Ok I am going to release some steam that has built up my entire life, don't hate me for sharing my own life experience in America as a tradesmen.

As a painter of 50 years experience I have had the opportunity to use a lot of brushes.

 I started out using "Purdy" brand brushes.

They came in a dull grey package with simple writing on the case originally.

 Then the Purdy family sold the business and the quality went down while the case they came in went up in quality with a new look.

The other day my son bought me a $50.00 ox-hair brush that had a cheap plastic handle.

 The brush performed well as I varnished a wooden boat dock handrail that was around 70 years old.

 The grain of that Douglas fir was the tightest that I had seen in years.

 An old growth plank was used to make the handrail.

Today almost all wood is new growth that has been chemically fertilized to force fast growth.

The grain on today's wood is widely spaced, not anywhere near as good as the old growth.

When I went to clean that expensive paint brush with paint thinner, I found that the reformulated EPA approved junk that they are calling paint thinner these days could not even cut the varnish I was using.

So I could not clean my brush properly and the brush was totally ruined.

The varnish did turn out like glass though.

 I had applied 11 coats of high gloss boat varnish, $90.00 a quart, and I went through 5 quarts of the stuff.

You would think that I made bank on this job.

 But I didn't the owner felt that our original bid for this work was extremely high so I cut it in half and we got the job.

This happens a lot to us these days.

What used to be a normal price for a licensed, bonded and insured painting contractor is now bench marked against illegal pricing from a false economy.

 And we always come out looking bad for properly bidding to cover our overhead as American citizens.

 Our wonderful neighbors from across the border have taken over my trade and artificially lowered the price we can get paid as a result.

 I make less today then I did during the 1980's because of them.

 We took three weeks to completely strip off 50 years of old varnish from the wood, sand and bleach out the surface before applying the new coats of varnish.

Some suppliers of our paint brushes have been able to survive because the Chinese don't compete with them nor do our friends from across the border.

I am among the last of my breed in my families trade.

There still are a few of us left.

 I cross paths with some of the old timers in my trade and all of us are making less then we should for our life experience in our trade.

Just the other day one of the old timer painters told me he was just about ready to quit.

 He was fed up with it all and tired of being treated like some guy who just started painting a month ago.

 He like us, had explored other options, like coating garage floors with epoxy.

But there is no actual demand for that so we continue to work at our trade that has been artificially lowered by a false economy.

( Note: The man has since thrown in the towel and quit the trade.)

 The state wants licensing and bonding fees and each city wants fees for the privilege of working in them, the state taxes us while the federal government wants self employment taxes, and then there is workers compensation fees etc.

We have to pay a lot of overhead while our friends from across the border slide along with hud housing (80% of their rent paid by Hud), welfare, food stamps, free medical care etc.

Anything they can make in my trade is just extra income on top of all their America provided freebies.

Something is wrong with America.

 And I don't think it will be fixable.

Soon in the very near future the house of cards is going to start falling.

 We can only give away so much before the cupboard is empty.

My baby boomer generation is the one that experienced the decline.

 Been on my heels my entire work life.

When I was in high school I worked nights in the local restaurants at minimum wage.

A lot of us did these "entry" jobs to the work force.

 Then our friends from across the border started showing up and those jobs evaporated.

They were not there for my son's generation.

I went into having my own garden maintenance business for a few years, "The Fruitful Vine" was my company name.

 Then once again our friends from across the border took that from me as it were.

I really couldn't compete against their low pricing.

So I went full time into painting and got my certification to be legal with my state contractors license board.

I paid my dues and fees.

 And now I am being pushed out once again...by our friends from across the border.

When we give a bid on a painting job these days, 90% of the customers act as if we are price gouging.

They always tell us that we are so expensive, when in reality we are bidding everything as low as we possibly can and still remain legal and responsible to our American overhead costs. 

They are comparing our bids with the bids of the "false economy."

This is a very real problem that is not only happening to my trade.

I don't see any answer in the near future.

Found this on the net:

"Despite regular cycles of immigration and deportation millions of Mexicans have continued to make the U.S. their home.

 Here they have played a vital role in our culture and economy, filling many blue collar jobs and serving their country honorably in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and of course, the Gulf Wars.

But Mexican Americans have continued to struggle against their treatment as second class citizens.

Today, Mexican Americans still lag behind other Americans in income, education, and home ownership.

Still with over 18 million Mexican Americans living in the U.S. they are our countries fastest growing minority group which testifies to the determination of Mexican Americans and suggests more political and economic victories to come."

In 1985 I knew a Mexican painter who had five sons.

 I only had one.

The difference?

 I had to pay out of my own pocket for the doctor bills for the birth and care of my son as a young struggling painter.

 He did not.

My state treated him well, while i was expected to make my own way.

So I could only afford one son as a house painter.

 He could afford five due to the benevolence of California tax payers. 

This is a real snapshot of what has been happening over the years to some American trades,cheaper labor.

 His five sons will repeat what he has done because they can.

While my son is limited to only what he can afford, like I was.

 He had only one son and one daughter.

The east coast is now beginning to see what I have known most of my life.

 This is increasing and spreading.

 The net result?

 Lower living standards for some of us American native residents at the lower levels?

Some believe that our friends from across the border are making the American labor market more efficient.

A few facts.

For years, one of the groups pushing hardest for immigration reform has been the U.S. food industry.

Farmers have long grumbled about a shortage of labor, and they've asked for policies that make it easier to hire foreign workers from places like Mexico.

Some good people are working to help the situation.

Mexicans have indeed faced a lot of abuse in America, only wanting a better life for them selves and their families.

This next election will change nothing from what I can see.

There really are no easy answers to all of this.

Mexicans are a hard working, good people caught in the struggles of life in a foreign country doing the best that they can to survive.

Guest workers often viewed as disposable, cheap labor.  

I just happened to be deeply impacted my entire life as an American tradesmen by this cheap labor pool in the context of my own life.

Good thing I only have a few more years of stuggling in my trade before I tap my social security, that I have paid into all my life, and Medicare and get out of this madness.

Draw your own conclusions...

***

Sen. Blumenthal Demands Lifting of IT 'Gag' Order

 U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the layoff and replacement of IT workers by foreign workers at a state energy utility. 

But he is also demanding that the utility, Eversource Energy, drop a particularly restrictive non-disparagement clause that laid off employees had to sign to receive their severance. 

This clause bars discussion "that would tend to disparage or discredit" the utility. [emphasis added]

 He wants the employees, who had to train foreign replacements, to be able to state "honestly what happened to them."