As if our truckers didn’t have enough to worry about, the Bush administration has decided to allow more Mexican trucks and truckers to enter the country.
Last week, the Bush administration announced a plan to send U.S. inspectors to check trucks in Mexico that would then be allowed to cross over the border and deliver loads anywhere in the United States.
Great. So the US taxpayer gets to foot the bill to send inspectors into Mexico to help get them across the border quicker. Aren’t we nice? But Canadians are doing it, right?
She says that Canadian truckers have been traveling U.S. highways for years and that no one has complained about them.
Galen Munroe, however, counters that Canadian trucks operate under safety rules that meet or even exceed U.S. standards.
Comparing Canadian trucking laws and regulations to Mexico’s is like, well, comparing apples and oranges. Why would the Bush administration move forward with this and what purpose does it serve?
Truck driver Freddy Harbison made $75,000 a year working at a paper mill in Louisville, Ky. But he lost his job after the company embraced cheaper, foreign labor.
Now making about $40,000 a year driving a tractor-trailer, Harbison said he’s worried that his current job is in jeopardy.
It serves to undercut American truck drivers wages, that’s what it does. Frankly, these guys are underpaid already, dealing with days away from home, brutal traffic conditions and ever-changing regulations. Look, it’s one thing for a business to look for the lowest cost vendor. It’s another thing altogether for our government to help undercut its own taxpayers. The administration needs to rethink this one. Can’t wait until the driver from Central Mexico tries to navigate through downtown Houston from 59 to the Pierce Elevated carrying a hazardous load. Perhaps then people will wake up.
Filed Under Uncategorized ·
Comments
35 Responses to “Jobs Americans Won’t Do? Hardly.”Search
Our Sponsors
Poll
Loading ...LST Book Club
-
Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy
by Natan Sharansky -
Fear No Evil
by Natan Sharansky -
The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror
by Anatoly Shcharansky -
The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul
by Yoram Hazony -
Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
by David Brooks -
Snobbery: The American Version
by Joseph Epstein -
A Conflict of Visions: Idealogical Origins of Political Struggles
by Thomas Sowell
Then they can deposit their checks and open a line of credit at Bank of America.
#1, While rollin’ down the highway….
If they are inspecting the trucks coming in, I hope they make sure they have insurance, too. It’s kinda hard to imagine there being truck insurance required in Mexico where almost anything goes and all those truckers have to worry about is how big a bribe does it take to payoff an official.
Why don’t we just open the borders, give them all of our jobs, sit on our collective a$$es and let them support us for a change?
Oh, forgot, I’m not a liberal - I’m not used to letting someone else take care of me.
Squawk,
How many miles do you figure I guy have’d to drive to make 75g’s
I don’t agree with this, but on the other hand, there is a shortage of quality truck drivers in this country. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to drive a truck, but on the other hand, the candidates available for trucking companies right now are slim pickins. Enterprising people in the trucking industry would do well to employ what quality drivers they could find in Mexico and utilize them all over, if they can’t find quality drivers in the US. There’s a big difference in someone who actually has no common sense or education with a CDL compared to one that’s employable as a decent truck driver.
The mad Dr FrankenBush continues his giant garage sale of America. Doesn’t matter if it is bolted down or not, Dr FrankenBush will find a way to sell it.
This coming from a Silver-spooned, spoiled little Frankie who has never had to beat the streets with resume in hand.
Daddy FrankenBush I has always been there to prop up the first Mexican president of the soon to be former USA.
All hail the Decider, Emperor FrankenBush.
#6 CK
Out of curiosity, have you ever driven a truck? I’ve dealt with truckers most of my working life. They have a very, very hard job and most people take them for granted, IMHO. No, I’m not a driver - too hard, too much stress, too many hours.
This just boggles my little blonde brains.
OK MR BUSH - - - WHY!
