Mexican drifter known as the “Railroad Killer” made headlines. Hardly anybody hops a train anymore since. We turn them in, the end of an era.

The other day, on a Friday, we went out for supper with another couple and there was a new drug store being built across the street. I had never seen anyone working on it, yet it was progressing. When we came out, I saw why. It appeared there were all Mexican workers, probably illegal, doing the work late in the evening. I suppose they worked late and into the week-end. By Monday morning they would not be there for immigration to find.

They took work away from local citizens, no doubt. Yet they were working and working hard. I hold less against them than the sleazeball that probably pocketed a huge savings in labor cost.

In the end, was it good for the community? I don't know. I only know how I feel.

Again, I apologise.

Wes

...

[Ronbo]

Depends on what the "sleezeball" got paid to put the building up.

Low bid usually gets it and with the cost of building materials plus permitting, zoning issues, $300/hr electricians and HVAC companies raping you...

Not to mention what a yard of concrete now costs... or that piece of commercial zoned property it's sitting on.

But don't think you won't get a cut, the lucky business that moves in that building will pay extra property taxes, more for utilities and provide jobs long after the Mexicans have moved on to building another building. Also the business that moves in there will have to file I-9's, so no illegals can work there. (unlike subcontractors)

[Ron61]

Wes,

You have nothing to apologize for. You stated a valid opinion and I responded based on my knowledge of what is happening out here. But Pelosi wants to make it illegal to deport the illegals so that kind of rationale I don't pretend to understand. I have nothing at all against immigrants, I just think they should have to learn our language and customs instead of ruining the country trying to change it to fit all of their dam customs and languages. If you went to Mexico or some other country legally, they would not change their language to accommodate you and they sure wouldn't put you ahead of their natural citizens for anything. If you went illegally like they pour in here, they would throw you in prison.

Ron

[bomelia]

Hopefully, the Governator singed a DNR.

Mike

[Wes Tausend]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Wes,

You have nothing to apologize for. You stated a valid opinion and I responded...... .......and they sure wouldn't put you ahead of their natural citizens for anything. If you went illegally like they pour in here, they would throw you in prison.

Ron

Ok, Ron. I think I wholeheartedly agree with you on the illegals.

It did belatedly dawn on me that maybe your family, or others reading this forum, had migrated to California from the midwest during the last great depression and I had off-handedly grouped you with illegal types that are despised.
A gaff like that deserves the extra groveling I threw in there.

God, what a long round trip this time, about 40+ some hours. Now for some time off. It's beautiful here, sunny, 71° at noon. I'll be loading the camper and dirt bikes and off to the boonies for the week-end.

Wes

...

[Ron61]

Wes,

No my family never gravitated here during the depression. My Father was a construction foreman for M. & K. construction and I spent my whole life moving from state to state and one end of California to the other. I only know of one living relative that I have and he lives in Arkansas and is the one that I sold my Cobra to. We were very fortunate that my Father made good money and during school breaks he would get me on the dam or tunnel jobs they were doing which was a fortune for me back then. We were never wealthy but were comfortable and I had a very good life. Then when I got out of college and went to work for the telephone company and they decided I would be better working for Bell Labs, I spent my working life traveling all over the country and living in motels. I know about those long hours as they had records of where I had worked for over 60 straight hours several times when we had problems in several different computers at the same time. That was what led to my eventual breakdown and near death. So you don't owe me any type of apology or anything at all like that. I don't even remember some of the schools that I went to and I get class reunion notices from 4 different high schools. Three here in California and one from Arkansas as I went to school there for a short time during my senior year while Dad was on a Dam job back there.

Actually I guess my family would be considered as having migrated from Germany to West Virginia and then all over. At least my early relatives the best I have been able to trace, we came from near Cologne, Germany originally.

Ron