Thread: What is wrong with America

Well, I feel like I would be remiss were I not to state the following.

Immigration illegal or not, actually presents a Net Gain to America and Americans.

As for Obama and immigration - from one of the most conservative rags ever, the economist - "America is expelling illegal immigrants at nine times the rate of 20 years ago (see article); nearly 2m so far under Barack Obama, easily outpacing any previous president. Border patrol agents no longer just patrol..."


we really ally need to start talking facts vs feelings lol.

I worked for Immigration for 30 years and all the misinformation being spread by a certain segment of the country is outrageous. The executive has the authority to forestall deportation and grant employment authorization. We have been doing it since Mr Reagan did it in his presidency and we have done it with all classes of folks who are here illegally. Every time there has been a crisis in some country or another (like Reagan and Nicaragua) we responded by allowing them to stay and giving them employment authorization and it wasn't congress who did it either. In some cases, later on Congress passed special laws to allow them to become Resident Aliens but initially it was on the President's call.

Originally Posted by Splashone

Or not...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/ma...anted=all&_r=0

Our countries children are homeless 1 in 4 . Hungry with failing grades to show for it. Graduates of prestigious colleges and university that lack the common sense and skill set that was mandatory to get a high school diploma but a decade ago. Decaying sewers and water treatment plants. Nuclear power plants that have had no preventative maintenance since Ronald Reagan ran the show, Dare we even speak about crumbling roads and bridges?? Oh and the small fact that 20% of all Americans receive food assistance because they are unable to get the nutrition necessary to perform basic duties.Count 5 of your neighbors, one of them is on help. But no what are a few 100k illegals and their sickness and disease that is indigenous to their life, for which Americans have long lost any resistance to the disease. No worries
Last observation How many porta potties and hand washing stations do you see in the fields of Americas amber waves of grain. Yes urine and feces introduced to our food supply has to be an upgrade for our food source. Just use the water that we dont have to rinse our food completely logical order of operation , dont you think? Yeah immigrants are good for us because they can still bend over to the food product because of a lack of obesity that the indigenous population consumes in mass quantities. Sound completely feasible to a smart person. Because once you put it in print it has to be true,, right after the louder you scream your position it makes it more credible , Right? Just observations, ruminate on the documentable statements and fact check them from more than one source and preferabley at least one that is not a government paid stool pigeon that is paid to placate the unintelligent masses.
Do you Sir see any parallels and truths in the above statements?

The closer stat to "1 in 4" I could find was "1 in 45", and the breakdown is shocking... 47% left home because of physical abuse, 17% because of sexual abuse. 40% of homeless kids identify as LGBT. However, the "1 in 45" statistic is probably lower than reality as homeless families may not want to admit they are homeless, being scared of social services taking away the kids. Then there's also the "not homeless but below poverty line" issue which will also have severe impacts on the kid's growth and education.

As for education... there's been so much grade inflation and gaming the system that the BA/BS is now the new high school diploma and the MA/MS is the new associate degree. And yet, many big companies still use the GPA as an initial filter for the interviewing process. And that's not limited to the US... in the 90s, one could get a nice entry-level job in IT with a high-school degree then climb the ladder based on experience and abilities. Now the few "entry level" positions I see advertised require a master degree (with distinction) or equivalent work experience... and the compensation isn't any higher than it was in the late 90s.

For the lack of common sense and skill set, I could scare you with the notes I took while interviewing graduates for technical positions in the past 22 years. Candidates able to mentally multiply or divide by 10 have been few and far between, so were candidates able to answer more than the most basic questions on their major. On the other hand, the candidates I hired all went on to have amazing careers. The other day, I was attending a recruiting event for a large tech company... the vast majority of the people they invited (that is, the people they thought would score highest on the interviewing process) flunked at the most basic questions... and the candidates were universally boasting about their skills and how they should directly apply to the top technical positions in the company.

Ultasound-

So your position is that Americans have become fat and stupid because of illegal immigration?

