Posted on 02/21/2007 5:53:58 PM PST by NellieMae
People in their cushy little indoor office jobs have NO idea of the working conditions that a mason has to endure. Where we live it gets very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. It almost invariably rains right before a foundation has to be put in. This causes the working men to have to lug around in the mud. Boots get pretty heavy after they are caked with mud. Some of the block that my husband has laid has weighed up to 90 pounds a piece. Scaffolding has to be hauled and set up, sometimes several stories high.
Aside from the temperature extremes and mud, there are cracked, sometimes bleeding fingers. It is hard to get help because the work is so hard. You have to pay very well or nobody will hire on.
You have to get used to being out of work quite often because of conditions beyond your control. You have to really love this type of work to last very long at it. Some people will say: Why don't you just give up and find another way to make a living. When you are 50 years old and have done this your entire adult life it would be difficult to start all over again from scratch. Illegal workers should not even be in the picture. PERIOD.
A-Men.
When are you running for office, Shimmer?
Double Amen!!
I'd like to see some type of organized revolt against this invasion of our country.
Non-violent mind you. What can we do? Some say vote the scoundrels out. It seems that after a good person hits Washington that they have a surgical procedure to remove their backbone. Who can we trust anymore?
Well, actually, yes it is capitalism. In fact, it's as close to real capitalism as the American labor market will allow: willing workers and willing employers reaching a wage agreement, with minimal interference by the government.
The illegality of the workers' residence is treated as a mere formality -- and is obviously considered an acceptable risk by both parties.
The other stuff you list is, as I mentioned, government interference in the labor transaction.
Now, before you slobber off on another tirade, let me say that I don't support illegal immigration, nor do I support uncontrolled immigration. But I do find that an honest assessment of the facts is key to understanding why illegal immigration is the problem it has become.
Which brings us to the remainder of your comment ... you might get more traction if you started trying to communicate like a rational adult.
What's your view on Amnesty? I'm betting you're aggressively opposed to it -- which would mean that it's really not the "legality" of their presence that bothers you.
You sound like Bernie Sanders. Or Karl Marx.
I don't see the word "illegal" anywhere in your complaint. Is this about illegal workers or cheaper workers?
illegal
Here's a thought. Want to reduce illegal immigration? Do away with minimum wage laws. Then employers will be free to hire all those Americans willing to do these low wage jobs.
(Please note the trace of sarcasm above!)
Ok. That's kind of an important point. Thanks. I have great respect for good masons. I can never figure out how they manage to know exactly how much mortar to slap on, how to keep a line of brick straight and a wall perpendicular!
You make a much more rational argument than other posters here.
It's not a level playing field when illegals are involved, since it's OBVIOUSLY cheaper to employ them. NO SS, no withholding, no health insurance...from a strictly economic point of view it's a no-brainer on the part of the employer.
However, if we're going to have labor laws and immigration laws they must be enforced.
Plus, I can't say I don't worry about America ultimately becoming a land of serfs and rich landowners with nothing in between if this keeps up.
You have to admit, from a personal perspective, it is disheartening that it seems like every year, another line of work gets shipped to India or given to illegal workers. I realize that we're doing OK in America overall, and people said the same thing 50 years ago. However, I am pointing out that it's easy to get concerned about it.
Along about the time digital film output became feasible, I took a sales job with a large color house and was at one point selling about $100K per month in film and proofs, plus selling Scitex Visionary ... remember that, lol? It was a nice living for a while, then cheaper RIPs and imagesetters started taking over. That color house had to move both upstream into creative and photography, and downstream into printing, to survive. My former employer and longtime vendor is now a competitor. InDesign and a PDF workflow is nice, isn't it?
You are an I D I O T....
You have answered your own question. A need unfilled in capitalist society will eventually be filled by someone.
By the way, were your 1st generation brick masons immigrants to this country?
I have been arguing against a pass for the Russian Mafia. They are dangerous and super-violent, yet apparently nothing is done about them either. We have violent Asian gangs in our area, mostly made up of illegal aliens and immigrants, committing home invasions, etc. In other areas also they have been committing horrific crimes.
Then there are illegal aliens as well as immigrants from hostile countries in addition to Mexico - their presence is a huge security threat for this country.
I know I'm going to sound like an evil prick here, but truth-be-told, those jobs do not belong to your husband or your son. Those jobs belong to the employer, and he can hire whoever the heck he wants to.
I have been arguing against a pass for the Russian Mafia. They are dangerous and super-violent, yet apparently nothing is done about them either. We have violent Asian gangs in our area, mostly made up of illegal aliens and immigrants, committing home invasions, etc. In other areas also they have been committing horrific crimes.
Doing crimes Americans don't won't to do?
I've found that the larger e-commerce sites are excellent prospects for me, for my knowledge of direct marketing copy and creative technique, for my photo studio, for quality color printing and for mailing services. Once they reach a certain scale and sales begin to plateau, print comes back into the picture as a way to drive online sales and reach new customers. I'm not put off by the internet in the least. It's been very helpful to me, in more ways than one. The length of print runs has been flat or even declining for several years, but that has been more than made up for with shorter run, niche titles.
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