There is lots of work in Mexico, however there is very little financial reward for labor - shit wages.

This is unmitigated bullshit. I've talked to enough Mexicans about governmental corruption and criminal shakedowns for money. Cartels force ranchers off their property to grow pot, lots of people disappear without a trace.

Exactly.

Cal channel has the video of the committee meeting up for view. My commentary doesn't come up until the end at about 1:47.

http://www.calchannel.com/channel/viewVideo/2488

This is some information most people don't know. This is the buying power of the citizens of both Mexico and the US for 2008 and 2009. These are the last years I could find the stats. You'll notice Mexico's personal buying power was better in 2009 than the US. As for their paying "shit wages" that is not necessarily the real facts when you see the stats. What is happening is the lowest of Mexico's labor force is being force to the US, but most in Mexico are being paid much better.

Purchasing Power per pop


2008 Mexico $12,400 US $13,780

2009 Mexico $13,900 US $13,820

I'm not sure what you are talking about.

This is what I've heard:

There's lots of work in Mexico, but there's no money... Some of those coming here have a very good life on the ranch, but there's no money. Those who do have money are extorted by various means, quite a few who have disappeared seem to have resisted extortion demands.

I read an article in the Press Enterprise a week or so ago I almost posted here, it's not a propaganda piece for American consumption. It was headlined something like Mexicans are the hardest working people in the world.

According to the article, the number of hours Mexican nationals work in Mexico to make the barest of living standards exceeds that of even the Japanese. A Mexican government official who was interviewed for the piece said that it demonstrated the failure of the Mexican nation towards its citizens.

There is no such thing as welfare in Mexico, if you don't work, you don't eat.

I've read about the failure of subsistence farming - in part due to government subsidized imported American corn, population overflow from the pueblos to the cities, the trash pickers of Mexico City. You can see that those who come here definitely know how to stretch a nickle.

It seems to me that people in Mexico are far more inclined to be concerned about the price of tortillas than following the stock market.

I've seen fences at tumble down farm housing in the San Joaquin made out of a fantastic array of materials woven into a tight structure, from sticks to pieces of old table and maybe the occasional scrap bumper. I've even seen a clothes wash basin / scrubbing board made out of stone in the back yard of Mexican Nationals living in San Bernardino.

You can't tell me that the majority of those who have nearly emptied whole pueblos in Mexico to come here do so because they have the same buying power in Mexico as Americans do in America with resultant equal living standards.

What you're comparing is the lowest rung, that is what is sent here from Mexico, not the average Mexican. As you know, 10% of Mexico is now here and it's not their average citizen. When you compare the average Mexican with the average American there is only a small difference in their buying power. Numbers don't lie. What you and most here in the US have been exposed to over the years is the lowest end of Mexico.

Mexico has Gucci, Prada and all the other high end stores just like Beverly Hills. But exposing just how wealthy Mexico is does not make for good propaganda.

I've seen people here in the US, in the outskirts of Bakersfield and Fresno that live in conditions about equal to those that we see in the commercials asking for donations for the poor in other countries. We have some very, very poor here. I was in what they called a "home" were the floor was made of broken plywood and the broken windows were covered with scraps of wood. But you don't see those places on the news, not unless they're in Mexico.

Mexico is the third richest country in the Americas, but all we're fed is that it is such a poor country, "they're so poor" crap. Those figures I gave are true, and the average Mexican in Mexico is not that bad off. Especially when you consider that Mexico has pushed much of its poor onto our soil. How much better would the average US citizen be if we were able to ship 10% of our country's poorest of poor off to another country. It would sure leave a lot of extra dollars in most of our pockets.

Take the time to look up just how "poor" Mexico really isn't. The other countries south of the US that are doing somewhat well are Chili and Argentina. There may be more, but I didn't have the time to look at all of them.

What is coming here is indeed the lowest class; the most ignorant, the least able to make it in Mexico - I've said that all along, and , for several reasons, Mexico is pushing it's poor into the United States, but there's not much of a middle class in Mexico. The developing Middle class was decimated by the oil bust of 1981 and the subsequent devaluation of the peso.

If you took wealthy Mexicans the likes of Carlos Slim and divided their combined wealth with the total population of Mexico you might have a decent per capita indication of wealth. but that's a false assumption, and just because there isn't general, widespread starvation doesn't mean there is a lot of money swirling around among the general population.

If there can be a favorable comparison made concerning "buying power" in a nation of extremely cheap labor (minimum wage $11.00 or so a day), it is only due to remittances from America and whatever money trickles down from the drug trade.

Stopped by the state capitol today. There were two events going on, but one was mainly the in-home services people screaming for mercy in regards to benefit cuts. Lots of people in wheelchairs, and some spanish chanting. I went inside and visited Tim donnely's office to make a request. I was treated ok in there today. the halls of the lower floor were awash in school kids. Hundreds of them. Don't know what that was about, however I'm sure it was a lobbying trip in addition to a field trip. I might mention the in-home people got rained on pretty good.
I couldn't stay long there because I had planned to attend a county supervisors meeting to protest a bit in regards to an appointment they were making to the fair housing advisory board. I actually made a difference in there today, but it is likely to be short lived. I'll update you on that one when it reconvenes on the 7th

These are stories that in part tell what the media has not been telling the public. As you can read through this thread, I brought out that Mexico is doing very well financially and their GDP and unemployment has been better than ours for some years now. But the media hasn't reported that until now, figuring it would be harder to sell the "they just come here to feed their families" crap. Now that the cats out of the bag, they're trying to sell us "we need them" crap.

