Called a business that had an insert in our local paper to get a quote
for getting our lawn rolled. Gave them all the usual information, plus
e-mail address, then asked when somebody was likely to come and check
the place out. Reply: "We don't need to send somebody there: we get all
the information we need from satellite imagery."
Perce
I was impressed when one of the roofing companies I contacted did the
estimate from satellite imagery. The computer spits out the estimate. I
didn't hire them and I'm glad I didn't. They did one of my neighbor's and
the crew consisted of Mexican Nationals. Nothing against Mexicans but I want
one or two English speaking guys on the crew.
Point is: It's the final job that matters. :-)
Oh boy, here we go...
re: "Nothing against Mexicans but I want one or two English speaking
guys on the crew."
What if they all spoke Dutch? or German? or the Queen's English?
re: "Point is: It's the final job that matters."
Apparently not. What seems to matter, at least to you, is what
language they speak.
So communication isn't important to you? If I had a translator it wouldn't
matter.
FWIW: That particular company didn't have a real good rep locally. They were
based out of another city too. That was the reason I didn't pick them. I try
to ask anyone that does work on my house to have at least one English
speaking person. I don't think that is unreasonable or racist. It can easily
be a Mexican that speaks English. I grew-up, and spent most of my adult
life, in Southern NM. I don't carry any hard core resentment of Mexicans.
I'm just being practical. If that bothers you I don't know what to say.
What "bothers" me is how you said it. Granted, you can't really tell
"tone" in a NG post, so I'll just tell you how I read it...
When you say that you didn't use them because the crew was all
"Mexican Nationals" and you want "one or two English speaking guys on
the crew" you make it sound like those two things are mutually
exclusive.
When I was in the service in Germany, we had many German Nationals
that worked side by side with us on base. They *all* spoke English. In
fact, they were "ahead" of us in that regard, because very few of us
spoke German.
Did you verify that none of the crew that worked on your neighbor's
house spoke English? If you didn't, then it appears, at least to me,
that you didn't hire them because of their nationality - or at a
minimum, you didn't hire them for a reason that might not have been
justified.
re: "That particular company didn't have a real good rep locally. "
Now that is a very valid reason. However, the wording in your earlier
post certainly didn't indicate that reputation had anything to do with
your decision, especially when you strung together these three
sentences in one paragraph:
"I didn't hire them and I'm glad I didn't. They did one of my
neighbor's and the crew consisted of Mexican Nationals. Nothing
against Mexicans but I want one or two English speaking guys on the
crew."
Again, it just *sounds* like you feel that if they are Mexican
Nationals they must not speak English, which some might consider to be
somewhat of a prejudential generalization.
Like I said, that's how it came across to me, so that's why I
responded as I did.
IMHO I believe I directly addressed your point and merely explained
how the wording in your post came across to me.
"predisposed beliefs"?
===
You assumed I'm a rabid racist because I said "Mexican National". WTF?
I'm just going to fall back on: "I don't know what to tell you." <g>
re: "You assumed I'm a rabid racist because I said "Mexican
National".
Wow! If that doesn't prove my point that you can't read tone in a NG
post, I don't know what does.
WTF? I agree.
re: "You assumed I'm a rabid racist because I said "Mexican
National".
Wow! If that doesn't prove my point that you can't read tone in a NG
post, I don't know what does.
WTF? I agree.
==
Okay...Let's say I understand what you said but since I removed all doubt
with my second post; what's the point? Does it make you feel self-righteous?
To me that's worse than racism.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt if you stop harassing me. If you do
I'll just assume you're on your high-horse. It's your choice. Good Day!
Jim
I think I mentioned this in another group. Here in Alabamastan,
many of our politicians barely speak English, it's Hillbonics
or Ebonics and some of them are almost impossible to understand
especially since most of what they're saying are lies anyway.
*snicker*
TDD
Only temporarily. Most will get scooped up straightaway and sent to the
Greybar Hotel.
After Katrina, crime shot up in Houston until the Houston Police made it
clear that one just can't be moseyin' thru the 'hood with a malt and a toke.
Not a lot. In Texas, inmates grow virtually all their own food (except the
obvious: pepper, coffee, etc.). We've got prison cattle ranches, pig farms,
egg factories, and corn fields. Inmates grow cotton, gin it, and make their
own clothes. Most prisons are built with convict (non-union) labor.
As for cost, consider your typical Heroin addict.
Your average addict will shoot one "paper" of Heroin per day at a street
cost of about $100. Assuming most don't have that much spare cash, that
means the addict has to rob, or more often, steal something for which he can
get a hundred bucks. In reality, he has to steal about four times what he
expects to get (hey, the fence has to make a living). That's $400 per day
taken out of the economy. Every day. Or, about $150,000 per year per addict.
In a modest sized city, it's not unreasonable to assume there are 5,000
addicts wandering the streets. If they each act like the one I just
described, that's $730 million of wealth destroyed each year just due to
Heroin. Then there's Marijuana, crack-Cocaine, and more.
We can keep a goblin locked up for a paltry $35,000 per year. That's a
saving of over $100,000 per year for each squint behind bars. The more we
incarcerate, the more we save.
Then there are the residual savings. Here in Texas, prisoners make (and
repair) "stuff" which is sold at cost to other agencies of government. Texas
Correctional Industries manufacture things that range from mops to
furniture, trash cans to saddles, truck beds to toilets. The savings to
county and city governments is not trivial. For a catalog of available
products, see here:
http://www.tci.tdcj.state.tx.us /
That's how much it "costs." Bottom line: Again, the more people we lock up,
the more we save.
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