May 27, 2009

A BIGGER PICTURE

Wow, the truth will set you free. Open up your eyes a bit and you’ll notice a few ugly things going on right now. You can be upset about made in Mexico or made in Canada, but you’re missing the sad local truth. If you get a chance to fly out of our airport here in Minneapolis/St. Paul, take a look who is driving the cabs. When you check your bags at the curb who is handling them, when you go through the security check point who is standing there? Chances are they are not U.S. born. The sad truth is that they are making under $10.00 per hour and not many of us are willing to put up with that type of stress for that kind of money.

When you get up in the morning and open up your milk to pour in your coffee or cereal you can almost be guaranteed that if you have Land O’ Lakes on the label that it was packaged by a Latino. If your coffee wasn’t grown in Latin America or Central America it was probably grown in Africa. Now we have a Kona coffee that is grown in Hawaii for those really concerned, I find it really bitter so I go for the Columbian stuff. Tyler likes the Malt O’ Meal cereals, but once again blended and packaged by a Latino. Made in America now days has no borders, this would be part of that NAFTA stuff and the sad truth is that if you shut down the border to shipping, you flood our borders with illegal’s. We could pay the employees at these company’s more money and hire only U.S.A. born employees, but because of education and a need for computer literacy it is really hard to find people who are willing to work for less. The higher paid employee means a higher cost; the U.S. auto maker’s are dealing with this right now as I type. If it cost’s more money for a lesser product who is going to buy it, not Larry he has a Toyota and he’ll tell you how it is the greatest car ever manufactured in the world, (he use to own a metal fabrication shop here in the U.S. and buy’s foreign car), why, his Camry is better and our U.S. auto makers will admit it. Now to make that same car here in the U.S. you would have to increase the price by $8,000 to $10,000, that would be either Pontiac or Lincoln that even comes close.

So, the problem is more than just buy made in America, you can’t. What can we do to fix this? This is the next big challenge, if we close our borders to goods, we will be slammed with immigrants who will work for less. My good friends we are soon going to see a world dollar similar to the Euro, and just maybe the end of the U.S.A. as the greatest nation.

President Clinton Signs NAFTA
Congress approved NAFTA in November 1993 and the agreement went into effect on January 1, 1994, again please note, he was not my president. This I fear was a HUGE mistake made before Bush Jr.

J-Me

11 comments:

Deb said...

I know that there is a much bigger picture out there. I just do what I feel I have control over and one of those is trying to buy US made products. I don't care who packages them. Yes, those people work for crappy wages because its more than they could make in their home country. I worked with Mexican migrants years ago and they were making more money than I was...8.00 per hour. They told me that they were considered rich men in Mexico. They would save up all their earnings and live well when they returned home.
I didn't actually write the post I made...I got it in an email and cheated by doing copy/paste :)

Jodi said...

Debbie, we know that you do what you have to, if you had to pump other peoples poop for a living you would and well, you are working two jobs this summer or should I say 3.

We wrote this because the government and in general people whine about not wanting to work somwhere because they are too qualified and then bitch because they got served by a Latino, or they had a Somalian cab driver.

Nothing against you personally.

deb said...

Yeppers...I know that Jodi. I've yet to pump other peoples poop but ya never know lol

jamie said to deb said...

Deb, I’m not attacking your post in anyway, in fact the idea is right on the mark.

What I’m saying is that we (U.S. born work force) are not willing to start out on the bottom rung as a society for numerous reasons, yet we complain when the construction crew shows up across the street from where we work and they are mostly Latino with a U.S. born boss. Guess what, the U.S. born construction guys are looking for Union jobs with a large employer so they can get bennies, Union wage etc… What gets me upset about this arrangement is that over the last year Chrysler, outside of Chicago, things are so slow auto workers show up for work and spend the day watching TV in the lunch room, why, because their line is not running and because of union rules they cannot do any task outside of their department, because of their contracts. Now, auto sales are down and the company is bust and the biggest part of the problem is their payroll. They can’t lay off employees because of their contracts and so the government has to step in to shut down plants and rework U.A.W. contracts.

Sure they fired the President of G.M., but former G.M. President Rick Wagoner was being paid $70,000,000.00 per year to drive the company into the dirt. I really don’t think he’s losing any sleep over it. I bet he also got quite a nice severance package.

I’d really like to back-up the made in the U.S.A. thing but our quality of goods vs. world products has been lacking for years and I’m afraid it would only be a band-aid on a shot-gun wound.

Deb said to Jamie said to Deb said to Jamie said...

I didn't take it that way at all Jamie...not a bit.

Rich said...

I do believe, but correct me if I am wrong, all former living presidents supported NAFTA and I may even remember a picture showing them with Pres. Clinton in a show of unity??

Rich said...

....with a bit of research.....I think that Regan first introduced FTA which expanded into NAFTA....a preliminary agreement was signed while Bush Sr. was president...try google - NAFTA timeline....or google pictures of the pre-signing meetings, etc...

J-me said...

Damn, nice research Rich, but Jimmy Carter also supported it, John F. Kennedy when he was a senator proposed free trade of foods and agriculture to supplement foreign nations in 1960, but, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, put it into action, made it happen, pulled the trigger, put it into play, its number came up, went to work, got the ball rolling, yep, sure enough signed it as I we know it today.

Quiz time;

Which President signed the NAFTA agreement?

I do understand you as a Teacher, and "I do have the most respect to such a noble profession", would support Obama. Look, you got a pay raise and yet I paid in even with over $5,000 in out of pocket health care expenses, ya he's a peach.

And with regards to FACTS, Latin Americans are the second largest group of people in the United States, this has increased from 8.9% in 1990 to 12.3% in 2000. What has changed since 1990, hum, let me think, we opened more Taco Bell's, Chipolte's or did they just want to try our goulash.

Is this why Larry has us all go to OCB, just in case there might be conflicting points of view. (snicker)...

Anonymous said...

WHAT????????

Dave said...

I have a 42" 1080p HDTV

Jode said...

Us too, awesome huh?