Met a guy from Venezuela today..

A car salesman. Has been here for 6 years. Good guy and even laughed at my jokes. His mom and sister are here and he says he is at peace now. The Govt there armed the criminals to protect the Govt and the criminals have turned against the Govt. Interesting stuff.

Interesting

Bernie once said they had a better chance of living the American dream than we do here.

I know a Venezuelan dentist who still has a lot of family still down there. The stories he shares are mind blowing. Ppl are actually ready to kill or die for food in some places.

sounds exactly like the path we are on. Food and fuel -- governments way of keeping the people subdued.Does this remind anyone of our current administrations policies?

Fella from Honduras helped me lay tile for 5 years, told me stories of eating iguanas and bananas, whatever they could find to survive. He came here to get away from the drug gangs that ran the country down there. Hands down the best help i have ever had. He works for himself now and does well. My brother ran into him the other day and he had recently been to alaska fishing. I have no problem whatsoever with a man like him of any color/background/nationality period.

I end up talking with a guy in India for work . we talked about the time the story about them burning bodies in the street in India because of all the covid deaths

he said it might be some were but they were grossly exaggerating , he had seen nothing and from he tall building he works from he would be able to see fires for many miles there was no smoke

basically the Indian media makes CNN look like honest reporting.

he would love to be in the US or Canada he actually works for one of my Canadian customers

he says hold onto your freedoms you have it very good.

Come down here and you can meet a bunch of them every day down at the jail house. Bunches of them get by the border patrol and the local law arrests them.

Do any of you people ever stop and think that maybe those coming from Central and South America will lie to you ?

Yes -- but the ones I meet are mostly good people -- different beliefs and values - but still good people. I would much rather talk to them ( and believe their word) over our portland/salem/eugene -- white trash. I'm sure that the border is a whole different world, and us Oregon boys are only getting a small, dilluted group of the ones crossing. The farmworkers are generally a good group ----- and then there are the "others"

This cra-zee stuff can happen here......what are you doing to get red-e for it all?

Having visited Dachau I lost all illusion that it can't happen in a civilized country. Arbeit Macht Frei

And the truly cra-zee is the people never see it coming.

We're on the same path as Venezuela. Every election, a larger and larger part of our population votes for the government to provide everything for the people and is willing to give up freedoms for handouts. The socialists don't need to overthrow anything to take control - we're asking them to take over the country.

That's about the jist of it. This guy is educated in the medical field as a scriber but was working thru an employment agency that was keeping $6/hr (sound familiar") so he left there and is selling cars. He's no dummy. We spent a day and a half with him trying to decide on a vechile. He may have come from a family with money. He never mentioned his Dad..........just his Mom and Seester.
He was talking about an engine that has a turvo. I was confused until I figured out he pronounced his "B's" as V's.

Most of them are here because they are lying. Most use a fake name and use someone elses ssn to get employment. As an employer I can not ask about their immigration status or question them about their SSN or the fact that most of them claim 5-7 dependents even though I know they have three living in the house(including themselves). The only time I can ask is if they will be required to go onto a federal military installation or a federal building or a job that requires certified payroll. Then if they don't answer honestly it causes us a lot of headache and BS and they lose their job and potentially get arrested/deported.

How dare you question the integrity of a used car salesman?!

On a more serious note:

I spent a lot of time in Venezuela back in the early '80's. People were starting to complain about:

• lack of domestic manufacturing
• extremely high import taxes
• inflation, even though it was very slow in hindsight
• government interference in more and more areas, including the nationalization of industries

The government was not exactly giving stuff away yet, but they held the cost of gasoline extremely low. It was always 1 Bolivar, equal to $.25. One quarter per gallon.

It felt exactly like the USA, today in a lot of ways.

Very high inflation in Venezuela I’ve read.

portland, salem, Eugene, Seattle, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, etc etc white, black, brown I don[t care round up all the commie blm/antifa idiots and send them to Cuba/Venezuela by the ship load.
Then send ship loads of freedom loving commie haters back to the US from those 2 countries.
We'd be much better off.
America, love it or leave it.

I'm in H20's camp. Those of us that work in agriculture tend to have a lot of admiration for hard working folks who buckle down and get the job done...no matter where they come from or how they got here.

Then send ship loads of freedom loving commie haters back to the US from those 2 countries.
We'd be much better off.
America, love it or leave it.[/quote]

You forgot the other option-Love it,leave it,or change it.

Yes enjoy your cheap labor while we taxpayer will pay for it not to mention the crime.

Where did we see this movie before.

What cheap labor???? I want what you're smoking.

BTW, taxpayers are actually benefitted by billions pouring into the social security fund from a segment of the workforce that will never see any of the benefits.

I had the opportunity to have several students from Columbia and Costa Rica in the dairy classes I taught at the tech college. Costa Rica was a great place to live, work, and tour. I would not say the same for Columbia then or now. Most students were from middle class Columbian farms where the owners actually worked with employees etc. Some were very wealthy and had others do all their work. They knew several of the members that were involved in the drug trade and there were actually a lot of registered cattle bought here in the USA as a way to launder drug money back home. Lot of visitors from Miami as well. The reason for compliance is that ones life expectancy increased greatly by rowing in the boat.

Bryce

yes but how many are paid cash under the table -- I know alot of farms having to do this this year. -- new trend - I think not.

Fellas. I hate to bust your bubble. Socialism is here. Watch what happens in the next year.

Wrong - as an employer you have a responsibility to ensure they can work legally. That is the whole purpose of the form I9

If you pay under the table how do you write off your labor expense? From my experience the vast majority are paid via payroll like everybody else. Those with fictitious SS #'s are issued an ITIN # by the federal government. This number is used for paying their taxes (yes, they pay taxes). However even if they have paid into the SS system for years if they are injured they have no right to the SS benefits, Nor is there any provision for ever receiving an SS check in the future as long as they remain undocumented or "illegal".

When you pay people under the table you can hide profits.
A double whammy to the honest taxpayer(govt).

I guess if you get paid in cash that is possible.

What work force?All the bums staying home because they can make more doing that than going to work?