Let's face it, we've been lied to, manipulated and deceived for years.


Holding the line on illegal immigration
Lack of funding for Secure Communities equipment is troubling, but there are other ways to help stem the flow.

The flow of illegal Mexican immigrants into the U.S. has slowed dramatically, a function of improving opportunities for Mexicans at home and increased vigilance in this country.
As we have long said, securing the border between Mexico and the U.S. is an important precursor to immigration reform.
The key going forward will be to hold the line on illegal immigration through a variety of strategies the Obama administration is pursuing, including the full nationwide implementation of Secure Communities, which targets illegal immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds.
To that end, we were troubled to see that 39 percent of Colorado's 64 counties do not have the right digital fingerprint equipment to allow the program to function expeditiously.
A Post story by reporter Nancy Lofholm said the sheriffs' offices, many of them small or rural counties dealing with budget cuts, don't have the financial wherewithal to buy the equipment.
They still can, and we hope would, participate. However, it's clear that having updated digital equipment to transmit fingerprints quickly so they ultimately may be checked against immigration databases is far more efficient than dealing with ink and paper fingerprints.
There had been federal grant money available, but apparently Colorado didn't get all that it asked for, which meant new equipment for all the counties — which costs about $50,000 for each county — didn't make the cut.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is pushing to get as much equipment out of the federal money as possible, and we appreciate their efforts. We hope future grant opportunities for equipment funding are more fruitful so Secure Communities can operate optimally.
Other administration strategies, including better border enforcement and continuing to pressure employers who hire illegal immigrants, will help reduce the number of undocumented workers.
However, as a New York Times story last week made clear, conditions in Mexico have contributed substantially to decreased illegal immigration. Fear of border crime due to the illegal drug trade was cited as a negative factor that cut into illegal immigration, but most other factors are positive.
Incomes are rising. Poverty is declining. There are more educational opportunities and family sizes are smaller.
These are important advances for Mexico, and they have the added benefit of stemming illegal immigration to the U.S. However, we are concerned that when the U.S. economy bounces back, the incentive for illegal immigration may be resurrected.
The Obama administration must take advantage of this confluence of circumstances to buckle down and ensure illegal immigration from Mexico remains at a trickle so comprehensive immigration reform can gain momentum with policymakers and the public.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_18436009

A lull in illegal immigration
The Mexicans are not coming!
Typically, I am not a very good headline writer, but a couple of stories I saw in newspapers last week screamed for that kind of hyperbole. The stories noted several recent studies that suggest Mexican immigrants, especially the ones who enter the country without permission, are increasingly deciding to stay home.
One might expect that kind of news would be welcome among those who want fewer illegal immigrants sneaking into the country, but no. Most of the reader comments on those stories suggested instead that the media was lying to them.
The evidence, however, is hard to ignore.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, a research organization that focuses on the U.S. Latino population, the number of illegal immigrants living in the country decreased from 12 million in 2007 to 11.5 million in 2010. Much of the decrease was due to a drop in the illegal immigrant population from Mexico, which fell from 7 million in 2007 to 6.5 million last year.
Arrests along the southwest border dropped from 1.6 million in 2000 to 448,000 in 2010, according to immigration authorities.
In recent months, there were stories in newspapers about bored U.S. Border Patrol agents watching the fence rust due to a lack of activity.
The decrease in illegal immigration was predictable.
More job opportunities and higher wages are the dominant reasons illegal immigrants risk their lives to cross the border, according to Wayne Cornelius, the former director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego.
Unauthorized immigration increases when the U.S. economy is expanding and decreases when the economy is contracting, Cornelius says.
The U.S. economy has suffered one of its worst recessions in history.
Over the last few years, many illegal immigrants have left the U.S. ---- some voluntarily because of lack of work and others forced out by an expanding law enforcement web ---- never to return. This, along with fewer illegal immigrants coming, has led to the overall reduction in the illegal immigrant population.
There are other factors at work, too.
The population explosion that Mexico experienced and aggravated its long-term economic woes is slowing.
Birth control efforts and government-sponsored campaigns touting the virtues of smaller families also are working. The birth rate in Mexico is about 2 children per woman, down from nearly 7 children per woman in 1970.
In the future, an aging Mexico will need its younger, better-educated workers to stay home and keep the country running.
By now, some readers might be tempted to look outside their windows and see Latino gardners pushing lawn mowers and swinging leaf blowers, and puzzled, asking to themselves, "What reduction?"
Yes, there are still illegal immigrants out there and there is a good chance as long as there are more job opportunities and higher wages available here than in Mexico, some Mexicans will continue to come. But it doesn't have to be illegally if we take the opportunity and repair our broken immigration laws.
Fact check
Last week, I attempted to correct a statement made by Supervisor Bill Horn who said: "In North County, we have several Latino councilmen on every one of those cities."
There's not.
But I said that Vista has one Latino councilman. Vista has two Latino councilmen, Frank Lopez and John Aguilera.
My apologies to Mr. Aguilera.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/opinion/...#ixzz1RkNbFtln

This is why Mexico is doing so well. Look up how that country is doing!

Teachers give a standing ovation for this speech, i guess they concur Nea may be the instructors union I believe