No Wit and the seven dummies

[Conan71]

"Private enterprise and investment have long since vanished from a lot of these places, and the gov is the only thing left."



You know, I am curious as to why there were, and are still, so many Mexicans working in Tulsa building new homes and businesses, landscaping, mowing yards, cleaning houses, etc. while also creating new businesses in other parts of Tulsa,,, when presumably it would be easier for say a black who speaks the language to do so.  Many of the Mexicans I work with all the time barely speak the language, if at all, and managed to get to South Tulsa all the way from southern Mexico, yet there are so many other people that can't get to south Tulsa to north Tulsa?  

I have watched new Mexican immigrants pool their resources to buy an old beat up truck (and go to a small mexican owned repair shop when needed, thus supporting and creating yet another job), they all pile in it and get to work.  They often camp out in cramped quarters, make lunches at work, (also supporting tiny, entrepreneurial, local businesses like food wagons or small grocery stores and restaurants, in their neighborhoods to purchase food stuffs  ((while many in north Tulsa complain of a food desert in their neighborhood?  isnt that opportunity knocking? )) )etc.  

Having painted for 20+ yeats, I have seen many a guy who started small then worked his way up to owning painting companies, restaurants, getting a nicer house and vehicle, etc.  I get an occasional reminder when I see a few of them very attentively watching me work to see if they can do what I do, and asking questions.  I know what they are doing, if they can figure out how to do it and make money at it, they are going to do it.  Fortunately, much of what I do requires more than something you can learn or "technique" or I would be out of a job lol.  Plus, yes, I have the advantage of being a white guy that can speak the language.  I could go on, but there were apparently job opportunities in Tulsa, interestingly, it wasn't the natives that were stepping up to take them, or make them.  And many times I overhear what they are making to; lay tile, bricks and stone, paint, faux walls and cabinets, etc.  with some of those jobs they can often make more than me.

Back away from the gold paint, Artist.  You are just making waaaay too much sense! 

[nathanm]

It takes a lot of hubris to believe that.  What favors have the Democrat party done for them?  They keep them on social programs because they only represent a vote to them.  If they truly cared about the human condition of African Americans, there would be more job opportunities and skills programs, not handouts and incentives to have more children out of wedlock.  Dependence on the government is why so many blacks have little hope of rising into the middle class.

I so wish that were so, Conan. If it were, the solution would be simple.

Not that there aren't problems with the way welfare benefits are distributed. Dollar for dollar reductions in benefits for earnings are pretty dumb, for example. Setting it up so earning an extra dollar only loses you fifty cents of benefits would eliminate any possible disincentive to work.

Sadly, though, things like the significantly higher incarceration rate for blacks and the lack of resources put into their neighborhoods by government (relative to their richer neighbors) and their, as a class of people, still finding themselves disadvantaged relative to the rest of us economically because of their history of slavery followed by extreme marginalization. (compounding, ever heard of it?)

There is a structural disadvantage we refuse to acknowledge. Our functionally (although not intentionally) racist justice system is a big part of this.