30 Days: Immigration

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Good series if you havent seen it. This episode is still running this week (I think) on FX.

This is the guy who did the documentary on eating nothing but macdonalds for 30 days and what it did to him. He's in the second season of a regular television series, where he takes someone and puts them in a generally orthogonal situation for a month. Its got its hinks and issues, but its interesting.

This one has a legal cuban immigrant whose parents immigrated to the US when he was a kid, and he's now one of the "minute men" border patrol guys. So's his wife.

They drop him into a family of illegal immigrants...five kids and the parents living in a 500 square foot one bedroom apartment.

I wont spoil it, but its a heck of a learning experience for all of them. He's regularly taken to task by the oldest daughter, 17 and applying for a fullbright scholarship and trying to get into princeton. By the end, they're close friends.

He softens his stance considerably, and a visit to mexico (to see where the family lived before) knocks him off his foundation. Couple of joined brick walls in a weedy field and a piece of corrugated iron for a roof. Open pit with water seeping up into it is the water supply. Bathroom is the field behind the 'building'. Their remaining relatives live in complete squallor.

He comes to see the motivation for people to immigrate illegally to the US, and sees that the poverty they live in here is still a huge step above what they came from. Still feels strongly about immigrating legally and is good and PO'd at the mexican government for not doing more for their population.

Good story: put the folks at the furthest ends of this particular spectrum together until they understand each other.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

CFB,

I saw a documentary on the Border Patrol several years ago. It seems that the Mexican-Americans on the squad were tougher on wetbacks than the 'Anglos'. Don't know why.

 

[haha]

There is unbelievable poverty all over the world. Thankfully, much of it is an ocean away, not just a narrow shallow river. But there is plenty in Mexico and points south.

IMO we should pray for these people, send donations to them, go down and build them dwellings, but not make their intractable problems our own intractable problems here at home.

Compassion, not foolhardiness,  should be our guide.

Ha

 

[2B]

CFB,

I saw a documentary on the Border Patrol several years ago.  It seems that the Mexican-Americans on the squad were tougher on wetbacks than the 'Anglos'.  Don't know why.

If an "anglo" is tough on them, they are "racists." If an "anglo" is against any benefit or give-away for "non-anglos," they are again "racist." We've created an interesting sociological situation.

 

[unclemick]

First cup of coffee -

America needs to enslave the world: Visa, Mastercard, mortgage and car payments for everyone.

That will solve the problem.

Right?

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh - a curmudgeon proclaimation!

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

First cup of coffee -

America needs to enslave the world: Visa, Mastercard, mortgage and car payments for everyone.

That will solve the problem.

Right?

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh - a curmudgeon proclaimation!

I don't think home mortgages are such a bad idea. After all, a lot of folks on this board got their first mil mostly through real estate. It's a way to combine shelter and wealth building into one financial burden instead of separating them into two and making both that much harder.

 

[justin]

I don't think home mortgages are such a bad idea. After all, a lot of folks on this board got their first mil mostly through real estate. It's a way to combine shelter and wealth building into one financial burden instead of separating them into two and making both that much harder.

Add that to the Jeffersonian notion that property owners will better society to a greater extent than non-property owners (vested interests).

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

It *was* on again last night, and again tonight.

The next ones just as juicy...he takes a guy who lost his job to outsourcing and places him with the family in india thats now doing jobs like the one he lost. The subtag is that he gets to see the positive economic benefits to the family of having gotten the job.

 

[shiny]

The guy's name is Morgan Spurlock.

I just read an article about him in Time Magazine (10 Questions for Morgan Spurlock) Anyway, he's asked about the episode that he is going to participate in for the second season - he's going to jail for 30 days. He says a lot of guys sure deserve to be there, but there are some that could be rehabilitated, but that society is just SO harsh on a one time convict that it makes it almost certain that they will return to crime. Sad.

 

[Nords]

He comes to see the motivation for people to immigrate illegally to the US, and sees that the poverty they live in here is still a huge step above what they came from.  Still feels strongly about immigrating legally and is good and PO'd at the mexican government for not doing more for their population.