My neighbor is a truck driver, and a nicer guy you’ll never meet. We keep an eye on his house when he’s on a haul. He’s told us stories and given us tips on how to drive around the rigs. Such as: be careful around a cab w/o a trailer - they are designed to pull loads, and are not as stable as when they have a trailer behind them. Always drive at least 100 feet behind a trailer, or you may be surprised by tread coming through your windshield. And of course, be courteous and DO NOT CUT IN FRONT OF A RIG! The laws of physics are NOT on your side, you freakin’ idiot!
Personally, I think a lot of these big rig wrecks are caused by the four-wheelers darting in front of the big trucks, but they never get caught because the mayhem they cause is all behind them.
CK,
The key word is “quality.” I don’t expect to see quality truck drivers out of Mexico.
tedtam
#10
Squawk also told me not to drive on the right side of a rig and if I have to go around one, get around it quickly. If I remember correctly (Squawk correct me if I’m wrong), in case of an emergency or wreck, the truckers will veer to the right to avoid it and if you are on the right, you are in its path.
CK
Nope WE are not rocket scientists.
We are just
1. operators of heavy machinery
2. mechanics
3. logistics officers
4. secretaries
5. salesmen
6. complaint negotiators
7. liaisons
8. security guards
9 accountants
10. laborer
and few other jobs descriptions all wrapped into one ball of a guy trying to earn a living no matter whether independent or company driver.
During my time driving I made friends with truckers that came form all walks of life from college professors to day laborers. BTW If you would like I can give you the number of a guy that used to work for NASA.
OK gang this is my reply to another blogger on this issue.
During my trucking days I testified before committees trying to get that crappola stopped. I was an independent and actually teamed up with the Teamsters to fight this. The Teamsters are still fighting but they will not get anywhere. The whole Mexican trucking thing began with our old buddy NAFTA and Bush #1. Of course Clinton passed NAFTA later. The environmentalist tried to stop this mess and the Supreme Court found against them. Bush 2 lifted the restrictions in 2002 and all that was left was Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA who is now the controlling authority, to write the rules governing the Mexican carriers. No matter what you read the Mexicans will not be held to the same standards as US truckers. Traffic will increase from 7000 trucks to 17500 trucks daily in California alone. The trucks will not be inspected at the border. Rather they will be “spot checked” by rolling weigh stations.
Read this link
http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/cross-border/whnaftafactsheet.htm
Congress and the Senate both voted overwhelmingly to approve this btw under Republican controlled houses at the time.
If you have not added two and two and come up with 5 yet this whole Trans Texas corridor thing is tied to us allowing the Mexican trucks to travel unhindered across the US. This new corridor that will eventually go completely across the US amongst other things will allow the Mexican truckers to not be bothered by the states and the rules they apply to truckers over and above USDOT regulations.
If you really want to know why Bush is doing this crap and cow towing to Mexico you need only to look at NAFTA which he fully supports. By treaty agreement the United States is basically obligated to do whatever benefits Mexico thus throwing out what is best for our country.
I think you know that I am far from a conspiracy nut. I am serious EVERTHING you see going on with Bush has its roots in NAFTA. Bush #1 sold us down the river with that treaty. This paragraph from the link above is quite telling.
When I say everything I mean EVERYTHING. And Bush is pro NAFTA big time. I don’t recommend web sites to often without official backup material but you can get a real good handle on Bushs’ plans and how he is expanding NAFTA CAFTA even more.
http://www.citizen.org/trade/
Sorry for the length this is my buck and nickel worth of info.
This could put me out of business, unless I learn how to speak spanish.
Am I the only one here distraught about this type of foolishness going on in America, MY AMERICA, that it’s moving me closer to sucking on a tail pipe and being done with all this madness?
FourAlarm
Contact your legislators everyday by email, mail and phone. Short of pure anarchy, the vote and bugging the crap out of these idiots is our only recourse. It is the grass roots that will change these things if the change is to be made. Make your voice even louder by joining the Constituion Party and even the Republican Party (bleeyuck) and stay in their case too. You do not have to contribute to join btw.
