The Uncomfortable Truth

America, almost from its discovery, has always had a permanent underclass--people that we could abuse and take advantage of. Some economists will tell you that this country would fail without those on the lower rung providing the cheap labor necessary for America to be great.
Shortly after the first Africans arrived in 1619, they lost their freedom and became slaves for those who held the economic strings of power.
Of course, slavery was eventually outlawed, but Jim Crow laws kept people of African descent down for another hundred years.
Of course, immigrants were around to take advantage of, but through hard work and living by American ideals, most immigrants rose out of the underclass.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was crafted to end discrimination for Blacks. Giving civil rights to Blacks would surely lift them up economically, but who was going to fill the ranks of the underclass? “Well, gee! There’s a whole country full o’ folks right next door! We’ll make them the new underclass.”
“Ahh, but how? How do we keep them in their place?”
The answer to that is found in Title VI of that same (so-called) Civil Rights Act. This is where the seeds were sown. Title VI provided for alternative language programs necessary to ensure that national origin minority students with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to schools' programs. This was the beginning of teaching English as a second language (ESL).
Every single study that has been done comparing the incomes of people who took ESL classes shows they earn substantially less than those who took classes in English, which is why I voted yes on Proposition 187.
ESL programs aren’t the only ones designed for this purpose. Since the Civil Rights Act we have a whole host of programs designed to keep immigrants in their place. Have you ever wondered why we spend a fortune to let people vote in their native language? Go to a big city and see how many government services are offered in languages other than English. Sure, we give free medical care to illegals who show up at the hospital, but who else are we going to get to dig our ditches and clean our toilets for next to nothing? The people profiting of their labor aren’t paying those bills, we are!
I don’t know which makes me angrier, the lies told by the corporate media, or the idiots that believe those lies.
As with Proposition 187, I have been called a racist because I oppose the Immigration Reform Act that was recently revived in the Senate. Last week Governor Schwarzenegger was called a racist because he made the common-sense suggestion that immigrants learn English! And people believed it! Geez, how stupid can you get?
On the first of May, scores of people walked in front of my house demonstrating for their friends and families to come here and be treated like dirt. Amazing! As they walked past, I marveled at their complete ignorance of the fact that the reason their own wages are so low is because of what they were doing.
A popular chorus heard in the media is that “Americans won’t do those jobs.” Bull! There isn’t ANY job that an American citizen won’t do—for a decent wage. If the wages cannot be afforded, then American ingenuity can come to the rescue.
Australia, as we all know, is surrounded by water—it doesn’t have a problem with illegal immigration. Who picks the crops down under? Machines. Those clever Aussies have machines to do the scut work of agriculture.
America has not solved the problems of illegal immigration because those in power don’t want to! It’s cheaper for them. And if they have their way, it will always be thus—just as long as we keep them in their place.

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A lot of people tell me that it is time to “do something” about America. Nobody likes the system, yet every four years fewer and fewer of us trudge to the polls to pick the lesser of two evils. Well, here is your chance to make a difference the next time round.
Dr. Bob Bowman of Florida will be in Chico Saturday evening, at the Masonic Center, 1110 West East Avenue. (That's out by the railroad tracks for those of you new to town.)
Hailed as “The best public speaker in America” by the LA Times, Dr. Bob is running for president of the US. Check out his website: bowman2008.com.
Next year, we do have more choices than Hillary and whoever the designated loser will be. We don’t have to put up with the same old crap! The 51% of people who refuse to vote now have a reason to vote.
Dr Bob’s ideas are simple:
Restore the country as it is supposed to be.
End the imperial presidency.
No more corporate importation of cheap labor that keeps everybody’s wages down.
No more NAFTA
No more corporate welfare.
No more health plans written by the health industry.
No more energy plans written by the energy industry.
No more of any plans written by special interests.
A return to government of the people BY the people.
This is what everybody says they want, yet every four years, almost half the people in this country choose from the two corporate offerings. (The rest of us are smarter than that.) The amazing thing is that they think things will change. Remember last November?
Incredible! How stupid can they be? (Frankly, an adjective fails me.)
This time around, let’s educate ourselves to the real issues facing this country.
Don’t be stupid!
Give Dr. Bob a listen this Saturday.

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The president claims that the immigration bill now being debated in Congress is the last, best hope for immigration reform.
Not exactly.
The best hope of stopping the influx of illegal aliens is with a physical barrier; along with severe punishment for those who hire illegals. As well as raising wages for Americans.
Stopping the flow of illegals will not happen with this bill as it gives amnesty to almost everyone that is here illegally. Just like in 1986, this bill will increase the number of illegals. Should this bill pass, I imagine that in another twenty years or so, we will have to pass another bill—except the next one will be written in Spanish.
This bill is crap.
Note that it is receiving bipartisan support. That means that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have the best interests of the citizens at heart. That’s no surprise to me, as I have been saying that for years.
The sole purpose of this bill is to keep wages down, and exorbitant profits up.
We are told that illegals will do the work that Americans won’t do. That is the biggest lie in the immigration debate
Illegals will do the work all right, for a lot less than Americans will do it for.
Take the construction industry. Forty years ago, ten bucks an hour for building houses was a decent, average wage. Forty years ago, houses cost $26,400 on average.
The average price of a house has risen to $305,900, according to the census bureau.
(In a perfect world, the guys building houses would be making eighty four dollars an hour, but that’s another essay.)
Yet the developers still want to pay ten bucks an hour. Damn right Americans won’t do it for that paltry amount! How can they afford to buy the houses they are building?
You want to keep the flow of illegals down? Pay a decent wage to construction workers!
“Won’t the prices of houses go up?
The costs will, the prices won’t. They won’t rise above what people are willing to pay.
The truth is that PROFITS will decrease if they have to be shared with the folks who actually do the work of building. And if you check how much money the housing industry is giving Congress, you can see why this bill has a good chance of passing.
Labor costs as a percentage of home prices are a fraction of what they once were. As long as they are not paying eighty-four bucks an hour to the workers, high wages are not the reason for high home prices.
You want Americans to pick your crops? Offer fifteen dollars an hour and see how many applications you get!
Americans will do the jobs all right, they just need enough to pay their bills.
Another big lie told in the immigration story is that unemployment is near record lows of 4.5%. We “need” more workers.
A number of years ago, the federal government “recalculated” the unemployment statistics. As it stands now, essentially once you stop receiving unemployment, you’re no longer unemployed. Add to this the “underemployed.”
A good rule of thumb to gauge the true unemployment rate is to simply double the official government number. That would make 9% as the true unemployment rate.
9% of Americans are out of work. Is it possible some of them would want to make $15/hr picking fruit? I know I would if I needed a job! The price of produce may rise a bit—but not past the point people will pay.
The last, best for immigration reform is to attack it at the root cause—greed.

Posted by Quentin Colgan at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)