# Change Your Own Linens, Fuckers! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 12, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903 "2005-10-12T15:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![aamco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@aamco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aamco)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/41 "2005-10-19T18:25:53Z")
> [@Lazlo](#): > > The next time you don’t pay $10 for a piece of fresh produce or $20 for a fast food meal, you may extend your thanks to those “illiterate” Mexicans. I’ll pay an extra $15 at McDonald’s rather than paying an extra $100 in property taxes because children of illiterate Mexicans are getting free schooling. ---
**Author:** ![Lazlo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lazlo/32/9678_2.png) [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/42 "2005-10-19T19:07:25Z")
> [@aamco](#): > > I’ll pay an extra $15 at McDonald’s rather than paying an extra $100 in property taxes because children of illiterate Mexicans are getting free schooling. [sarchasm] Yeah, I see your point. I’m a single guy and I hate having to pay ANY property taxes so that some other peoples’ snotty, whitebread, nth generation American kids can get an education. [/sarchasm] Oh, and I’m guessing you’re planning on eating only once a year? It’s kind of hard to compare $100/year with $15/meal. If decent wages and healthcare were provided to those who work the farms (implying that they’ve employed honorable 'Merkins instead of illiterate Mexicans) then the cost of all of our meals would go up several hundred percent. Ignorance of this caliber is nigh invulerable to reason. How soon we forget that this nation of ours is peopled mostly by folks looking for better opportunities. I, for one, am not hypocritical enough to wish to deny that to any of our southern neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/43 "2005-10-20T02:18:22Z")
> [@fessie](#): > > … I suspect if itinerant workers demanded a living wage, we’d all be paying a good deal more for our edibles. I don’t know what migrant workers get paid nowadays, but their beef is with their employers not consumers and what the consumer is willing to pay. Because $4.99 for a tiny plastic basket containing a few handfulls of blueberries seems like a pretty damn high price to me. ---
**Author:** ![fessie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fessie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fessie)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/44 "2005-10-20T04:03:10Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > Nah…it sucks! > > Not only has it provided the highest standard of living and the highest consistant quality of products for the greatest number of people, it has also failed to provide equal misery and deprivation for all. > > “Power to the people!” > > “From each according to his abilites, to each according to his needs!” > > “What we’re gonna do is, we’re gonna take things away from you for the common good!” > > Yay, communism!..Equal time in line for a loaf of bread for everyone! > > :rolleyes: Jeez, no wonder you’re starving, nobody’s gonna buy that crap! “Greatest number of people”? Which people you counting? The ones who are dining at Mickey D’s right at this moment, or the slaves and impoverished immigrants who built this country? Or how about the Chinese workers currently providing us with 98% of everything sold at WalfuckingMart - you think they’re basking in the glow of our fine capitalistic society? At least admit that our greatest accomplishment is we’re some massively greedy motherfuckers who’ll take the bread out of the mouths of orphans. Here’s one “We have seen the enemy…and he is us.” - Pogo ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/45 "2005-10-20T09:23:11Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > Hi Fessie: > > I disagree about the poor = criminal part (if that what you meant, I can see you might not actually mean that.) > > The missing labor pool will quickly be filled by Honest, hard working Mexican. If there is a low paying, crap job, there is usually an immigrant from Mexico willing to take it. People have to work and poverty is relative. If they’re **LEGAL** Mexican immigrants, working **on the books** , they are doubtless as honest as the average person. If they are ILLEGAL Mexican immigrants, they are dishonest by definition (unless they were smuggled here by their parents while they were small, in which case their dilemma is not of their own making.) Regardless of the economic incentives for illegal immigration, that is a fact. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903/46 "2005-10-20T14:14:21Z")
> [@Tenar](#): > > If they’re **LEGAL** Mexican immigrants, working **on the books** , they are doubtless as honest as the average person. If they are ILLEGAL Mexican immigrants, they are dishonest by definition (unless they were smuggled here by their parents while they were small, in which case their dilemma is not of their own making.) Regardless of the economic incentives for illegal immigration, that is a fact. Did I say illegal? No. Does braving an illegal entry into the USA automatically make you dishonest in other ways? No. Why do you apparently hate Mexicans? 😉 …I know every niche of a crappy job generally has Mexicans working it. I don’t know their immigration status, but they usually are harder working then their Born in the USA counterpart, directionless Teen or Twenty year old. …There are a lot of really crappy jobs that most kids would never want to take and many jobs that would never pay enough to live on your own. Mexicans and other immigrants takes these jobs, share living space, (often to a point that people in the USA consider seriously overcrowded) and not only make a go at it, but send money back home. …Our farming industry probably would break down without our current illegal labor system and how many wealthy families are employing illegal immigrants as live-in housekeepers? (Including a lot of politicians.) Whether you like it or not, it is a large part of our economy. Should we make changes to this system? Yes of course we should. Do I know what the changes should be? No!! 😕 Do you know what the changes should be? Maybe, but I doubt it. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/change-your-own-linens-fuckers/325903.md?page=2)