Via Pajamas Media, I found this disturbing analysis of the relative value of white versus Mexican workers:

...the nursery said they pay more for a good Mexican than any white boy they ever had working for them.

I can tell you from my own experience it’s true. I was never sued for workman’s comp by Mexicans (twice from white boys), I never had to discuss sick days with Mexicans (a constant battle with white boys) and I never had to push the Mexicans to finish an undone job with a little overtime (when it’s Miller Time for white boys they quit).

I wish it weren’t so. I wish the work ethic among the white boys were equal to the Mexican labor force. It’s not in my experience.

Somehow our weenie school system, video games, TV, draconian child labor laws and the hip hop culture has bred the work ethic out of our country. I fear for the white boy future. They don’t have one.

Jose and hose B do.

Mexicans 100 – White Boys 0

Here’s what the nursery operator said: “Mostly we got calls from white boys. You know, pick-up drivin’ mullet wearing tattooed types. We used to hire them but they couldn’t finish a days work and never came back a second day. If they had to do actual work they complained all the time. Now we only hire Mexicans. We can tell who we will hire by their accent. If they speak English we don’t even discuss it. But we did get a couple who couldn’t speak a lick. They’ll be great.” Pure and simple reverse discrimination.

Let's assume that the going wage for hacking out brambles and pulling up weeds is $15.00 per hour. If you hire an American, it's not an arms-length transaction. You have special duties to take care of his taxes and all that other fussy legal stuff. And what if he gets hurt and sues you? It isn't worth the risk, and the potential hassles are endless. The hourly rate is in my view a secondary, not a primary, factor.

Seen this way, I think that illegal aliens represent something much more important and compelling than a source of "cheap labor." They're a glimpse of that American freedom which was once our birthright.

In this country, there was a time when you could just agree with someone that in return for doing a certain thing, you'd pay him. And if he did the work, you could pay him, and that was that.

That's the way it was when I was a kid, and with aliens, it's still that way.

Under the present system, of course, they're considered to be "stealing jobs from U.S. citizens."

But has anyone stopped to ask why there wasn't an "underground economy" in the days of American freedom?

(It used to be a term generally reserved to describe private transactions in the Soviet Union.)

Someone who thinks a job is an entitlement and that he has rights beyond the right to be paid when the work is done is unlikely to work as hard as someone who just wants to do the job and get paid.

This argument touches on something which is deeply disturbing (to me, at least) -- whether privacy is or has become un-American. Frankly, I like the idea of people who respect privacy, and who come from cultures where's there's nothing wrong with putting a wall around your yard, and where it's your own damned business what goes on inside.

But whether it's anti-American to value privacy is probably another topic, and I'm running late. . .