May 1st boycott

[MouseWife]

Didn't they turn down the 'Guest Worker' program?

And, it wasn't Oceanside last night but Escondido. I turned off my computer before the news came on at 11.

Oh, Betty, wouldn't that be awesome if our classes were not crowded? I know education for all 'yada yada' but why can't Mexico educate their own people? I know the wealthy there are fine. They need to take care of their poor the way we try to here.

At a local school meeting, a woman from a completely different neighborhood was talking to the principal and he said 'Well, if you know someone in the area...but I can't really talk about that. Too political.'

A woman in the office during registration was very upset because the secretary was asking for certain papers {that we all have to provide} and she just didn't want to abide by them and was upset she had to. See, one of them was an affidavit that the person she was registering lived with her. There are houses that you see 3-5 cars drop off kids and that person will take them to school.

Now, that is all fantastic that their kids are getting a great education but then the schools are unaccessable for my kid. They have the tricks necessary to get in to the better schools and I don't

I know, off track.

[MouseWife]

Oh, back on track.

I agree with the employment comments. If there weren't people willing to do the job for way less the companies would have to. Why move our factories to other countries? We have so many people here unemployed.

And, the medical issue might just be helped, too. If there wasn't the burden of unpaid bills {illegals, this is a big deal here being so close to the border} maybe the costs would go down. I know they are also high because of lawsuits.

blue erica~ legally I can't say but I think this is such a delacate issue they won't be hard on anyone for anything. I was surprised that the Japanese {or was it Chinese?} woman who made the protest at the White House was put in jail. Or do they have different rules for different immigrants???

Hmm.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

(not mine - I have found that yard work is a scam invented by men with young children to escape them on Saturdays ).

Heh. Michael mows the lawn with the baby in a back carrier and Indi next to him with his bubble mower.

[innerSpaceman]

I think what the boycott was trying to say was that immigrants, both legal and illegal, represesent a significant enough portion of the economy that it would be missed if it were absent. I don't happen to think participation was high enough to adequately demonstrate that ... but I think the attemped message was perfectly clear.

Most of us simply had a no-traffic drive to work, and we are giddy about that. But think about it for a minute. Isn't that a pretty amazing effect? We loved it, but if that many people weren't going to work every day ... don't you think that would have an effect on the economy?

I won't know whether any effect was had at my office till this morning ... when I find out whether the trash was emptied and the premises were cleaned. Frankly, I don't think many immigrants working lower-tiered jobs could have afforded to stay home from work ... and that the REAL point of the economic picture was for them not to spend rather than not to earn. We will likely never know the result of the no-spending boycott, but I suspect that's where the large part of the ecomonic effect lies.

I support such a demonstrative boycott ... even though I'm not in favor of illegal immigration and the way it drives down wages for working American citizens. But I believe that trying to thwart someone else's protest is in bad form, and that's why I neg mojo'd scaeagles.

And you don't have to believe that crossing a picket line is a wrong thing to do, but it's what I believe. I'll neg mojo anyone who crosses a picket line, so don't mess with me, got it?!?


I must also announce with some regret that I will no longer be able to participate in these fast moving and fascinating discussions of real world events. The LoT is now blocked at work, and there will be a lot less of me on the LoT from now on. Bah.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

I must also announce with some regret that I will no longer be able to participate in these fast moving and fascinating discussions of real world events. The LoT is now blocked at work, and there will be a lot less of my on the LoT from now on. Bah.

That's a bummer.

Regarding trying to thwart the demonstration.....the illegals are trying to demonstrate their power (granted, with some support from those here legally). I am trying to show they don't have as much as they think. If I stand by and allow the walk out to have a larger effect than it should, than I believe I am allowing them to garner power that I don't think illegals should have. If the impact of the walk out is limited, then their desire to wield political power as illegals doesn't succeed and perhaps the politicians will not fear them as much as they apparently do.

