The Tariff Questions?

[jabberwocky]

The issue with the

Lots of legal immigrants speak Spanish also. Legal immigrants are welcome; deport the illegals and fine those that employ them.

The issue with this mentality is that it ignores the fact that its extremely difficult (bordering on impossible) for uneducated labor to legally immigrate to the US in most cases. Its not like these are people who are just too lazy to do some paperwork. Its either work undocumented or not come to the US.

If you dig into the status and history of lots spanish speaking legal immigrants, they have undocumented immigrants in their family history. They are second generation (parents were undocumented but they were born here), or they married someone with status, or had family here who could sponsor them, or have just been here long enough to build the history and savings to work on a green card. I have friends and coworkers who immigrated (generally from wealthy families or highly educated) and its a long, difficult process. Several years and 4-5 figures of expenditure. They are universally enthusiastic citizens. They chose to live here.

A few builders I work with are run by second generation immigrants. Their parents were "illegals" but built a life here, had kids, and those kids worked hard and now own successful companies that do good work and employ lots of people.

I can’t speak for who was employed to build the house I live in now (1981), but 4 years ago it was reroofed by a crew of white, english speaking locals.

The house I was general contractor for in the late 80s had no non-white, Spanish speakers as subs.

I work in the construction field. Sure, plenty of white english speaking subs. But also lots of immigrant labor, especially in areas with large immigrant populations. Its a great field for someone who doesn't have a lot of education or language skills but is a hard worker and needs to make good money. Construction has been undergoing a labor shortage for the better part of a decade at this point (though it accelerated massively post COVID). Trades put a lot of effort into recruitment but its a hard sell, especially when the job market is as strong as it has been the past few years.

IMO the best way to judge a subcontractor is on the quality of their work instead of their skin color or what language they speak. But you do you.

 

[February]

of the 1b+ global speakers of english, my experience (globally) is that about 95% understand each other. then again, my experience only includes most of the united states, the UK, continental europe, chile, peru, india, china, australia, new zealand….

the only regional variations of english which trip up most english speakers are the scots, in my experience. people learn english globally watching everything from jersey shore to british murder mysteries.

I also struggle with heavy Scot Dialects/accents.

 

[S.Sage]

My background is mostly in larger commercial construction management. One hospital project had 1,000 plus on payroll and I remember about three men had the same SS number and were "let go" as soon as payroll noticed. We had audits at least twice per year too, sub labor had to be documented and verified.

So, it can be done legally. We still chose to pay a strong wage that attracted quality workers. I avoided hiring non-skilled labor, that helps greatly, but costs more. My "labors" were paid higher than the illegal carpenters of the day. It pisses me off when I see companies hiring guys at $12 an hour to run a pipe setting crew. Those folks should be ran out of business.

Even in south Florida most workers spoke English well enough. When I was a General Foreman on small Podunk projects I would come across illegals on my payroll that I liked, so we would get them legal ASAP if they didn't have a criminal record. What I found out working with undocumented folks is that 90% had a criminal record, had warrants out on them in their home country, sometimes they were wanted locally for major crimes. So they would not give you their real name. So I never kept illegals on my payroll, you need to know who you are dealing with. I had a few convicts working for me, one non-violent drug dealer fresh out of a GA prison worked out good and became a Forman, but most relapse back into their old criminal ways. I loved working on medical projects and anything federaly funded, background checks were SOP.

 

[mschwett]

I also struggle with heavy Scot Dialects/accents.

didn’t they get subtitles in trainspotting?

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

of the 1b+ global speakers of english, my experience (globally) is that about 95% understand each other. then again, my experience only includes most of the united states, the UK, continental europe, chile, peru, india, china, australia, new zealand….

the only regional variations of english which trip up most english speakers are the scots, in my experience. people learn english globally watching everything from jersey shore to british murder mysteries.

Wife and I watch a lot of British murder mysteries and have to agree: The Scots are especially hard for us to understand. We've been known to rewind 10 times when a Scot says something that seems important to the plot.

However, the Kiwis aren't far behind — especially on the North Island.

 

[kevinmccune]

Lol on the English. There are so many dialects of it, that two people who speak the exact same language can't understand each other at all. As an anglophile I've watched British movies and shows since I was a child. I can understand broken English and all the UK and Irish dialects, even surprised one English immigrant by calling gasolene, petrol, but struggle with people from the deep south who speak like Boomhower from King of the Hill (by the way, as silly as they sound to us, we all sound like special needs to them). Just watched the series Say Nothing about "the troubles". While I understood every word of English being spoken, guarantee you a majority of Americans probably needed subtitles to understand what people were saying. Laughed when I read a few years ago, Indian telephone operators are now being taught to speak English with a heavy British accent.

that makes sense,because it will be camoflauge for awhile

 

[Roamers]

The issue with this mentality is that it ignores the fact that its extremely difficult (bordering on impossible) for uneducated labor to legally immigrate to the US in most cases.

We don't need to import uneducated; have plenty here already.

I haven't looked at immigration rules, but it should include "skills we need" criteria. Unskilled is not a skill.

 

[mschwett]

We don't need to import uneducated; have plenty here already.

I haven't looked at immigration rules, but it should include "skills we need" criteria. Unskilled is not a skill.

the “uneducated” native born are not willing to work at the rates that the jobs they’re qualified for pay. there are huge labor shortages across service industry and other sectors. we *do* need people to do those jobs, at least for the next 10 years or so. at some point it’ll all be automated away and we’ll have to embrace some form of UBI, population decline, or something.