The beginning of OUR constitution says “We the People” so I figure we the people need to speak up.
The days of elect and forget are over.
Waiting to make change or attempting to make chnage till the primaries ios way too late.
Cycle of Democracy
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
“From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
“From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage
We either let the cycle continue to its ultimate conclusion, or we follow or forefathers advise.
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” –Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence, 1776.
The despots that we have allowed to get into control of our country will destroy us all if we don’t stop them soon. The two party system has relegated us to the choice of the lesser of the two evils for so long we now suffer the evil of government by the lessers.
My brother in law is a PhD in soil science. Been an owner operator for 30 years.
No kidding.
There is a great story about a civil suit involving him and some moron in a four wheeler damn near killing herself by sneaking up on the right side of his rig—creating a right turn lane where there wasn’t one.
Best part of the story has to do with the look on the plantiff’s attorney’ face (and him jerking his head towards the jury) when said plantiff’s attorney asked in the most condescending manner imaginable:
“And just what IS your level of education Mr.Truckdriver??
By the way, the brother-in-law won the case. Hands down.
Heh heh heh
I’m starting to hear the “Giant Sucking Sound” that Ross Perot talked about and was criticized mentioning.
STILL think we need a guest worker program, Big J?
Step 1 - An adequate number of American truckers is doing the job today, at American market wage levels.
Step 2 - Let Mexicans come in strickly for the purpose of doing the same job for less (in order to increase the profits for the producers, who paid the lobbyists, who bend the ear of the politicians, who changed the law, that allowed the Mexican truckers in).
Step 3 - Displace significant numbers of American truckers working at higher wages for Mexican truckers working at lower wages. The remaining American workers are only able to hang on to their jobs by being willing to work at the lower wage.
Step 4 - Do a headcount of Truckers to see that a large percentage are Mexican working at low wages.
Step 5 - Declare that the Mexican truckers are only doing jobs that Americans won’t do, and how we would all go broke if we had to suffer the cost of goods shipped at rates high enough to attract adequate numbers of American truckers.
Bottom line - How can you oppose allowing Mexican trucking to displace American trucking, but then say we need a guest worker program when it comes to other jobs (construction, farming, lawncare, etc.)?
#21 Dennisontheright
Without a doubt.
Dennis, there is zero comparison on these two issues. Sending US inspectors at taxpayer expense into Mexico to enable Mexican workers to cross into US territory to avoid the cost of transferring the materials at the border to US workers is far different than managing the supply of labor allowed into the US to fill empty jobs.
Oh, oh. You just gave yourself away with that last comment. Empty jobs?
In a market economy, a job only remains empty if you are unwilling to pay the market wage. At market wage, the number of people you would want to hire at that wage equals the number of people who are willing to work for that wage.
There are no empty jobs. There are only employers who feel they’re entitled to the higher profits that come from breaking the law by hiring illegals and paying them sub-market wages. They basically create an alternate supply curve (one that reflects the willingness of the illegal labor market to provide more workers for less pay than the legal labor market) which intersects the demand curve at a lower wage rate. And they do it at the expense of EVERYONE else in America, not just the displaced American workers.
(I know there are lots of differences between the trucking situation and the labor one, and I took a few liberties with my comparison. But it sure flushed you out into the open anyway!)
Yeah, it sure flushed me alright. Check the labor stats I already gave you. It’s about numbers, Dennis. You can’t limit yourself to Econ 101. Your alternate supply curve doesn’t hold water - check the numbers. When a demand curve encounters an insufficient supply curve, raising wages to attract workers only serves to pull them from other supply markets. At some point, the pie has to grow, not just move from slice to slice. It’s all about the numbers. Check the demographics of US citizens. It’s all about the numbers. I can’t change that.
Good job on flushing me out.
Here’s something to ponder: if China were to currently outsource every single job in America, it would still have surplus workers to export in the hundreds of millions.
