What would you keep, what would you change?

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Thursday, October 9, 2025 20:12
VIEWED: 3625
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SIGNYM

Friday, February 28, 2014 8:18 PM

Quote:
Free trade (as currently practiced) manages to do that- make the pie smaller for everyone.

Well, I was just meandering thru the internet and look at what I found:

Quote:
This paper compares the performance of the Mexican economy with that of the rest of the region over the past 20 years... it finds that Mexico ranks 18th out of 20 Latin American countries in growth of real GDP per person, the most basic economic measure of living standards; Mexico’s poverty rate of in 2012 was almost identical to the poverty rate of 1994; real (inflation-adjusted) wages for Mexico were almost the same in 2012 as in 1994; and unemployment has increased significantly. It also notes that if NAFTA had been successful in restoring Mexico’s pre-1980 growth rate – when developmentalist economic policies were the norm – Mexico today would be a relatively high income country, with income per person significantly higher than that of Portugal or Greece. It is unlikely that immigration reform would be a major political issue in the United States, since relatively few Mexicans would seek to cross the border.

That's why I hate "free trade"- it's just a bigger coliseum in which to make people compete for life.

MAGONSDAUGHTER

Saturday, March 1, 2014 4:46 AM

Quote:
Now, why do I insist on having immigrants learn the official language? Because if you cant' speak the language, you will be isolated form healthcare, from training, from police services, from politics, and from the million-and-one things that you personally don't encounter as a problem because you speak the language.

I live in land of immigrants too and have worked with many of them over the years. Some things I have observed.

First generation adults struggle to learn new languages and some factors make learning language almost impossible. The older you are and the less literate you are, the more you are going to struggle. I once met an Eritrean grandma, who was basically a tribeswoman, couldn't read and write and if I remember rightly, spoke an obscure dialect as her first language. She had been sent on one language course after another and was never going to master anything more basic than 'hello' and 'yes' 'no'.

First generation children can master language flawlessly and will speak as well as a native speaker. Second generation, same.

The problem, I suspect, is with Mexican immigrants, who perhaps are in US for economic reasons only. They cross the border to make some money and return to Mexico periodically. They are almost like illegal guest workers, am I correct?

SIGNYM

Saturday, March 1, 2014 5:53 AM

Yes, exactly like illegal guest workers. All of the exploitability of cheap foreign labor, conveniently in your own backyard! And absolutely no commitment from the other side, either!

SIGNYM

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 2:26 PM

I hope that as you watch Ukraine break apart into the Ukrainian-speaking part and the Russian-speaking one, you'll see the reason why I think that every nation needs an official language.

SIGNYM

Thursday, March 6, 2014 9:30 AM

Right?

WISHIMAY

Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

You see any exit signs?

Yeah, me neither. And yet, with the evidence staring us in the face that we have to LIVE HERE, we keep on doing as if we have someplace else to go.]

I like it. Every once in a while I'll scan a thread and one of you says something sane. It's nice...I may steal that one for a project in the future though...

SIGNYM

Thursday, March 6, 2014 8:06 PM

Ideas are like money: Best when exchanged!

JAYNEZTOWN

Saturday, July 2, 2022 6:15 PM

stop trying to class islam as a religion instead class it as a weird demonic subversive cult

Iran turns off 2 of UN nuclear watchdog's cameras
https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-international-atomic-energy-
agency-iran-middle-east-58f6cd38ebbd1aa2c7cbdcad7dc210bf

end the Technocracy?

This is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy™: Part 3
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/this-is-extremely-dangerous-to-o
ur-2ae

JAYNEZTOWN

Thursday, October 9, 2025 8:12 PM

while rants about Late Night Comedy and the Press continue?

Liberian Journalist Varflay Kamara Selected for Prestigious Edward R. Murrow Program in U.S.

https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberian-journalist-varflay-kam
ara-selected-for-prestigious-edward-r-murrow-program-in-u-s/

27 changes...Lowering Voting Age, the 18th Prohibits the manufacturing or sale of alcohol followed by Crime Bosses and Smugglers and 21st Amendment the Repeal of Prohibition

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