meet me in montana (auction, gangs, property)

[seven of nine]

I am finding this story a little difficult to believe, why did you not know of the problems in this area prior to your move? And my sincere sorrow for the loss of your dog, frankly that pistol would have been used on a few humans also. I am not putting you down just wondering how you decided to land there.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by seven of nine

I am finding this story a little difficult to believe, why did you not know of the problems in this area prior to your move? And my sincere sorrow for the loss of your dog, frankly that pistol would have been used on a few humans also. I am not putting you down just wondering how you decided to land there.

I can answer that since we almost landed there ourselves. The area looks ok on casual inspection and there are some nicer areas where you'd never realize the element that surrounds you. Until you've known people a while here they won't openly talk about the canyon especially if you're from out of state. The only way we found out was my wife's family lived around Whitefish for a few years before we got here and warned us, but no one else said a word about it until we'd been here for about a year. Once we became friends with a family up there and became more involved at the school we REALLY found out what's going on and it's not good.

[seven of nine]

Gee, that is just too bad. Sorry for your troubles.

[rangerider]

Originally Posted by jimj

I can answer that since we almost landed there ourselves. The area looks ok on casual inspection and there are some nicer areas where you'd never realize the element that surrounds you. Until you've known people a while here they won't openly talk about the canyon especially if you're from out of state. The only way we found out was my wife's family lived around Whitefish for a few years before we got here and warned us, but no one else said a word about it until we'd been here for about a year. Once we became friends with a family up there and became more involved at the school we REALLY found out what's going on and it's not good.

I spent some time logging down in the Condon and Seeley Lake area back in the mid-80s. Have the problems of the Kalispell/Hungry area filtered down the Swan, too? It was a pretty good place to be when I was there, better as you headed down into the Ovando area. There were people who hid out down in the trees around Condon, but I only met up with a couple who set off any alarms with me.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by rangerider

I spent some time logging down in the Condon and Seeley Lake area back in the mid-80s. Have the problems of the Kalispell/Hungry area filtered down the Swan, too? It was a pretty good place to be when I was there, better as you headed down into the Ovando area. There were people who hid out down in the trees around Condon, but I only met up with a couple who set off any alarms with me.

I know bigfork/crane mtn area is having it's issues and it's the same kind of issues that Whitefish has which is the monied families are "overindulging" little johnny or susie so they think their poop don't stink and they can act as they wish.

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by JetMech72

Oh, precisely. I've seen it since I worked for a feed mill back in the '80s. The only thing different from Montana and states that are actually closer to the Mexican border is that we tolerate the illegals. I remember a large ranch that we used to deliver tons of feed to every month. The feed barn was entirely crewed by illegal immigrants that didn't speak a lick of english. Hand gestures were the only way we could communicate with them. Southern Idaho has even more illegals in the potato fields than some areas of Montana. Everyone just looks the other way, it's no big deal really, their cheap labor leads to cheaper prices at the supermarket.

I once worked on the potato harvest outside of Manhattan MT, this was about 1976. Me and the other two on the combine were the only ones that spoke English, and the only locals. The entire sorting and bagging crew was Spanish-only and clearly not from anywhere near MT. Having lived in SoCal the past couple decades, I've learned that's a good indicator -- the illegals rarely speak English. The legal immigrants (or at least trying to get legal) are almost invariably bilingual.

As to cheaper labour ==> lower prices... in the short run, yeah. But those jobs the illegals do for half of minimum wage, that "no one else will take", are the same jobs our own American kids used to do as after-school and summer work. What do those kids do now, flip burgers? You can no longer find an American-made burger in SoCal. What happens when all those unskilled and entry-level jobs are gone too? Not every kid can do summer work for some major company, and that work doesn't even exist in the more-rural states.

And our kids spent the money they earned in America. Conversely the illegals send as much as half of their wages to relatives in the old country. (Kids and illegals both generally duck out of paying income tax on seasonal work, so we won't worry too much about that aspect.) So it's that much less money going into the local economy, and one more local who eventually goes out of business, and that means other (usually higher-paying) jobs lost to Americans for all time.

Cheap illegal-alien labour is a false economy. Saves someone on wages in the short term, drives up prices and kills other jobs over the long term. Various economists have worked up figures, and not even counting increased welfare and infrastructure costs, the economic loss to America may be as high as $45,000 per illegal per year. (The lowest figure I've seen was about $25,000/year per illegal.)

How much money is that??
Approx. 40,000,000 illegals times $25,000 = $1,000,000,000,000/year
That's one TRILLION dollars per year in economic losses, at the low estimate.

[Sunset_Va]

At least you have the courage to make that move....good luck!

Sounds like you are young enough, that if it doesn't work out, you can relocate.

[Vulcan500]

As a small business owner, I can tell you that few American kids *want* to work. Thank God for Eastern European college students and their J-1 visas!

[Reziac]

Originally Posted by Vulcan500

As a small business owner, I can tell you that few American kids *want* to work. Thank God for Eastern European college students and their J-1 visas!

Well, consider that the previous generation must have taught today's American kids that they don't need to work for a living... and we're not gonna teach 'em better by ensuring that what entry-level jobs exist go to foreigners.

[rickers]

We dumb down our schooling standards, we raise latch-key kids, (who me ? !). We continue to auction off our political positions to the highest bidders, we encourage election fraud, we ignore illegal immigration, the cops are either afraid of or owned by gangs. I don't blame people for wanting to take refuge in Montana, and did I mention that I have a property for sale ? ! Blatant plug, sorry !