Another thing to ponder. Would my position be different were it not for Roe v. Wade?
What makes a supply curve “insufficient”? Because it crossed the demand curve at a higher wage than Bob Perry wants?
Of course people shift from one sector to another. But that’s not a case against what I said; it actually supports it by showing some of the negative ripple effect of illegal labor.
Say the widget A job market gets flooded with illegal cheap labor. Some people forced out of the widget A job market now go stand in line to get jobs making widget B. The increased supply of labor for the widget B job market depresses those wages.
So what do you have then? Even though no illegal labor is working in the widget B job market, the widget B workers see depressed wages. That’s part of the ever expanding ripple of introducing illegal labor into one segment of the economy.
Population. Age of population. Reproduction rates of population. Entitlement programs. Cultural biases against certain jobs. Any number of things, all of which we face in America today.
Your widget markets (A & B) example is either stagnant or declining - I know some people would prefer that but I don’t. Again, check the numbers. I can’t do anything about that. Too old (and ahem, fixed) to increase the supply.
Perhaps we can pick this up next week. For now, I’m off to Anderson Fair to listen to someone I’ve never heard of, just have a jonesin’ for original live music in a smoke free atmosphere.
I am sick and tired of this north american trade agreement that puts Americans out of work and raises my taxes to pay for all these illegals benefits. I do not want a North American Union. I like the United States just fine. I throw my hands up in disgust at what is being done to this country and am so frustrated because senators and representatives continue to shove this Mexico, USA, Canada Union down our throats in devious ways. Cornyn wanted us to build a highway a few months ago , remember? IT goes on and on and on. How do you stop it? I have no clue. Except for Dan Patrick, there isnt an honorable one among em.
Each of those factors influences the supply curve. To call any particular curve “insufficient” is to apply a value judgement to the basic laws of supply and demand. However, they shouldn’t be subjected to anyone’s value judgements anymore than the law of gravity.
The danger in attaching value judgements to basic laws of economics is that it paves the way to central planning. If we don’t like the market balance, then we need to articifially manipulate conditions to change the balance, right? And whose definition of sufficiency should guide our efforts? Mine? Yours? Should we take a poll? Maybe the job should be given to whoever has the best spin machine to tug at our heartstrings?
In any case, enjoy your smoke free atmosphere. Later.
In a free global market (which we are quickly nearing), for capital intensive countries such as the US, wages must decrease 70%+ in labor intensive industries to reach equilibrium. Countries with labor to export–China, India, Mexico–with suppressed wages now, wages will rise until equilibrium wage prices are met.
What to do if you are a capital intensive nation? 1) Stay out of labor intensive industries; 2) create more capital intensive jobs through increasing your population’s skills and higher education, creative technologies; 3) have your as many citizens as possible quickly become equity owners; else 4) get ready for a steep drop in income and wealth for those that cannot do 1-3.
That is international economics 101.
Welcome to unfettered capitalism.
Welcome to “free” trade.
Welcome to Globalization.
Welcome to America.
The whole Congress and all of our government officials have gone mad over the Mexican establishment! What is it that they don’t understand? Have they been consuming too many burritos and tacos to realize we can’t let the dictatorship of Mexico rule our country???? Pretty soon, we will be under the Mexican government’s ruling. We have got to stop this madness and refuse to let the Mexican government affect our lives!
#18 - Doubting Thomas - What a great post! Frightening to think we are nearing the end of the cycle now in this country, eh? Our apathy is leading to our dependence and it won’t be long until we truly are in bondage. Whether or not enough people in this country will wake-up and realize that in time is indeed doubtful. I’ve voted in every single election, usually for the third party candidate, and I’m about to throw in the towel on ‘08. I’m not apathetic; I’m just tired of beating my head against the wall. Still, I write, I call, I blog and yes, I’ll probably vote. But my head and heart still bleed for this great country that is being destroyed from within. To paraphrase a great old comic character (Pogo), “I has seen the enemy and the enermy is us.”