Our "System" has been on what I call the "Walmart" diet since I can remember. Bigger, cheaper and more than we need. We outsource jobs because the pay is lower in other parts of the world. Grocery stores (even whole foods) have so much more instant food choices that are unhealthy than. An organic candy bar is just that a .... candy bar. When I go to the grocery store and see a cart stacked over the edge with food its mostly snacks, soda, white bread, instant meal and candy. If a cart were piled that high with produce, milk and meat you couldn't push it. We build our houses bigger and for as cheaply as possible. If you've ever worked for a contractor who built custom homes (real custom homes. Not one that gives you a list of options to pick from) and then worked for one who builds track homes like Dominion or MI Homes you can see the difference in quality. Track homes are the white bread of houses. All fluff and not much nutrition. We pay other people to do things we don't want to. Granted on this site there is probably a higher than average amount of guys who change their own oil or brakes. I do it in my driveway and someone always comes up and asks if I'm a mechanic. Leaky toilet. Not really a difficult fix. There's a great deal of engineering that went into making toilets, but they aren't exactly made of the most complicated parts, yet the plumbers I know get called to do that stuff all the time. Furnaces that is a different story. My point is there are so many immigrants in our society because we want things done for cheap and that's what happens. We don't teach our kids in school that farming, auto mechanics, or skilled trades are good employment options, so guess what's happening. We are having a vast wave of immigrants flooding in to fill the void that would have been filled with high school graduates. Well our schools are dropping vocational classes like metals classes, wood shop classes and auto repair classes at an unprecedented pace. I work construction and the last 5 years I have converted so many vocational education classrooms into computer labs. We expect those skills to be taught on the job I guess. Our nation isn't fat and lazy because of immigrants. They are here because of WHY we have become fat and lazy. My favorite movie on this subject is Idocracy. Check it out.

Originally Posted by MichaelP

As for education... there's been so much grade inflation and gaming the system that the BA/BS is now the new high school diploma and the MA/MS is the new associate degree. And yet, many big companies still use the GPA as an initial filter for the interviewing process. And that's not limited to the US... in the 90s, one could get a nice entry-level job in IT with a high-school degree then climb the ladder based on experience and abilities. Now the few "entry level" positions I see advertised require a master degree (with distinction) or equivalent work experience... and the compensation isn't any higher than it was in the late 90s.

For the lack of common sense and skill set, I could scare you with the notes I took while interviewing graduates for technical positions in the past 22 years. Candidates able to mentally multiply or divide by 10 have been few and far between, so were candidates able to answer more than the most basic questions on their major. On the other hand, the candidates I hired all went on to have amazing careers. The other day, I was attending a recruiting event for a large tech company... the vast majority of the people they invited (that is, the people they thought would score highest on the interviewing process) flunked at the most basic questions... and the candidates were universally boasting about their skills and how they should directly apply to the top technical positions in the company.

I believe that is also the case in Canada. A University degree used to be worth something as not everyone and their dog had one. Like every commodity on the market it gets much less valuable when there is a surfeit of it. A BA seems about as useful today as Toilet paper and gets you a chance at an entry position at Wally World as in "Welcome to Wally World, have a nice day". Post secondary education is now a business cranking out volumes of mediocre product. It does have one benefit though, it keeps people in school longer and as a student you do not appear as an unemployment statistic. Imagine the unemployment rate if every able bodied person 18 years of age or over that was not working was included in that stat.

Bob

Originally Posted by Splashone

Ultasound-

So your position is that Americans have become fat and stupid because of illegal immigration?

Oh no Sir , It is but a small factor. I cant be mad at a people trying to better themselves. The Thread was What is wrong with America,
Illegal immigration is but a drop in the bucket of a tidal wave of problems that this country has, Its nearing Pandemic stages.
If fat americans would be willing to pick vegatables, wait do all the jobs that illegals perform , Americans would be fitter more active and self sufficient. Have you ever tried to keep pace with a Mexican in the work place?? I have, I can out work and hustle any ethnicity, but not them, I struggle to keep up with illegals on the job.
American had it good , got fat and sassy, and now we are reaping what we have sown.

I'll weigh in on this one late. At the risk of over-simplifying some potentially complex problems, I firmly believe that every problem we face that is currently bringing this once great country to its knees can be summed up in one word: greed.