[Salvavida]

It's not a perception down here. It is fact. Hiring Americans here are a waste of time. In fact, farmers here get "tested" by some (particularly blacks) to see if they refuse to hire Americans (in order to file a law suite). But when they are hired and given a task, then they fold.

As far as the shantytowns: they don't have to live there. That is a choice. They can get a modest trailer paid for by a farmer, with plenty of work to do; at least some time to get their life together. Farming communities always have churches nearby that can help, if one is willing to recover.

[ottbmare]

You may have missed that these hovels are in Maryland where we do not have a huge farming industry. Traveling two or three thousand miles to Texas or California is expensive; doing that for the hope of getting minimum wage job is silly. I don’t know what the answer is for unskilled unemployed people but it is not true that they can just run out and get a job.

I know nothing about economic conditions wherever you live, so I would never dream of arguing with you about your state, but I know a good deal about the dying economy of Maryland and what it’s like to try to get a job here.