Would those immigrants, illegal or otherwise, be paying Social Security payroll taxes on their income? C'mon up!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

At 1.75 an hour, I dont think he's paying much of anything. The "job" he got that they showed, which is probably the worst he's done (for tv drama) was wiggling into a crawl space about 18" high that was swamped with water and fixing a pipe.

But yeah, anything to swell the social security bucket...

 

[2B]

Add that to the Jeffersonian notion that property owners will better society to a greater extent than non-property owners (vested interests).

I find it interesting that you say this. Jefferson advocated that only property owners should vote. This was a pretty broad consensus at the time. It would be like saying today that only living human beings should vote.... but then there's Chicago and New Orleans.

 

[2B]

The guy's name is Morgan Spurlock. 

I just read an article about him in Time Magazine (10 Questions for Morgan Spurlock)  Anyway, he's asked about the episode that he is going to participate in for the second season - he's going to jail for 30 days.   He says a lot of guys sure deserve to be there, but there are some that could be rehabilitated, but that society is just SO harsh on a one time convict that it makes it almost certain that they will return to crime.  Sad.

I worked for a company for a very short period of time that had jobs so terribly physical and paid so low that almost everyone there was an ex-con. I discovered this when one of the workers asked me for time off to do his community service. After talking with him I found out they had a policy for this.

As I got to know them better, I realized that this is where the kids that just couldn't do anything else ended up. They couldn't handle school so they got a crappy job. When they couldn't live the lifestyle they wanted, they started selling drugs or robbing people. When they got out of prison, they ended up there.

Even if they "rehabilitate" there aren't many companies that will ever hire them. They remain on the bottom of crappy jobs until they die. They have few skills and can't compete with the other people with poor skills that don't have the criminal record.

The company I worked for treated them like slaves (all races). I tried to bring civilization and improved working conditions into the place and had no success. I left.

It was an interesting place. It was the first time I had to deal with an employee coming to work falling down drunk and the first time an employee ever hit a supervisor. They had a limited connection between action and consequence.

 

[Nords]

I worked for a company for a very short period of time that had jobs so terribly physical and paid so low that almost everyone there was an ex-con. 
It was an interesting place.  It was the first time I had to deal with an employee coming to work falling down drunk and the first time an employee ever hit a supervisor. 
They had a limited connection between action and consequence.

Lemme guess... U.S. Navy? No, no, wait-- the Marine Corps!!

 

[Gumby]

..

 

[boutros]

Would those immigrants, illegal or otherwise, be paying Social Security payroll taxes on their income?  C'mon up!

I guess you don't see too many illegals in HI.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I'm gonna guess they get plenty, just not mexicans.

 

[2B]

Lemme guess... U.S. Navy?  No, no, wait-- the Marine Corps!!

I forgot my NASA days. Working for the government has different rules than the private sector.

 

[Nords]

Come on, Nords.  It wasn't that bad.  Yes, I did have the occasional sailor show up drunk and, yes, one or two of them proved unable to resist illicit drugs and got booted off the boat post haste, but on the whole they were a good bunch of kids.

Yeah, you're right, and that's one reason we went submarines instead of amphibs.

Although there was the time 20 years ago when my Leading ELT, later determined to be a full-blown alcoholic, came back one morning with a BAC of 0.18 and attempted to complete his under-instruction EOOW practical factor of a reactor startup... eh, it's a long story. Old Navy.

I guess you don't see too many illegals in HI.

Well, the water route is a little more challenging-- but all it takes is a plane ticket, a passport, and a visa. Or a marriage certificate.

Hawaii has a huge industry of people coming from other nations, especially South Korea, to give birth in the U.S. so that their kid will have American citizenship.

 

[bpp]

Hawaii has a huge industry of people coming from other nations, especially South Korea, to give birth in the U.S. so that their kid will have American citizenship.

Suckers. They're obviously unaware of the tax implications.

 

[Mwsinron]

The 1st season was pretty good. I liked the one where he and his DW were living on min wage.