Saturday, December 06, 2008

Obama proposes strong stimulus for the economy -- the Mexican economy

Massive public works program proposed by Obama.

The problem: Subontractors prefer hiring Mexican day workers for these kinds of contracts nowdays, not Americans. Americans insist on those nasty OSHA safety rules and file complaints with OSHA if the subcontractor forces workers to work under unsafe conditions. Mexicans don't.

So while this will put more money into the pockets of politically-connected contractors (and being put onto the "approved contractors" list in most states is one big-ass political bullshit process that depends more on your ability to bribe legislators into pestering the DMV to put you on the list than on whether you can actually perform), it's unclear that it's going to have the effect on the American economy that Obama expects. But it sure will do great things for the Mexican economy...

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

7 comments:

  1. Do you realise what the assumption is that you base your premise upon, Badtux? That the American system is so fundamentally corrupt that if there are jobs available, they will go to illegal immigrants instead of Americans. And that there will be so little law enforcement that this will be allowed to ride. That might be true, but it's farking sad if that's the way it is. Why should it be that employers are so crooked that they would sell out their countrymen for the sake of profit, and that the government is so slack-ass that it would allow that to go unchecked?

    One of the few things I hope Obama will actually accomplish with his right-of-centre self is that he'll direct the minions of the fed.gov to bust illegal EMPLOYERS rather than the hard-working bastards who cross the border to work for shit wages. If you throw one boss in jail, that will accomplish more than deporting 100 immigrants. If they do THAT with people who cheat any jobs programme, it stands a better chance of working.

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  2. You have called this one exactly right Badtux. The problems here are many. The ones you point out, corruption in handing out government contracts and exasperating the illegal alien problem are but two. There is also the environmental impacts that will have to be examined before any new road bridge or school can be built and these typically take years. If history is an indicator there will be lawsuits from the usual suspects before a single shovel of dirt is turned over. Then there is the problem of a massive debt that will have to be paid back by future generations. Why should we borrow from the Chinese to bail out our excesses. Wouldn't the correct thing for us to do be to buckle down and take the punishment for our borrowing and spending habits? From government down to the average family we have used credit unwisely. We should be made to reap what we have sown and not pass our debt on to others. There should be no bail out for financial or auto industries if we are to be responsible for our actions. Isn't this the kind of wisdom that parents hand out to kids everyday. We made our beds now we should be made to sleep in them.
    The success or failure of Obama's plan will not be able to be measured until all of the unintended consequences are taken into account and that will not known for generations.

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  3. "But it sure will do great things for the Mexican economy..." That's the truth, New Orleans is a perfect example.

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  4. Massive public works program proposed by Obama.

    I think that you are off base about much of the money going to Mexico, greedy Americans will be seeing that doesn't happen, but whatever.

    Actually, I don't think that a massive public works program will do the trick this time around, this isn't the 30's or 50's.

    I would have taken a different approach and made the rich suffer some, but again, whatever.

    You seem to like the idea of being rich so of course it seems that you would support them. Worried about losing some of your income, or it not going as far? I'm not. :-)

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  5. I will agree with the fact that any immigrant working here should be registered and pay taxes and such. It wasn't that many years ago that your ancestors were immigrants and as far as I'm concerned all are welcome here.

    Unless you are worried about them competing with you for your job?

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  6. I don't give a damn if America fails, it was just an experiment.

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  7. Bukko, while Obama is less beholden to big bidness than his predecessor, expecting him to buck big bidness isn't likely. He's a Chicago machine politician, not a friggin Commie or somethin'. Remember, this is a nation founded by wealthy businessmen who didn't want to pay taxes and had no problem with putting honest working men out of work in favor of importing African slaves. African slaves, Mexican slaves, what's the difference?

    Manapp: Your Puritanistic notion that we deserve to be punished for the actions of our oligarchs is misplaced, in my opinion. While it is certainly true that we didn't make too much of a fuss while our oligarchs stole us blind, it seems to me that you're wanting to punish the victims. A depression is good for oligarchs -- they have plenty of liquid assets so can buy the assets of regular working people for pennies on the dollars during forced auctions of repossessed goods. Many of our current batch of oligarchs made their bones during the Great Depression, look up the history of ADM and how they came to own half of the Midwest if you want more info on that. Let's keep our eye on the people who created this mess when it comes to punishment time, dude.

    BBC: I've previously proposed that if a Mexican makes it across the border and wants to work, fine. We give him a work permit and now he's perfectly legal with all the rights of an American including the right to call OSHA on abusive employers. That eliminates the incentive for employers to hire Mexicans rather than Americans, albeit it still doesn't deal with the wage-depressing effects of having all those extra workers. Still, a slave class (illegal Mexicans) in a republic is a corrosive institution, and one which we cannot allow to continue if we hope to have a republic in the future...

    - Badtux the Jobs Penguin

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