Lou Dobbs – Blame it all on Mexico – Why Not!

LB, thank you for the intelligent comment. They are a rarity around here. You know, I agree with 99.999% of what you have written here. I too am an American trucker for the past 34 years who made the choice to live in Mexico. For various reasons, but the mian one is the society, the people is as it was when I was growing up People respect one another here and respect their neighbors space. But that is another story. I would imagine you to be like the majority of truck drivers in the US and for that matter, Canada and MExico. Intelligent, respectful and hard working. It is the other 1% on both sides of both borders that give the rest of us aq bad name. They manifest themselves on sows such as Trucking Bozo and Bubba Bo. You know the types. The death or decline of the middle class. What annoys me is that a minority of people who like to shout like a majority, want to blame that decline on NAFTA, and on MExico. When in reality, technology and computerization have taken many of the good jobs. Yeah, we've lost jobs to MExico, some to Canada, but statistics show a net gain in the US. People were accustomed to coming out of high school in our generation and working basically cradle to grave for the same company. Usuall unionized. And then they started demanding more which the companies were unwilling to provide or could not provide. Sure there is an increase in Hispanic drivers in the US. The majority native born or second generation. The Hispanic population, both legal and illegal is increasinging generationally. And trucking is still a good job. What chaps my ass is some people try to blame all the woes on Mexico and the MExicans, or their Government. Certain talk show hosts go out of their way to convince their small base of regulars, sucessfully, that the US is being invaded by unlicensed, unquaified foreign drivers. And where MExico is concerned, this is not true. Living in Mexico, working for a Mexican owned company out of Laredo, if there was any doubt in my mind that Mexico, NAFTA or MExican drivers were a threat to my livlihood, my job or my existance, I would be raising seven kinds of hell about it. And indeed, when I started this site, I went forward to learn who was telling the truth and who was blowing smoke up our ass. This site and it's content is a result of hat learning experience. And I also agree with your last paragraph, which can applu to drivers of any nationality. Fortunately, it is a small percentage who shout loud enough to be heard, and there are poeple on both sides of the borders too damn lazy or stupid to think for themselves, and believe the BS. You saee, Our thinkiing is pretty much in line.

I am an American truck driver. That may conjur all sorts of images in your mind but I wonder how many would be accurate. I do listen to Lou Dobbs and agree with some of the things he says and always wish that he were a more effective communicator so that he would not leave himself open to some of the more legitimate criticisms against him. Am I frustrated by the sudden massive increase in Hispanic drivers I encounter across the nation? Of course I am. Is that because I am prejudiced against brown skinned people? No more than I was against the black skinned people I served 3 years with as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Africa. Is it because I don't want to see working class living standards raised up in Mexico and, for that matter, every other economically depressed nation in the world? No. My frustration is that I have witnessed first hand, especially over the past 15 - 20 years, as the American nation has kicked the working class to the curb. After the Great Depression of the 1930's and World War II the American working class was not treated as a commodity over which the laws of supply and demand should dictate working conditions and living standards. It was the thing I was most proud of about this nation. It was also the thing which I think many people around the world admired; a thriving middle class that wasn't rich but could affort a decent lifestyle and maybe get their children through college, even if only a state university. Now my nation has returned to the mentality of the Gilded Age, where the owners lorded over the workers and exploited them at every turn. If business owners can increase profits by exporting jobs to underpaid (exploited) workers in other economically depressed nations, then by all means do it. If business owners can increase profits by hiring (exloiting) desparate illegal immigrants, then, by all means, do it. If wages, benefits, and living standards for American workers are decimated as a result, well, the free market system is always right and its not their problem. Right? No, I don't have a problem with Hispanic drivers in this country, I have a problem with already rich people making themselves even richer by taking jobs from Americans and giving them to people who will work for a fraction of what the American worker should be expected to live on. The problem I do have with many Hispanics is that they fail to acknowledge or respect this part of the issue and instead want to call anyone a rascist or bigot who is against depressed wages due to illegal immigration or the hiring of citizens from other nations to work in this nation at reduced wages.

Totally right on !!