And I started thinking if I was the one up on the roof how I would have handled everything. Perhaps after having knocked someone's teeth out, or having my own knocked out, I'd offer to run to the gas station and grab a couple of "tall boys" so we can pave over our differences and call it all good. That's how men work, we can do that. Or maybe instead of grabbing a beer, grab some of those new THC drinks
Oh but wait, THC would have you fail a drug test. But why don't we ever drug test mexican immigrant workers?And I think that shows the void between the immigrant and American worker.
The American Worker will be subject to a ton of profit ruining requirements that the immigrant contract worker will not be.
Also, I don't understand why there isn't a better "pipeline" for the american school boy to enter the workforce, yes even as a construction worker. All residential construction is highly regulated (the end result, but not the "worker") and rule based. National rules even. Why not teach these national rules at the state owned public schools that are already teaching the required national education?
But even then I think we need to go a step further. There is a continual push for "free" or low cost college. Meaning, pushing the age of the American Worker at which they can enter the workforce even higher.
And I think that is the wrong direction.
There really needs to be a "fast path" for people to get out of high school, or skip it entirely. I am having quite a struggle trying to figure out what I learned in high school that I didn't already know or could have easily taught myself. Yes, I did the bare minimum, slept a ton in class, skipped a ton of class, and smoked a ton of weed. I could have learned a ton more in high school I'm sure. But the point is I didn't and turned out mostly fine.
Simply put, there will always be a subset of people that once an age is reached they have simple stopped learning. Whether voluntarily or involuntarily, it doesn't matter. But we should be able to put these folks to work. And what better area than to shovel them into construction?
Question is, at what age should this be allowed? 16 makes sense, as you can have a driver's license. But I dare say 14 makes sense to me too. Maybe we could meet in the middle at 15? You can still get a limited driver's license at the age of 15 after all.
If I ended up in the full time employment market at the age of 14, I think my life would be very much different. I think I would be in the same spot I am right now, only several years younger.
As an American, after graduating high school and not seeing the point of college, I went to a tech school. I paid for a year of vocational schooling while my mexican counterparts all went straight to the construction site via their own (free) pipeline. And the year of "vocational training" that I paid for ended up being nothing but about a month's worth of actual on the job training.
And it didn't take long to realized that manual labor in the Texas sun is retarded. But one thing more retarded than that is paying money to find that out via tech school
If I would have been able to get the same experience at the age of 14, I would have discovered the benefit of college and/or white collar jobs by the age of 16 instead of way in my 20's