And I didn't out you on the negative mojo....I specifically left the giver of bad mojo anonymous because I didn't want it to be personal at all. I was just surprised that my comments were worthy of negative mojo and was wondering if other thought I was out of line but weren't saying so.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Regarding trying to thwart the demonstration.....the illegals are trying to demonstrate their power (granted, with some support from those here legally). I am trying to show they don't have as much as they think. If I stand by and allow the walk out to have a larger effect than it should, than I believe I am allowing them to garner power that I don't think illegals should have. If the impact of the walk out is limited, then their desire to wield political power as illegals doesn't succeed and perhaps the politicians will not fear them as much as they apparently do.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I must also say that I get irked when the word "illegal" is conveniently left out of all the comments from the protesters who claim " we are all immigrants!". Some of those who are most opposed to amnesty feel that way because they went through a hell of a lot to get here legally, worked hard to learn english and assimilate, and don't understand why someone who circumvented that entire process and broke the law to be here deserves the same rights. I have to agree with them.

[Alex]

Using a source that I believe would tend to prefer higher estimates puts the nationwide participation in protests and rallies at about 1.5 million. Since most of these people were apparently legal (on the news everybody interviewed claimed to be a citizen there in support of the cause, *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*) let's assume that 1 million were illegals.

This is less than 10% of the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the country. I'd guess that most of the illegals actually went to work or at least used the day to get a nap at home.

Muddying the situation will be how much of the economic impact yesterday was not actually caused by a huge impact from the absence of illegal immigrants but rather a precautionary measure in case there was one? Apparenly the Port of Los Angeles saw about 90% of their container truck drivers not show up. According to a spokesman this wasn't so much because there are a lot of illegals driving the trucks but because the drivers were concerned about delays and the resulting fines if they were late in delivering a container. So they did extra trips over the weekend and then took Monday off. Whether that is spin or truth, I don't know.

However, even if it were shown that the disappearance of illegal aliens caused severe economic hardship this would not be an argument against their removal. But more an argument for the degree to which wages are being artificially depressed in certain sectors of the economy.

Regardless of the presence of cheap labor the garbage still needs to be taken out at iSm's building. If the people willing to do this for $4.25/hour aren't there either they'll pay more or develop some way of getting out the garbage with the workforce they can attract.

scaeagles, if the gringos have to go out and spend an unusual amount of money to mask the economic impact of a strike/boycott is that not a tacit admission of their economic power? You can't go out and spend extra money every day. Essentially you'd be in an economic war like the one that bankrupted the Soviet Union. The Mexicans would be Reagan.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

scaeagles, if the gringos have to go out and spend an unusual amount of money to mask the economic impact of a strike/boycott is that not a tacit admission of their economic power? You can't go out and spend extra money every day. Essentially you'd be in an economic war like the one that bankrupted the Soviet Union. The Mexicans would be Reagan.

Well, I suppose so, but in truth I didn't spend anything that I wouldn't have spent anyway. I just chose the day to do it based on the boycott. My wife was going to buy a dress, but chose to do it Monday instead of over the weekend. We usually go out to dinner (at least) once on the weekend, so we didn't and chose to go out to dinner on Monday instead.

I have a feeling that a lot of people are like me in that regard and that the net effect will be zero. Just like I would guess there are day laborers that took the day off that will look to pick up an extra day of work on another day. If a family chose not to do their grocery shopping on Monday because of the boycott, it doesn't mean they won't be out buying milk on Tuesday.

Net effect is zero. It was all for show. As was me choosing to spend money on a particular day.

[SacTown Chronic]

I dunno, sca. Getting you to change your shopping and dining habits sounds like power to me.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by SacTown Chronic

I dunno, sca. Getting you to change your shopping and dining habits sounds like power to me.

I don't really think so. Regardless of their boycott, I was able to shop and dine out when they said they were going to bring the country to a halt, which many organizers did say. They did no such thing.