English, the "National Language" (school, economic, education, programs)
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Hmm...actually lifertexan described it pretty well in an earlier post relating to housing construction costs. It is just economics 101, pretty basic stuff....
Only if you consider $ 10,000 - 20,000 a little increase.I have been in building construction for 25 years,and have owned my own business and dealt with the labor numbers for 10 years,and I just built my own house 3 years ago.The increase in switching from illegals to Americans isn't going to be a couple of thousand dollars,and if you think it is then you have no idea how deeply illegals are involved in housing construction and how much labor goes into building a house.
Just a couple of examples based on what I paid 3 years ago.Around here,labor costs on a concrete slab was about a dollar a sq ft.If you go from paying an illegal $ 5 an hr to paying a good old red blooded American $ 10 an hr,then your slab for a 3000 sq ft home now costs $ 3000 more.Likewise,labor on framing a house was $ 4.25 a sq ft.Again,if you go from paying an illegal under mininum wage to paying him $ 5 more an hr,you've just doubled his wages,and almost doubled the labor costs of framing the house.Even if the cost increases $ 3 a sq ft on the assumption that the framing contractor only passed along actual labor cost increases, and didn't keep his profit margin based on a % of total labor costs,you are now paying $9000 more for the work. That is $ 12,000 more for the same house and you're not even sheetrocking,bricking,or roofing yet.
It will cost you more.A lot more.And you guys will deserve it.
I too have been doing building, and my husband has been doing it for 20 years, we have seen the opposite,costs stayed at $3.50 a sq ft (where we were) even after the illegals, so if they are cheaper shouldnt the price have gone down, no well thats because the builders pocket that money. It was $ 3.50 before the illegals and after, no price shift.
You've been hood-winked & bamboozled by Corporate America with their b.s. philosphy!
So silly. Corporate America doesn't talk about this stuff. When is the last time your heard a CEO of an American company say "we need illegal immigrant labor?" They don't say it-they just quietly support politicians who look the other way while they break the law. They are motivated by profit, like every good CEO.
I asked earlier and no one answered. What do you think would happen to our economy if 12 million illegal immigrants were shipped back tomorrow?
As far as illegal immigrants getting all sorts of free public benefits, they are not entitled to any federal public benefits. The only medical care they're entitled to is emergency medical care. American born children are entitled to benefits because they're considered citizens under the constitution. If you want to change that, you better get busy. It'll take a while.
This thread started out being about English as a national language. I live in the heart of South Texas and like many others have said, even when recent immigrants don't speak English, their kids do. I have never seen the 3rd and 4th generation non-English speakers here that everyone is so alarmed about.
I don't know if it would be effective to make the English language into an official law on a national standpoint. However, I am in favor of the concept of English being the official language. Some states have put this same issue on the ballot during general elections, and it has overwhelmingly passed.
America is a nation of immigrants ... but many immigrants become citizens the LEGAL way, and they make an effort to learn English. That's the way it should be. Foreigners should learn English and adapt to our customs when coming to America ... and Americans who move to, or visit a foreign country for any length of time, should learn their new country's customs & language. It's simply the respectable thing to do in all cases!
English has always prevailed, to the point where now, it is the international language of business.
Thanks to the British Empire not U.S.
The reason there is no official language is because the Founders wanted Quebec to join the Union along with what is now Ontario. The French language might be an obstacle to Quebec from joining the Union. Same with the Spanish language and Puerto Rico joining the Union.
We should keep it that way so as not to make the short-sightedness mistake Canada made in apportioning its Senators. The Constitution divided the number of Senators into four "divisions." When Newfoundland finally joined Canada in 1949, it was not assigned a division but arbitrarily assigned 6 senators instead. Canada suffered from short-sightedness when that happened; they did not expect to admit more colonies into the Confederacy or at least prepare for the time that the last holdout, Newfoundland, would join Canada. Unlike Canada, our Constitution only assigns 2 Senators from each state without regard to seniority which the "divisions" represent. Let us not commit the unpardonable sin of short-sightedness. Otherwise how would "Manifest Destiny" come true with that kind of attitude?
It says nowhere in the Constitution that Congress may designate an official language. But it does say it can coin money and mandate an official measuring system; something which has not been done yet. The measuring system was expected to be a base-10 system, whether the Jeffersonian proposal or the Metric System (now encoded into SI). I think we should have spent the past 200 years using Metric instead of wasting time reforming the King's English into "American English" secundum Webster.
Hey KerrTown you lost me at Hello!!!!!!!!!! LOL I was never good on history. I read your post and I feel very uneducated and I have some college. Great post. I don't quite understand which side you are on but I am still impressed with your knowledge. Have a great day.
What angers me is that my son's school sends notices home that are sometimes printed ONLY in spanish! The rest of the time, one side is printed in English, the other in Spanish.
There are plenty of ESL classes here in the AZ public school system........How about spending some of that money for SSL courses for the US citizens here?
If this were 1890, I'd agree with you. The British Empire laid down the foundation for the prevalence of the English language across the globe. However, it was the US' post-WWII economic dominance which solidified English as the language of international business.
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