Congressman Pete Stark mocks citizen "THE BORDERS ARE QUITE SECURE"

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bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
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The real trick of it is to reform the system without putting the producers out of business. It's all well and good to say "let them hang", however once a farm is sold to a strip mall developer there is no getting it back. In that case we have more than wage inflation- we have supply issues.

Immigration in itself is relatively easy compared to that rat's nest.

Sure there are things they can do to make sure it all doesn't come crashing down in the agricultural industry, but I'm not for rewarding failure.
 

theeedude

Lifer
Feb 5, 2006
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You can pretend 98.9% of consumers even look at where the head of lettuce they just threw in their cart came from, but, in the end, they don't care.

They pick up produce, make sure it's not F'd up, and throw it in their cart.

If it's x cents cheaper, they don't care. If they do care, too bad.

Your logic is totally F'd up btw.

Chuck

So they do care that it's X cents cheaper, and don't care if it's picked by illegals. So producers are hiring illegals to pick it X cents cheaper. They are giving consumers what they want and don't care about what consumers don't care about. Again, money talks, BS walks.
 

nick1985

Lifer
Dec 29, 2002
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I bet none of those whiners cared if their cheap produce was planted and picked by illegal labor. They are the ones paying to bring these illegals here. Maybe they should start a certification program, instead of "Organically Grown", it will be "Redneck Grown". :D

You and your cheap produce diatribe

:rolleyes:
 

bfdd

Lifer
Feb 3, 2007
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So they do care that it's X cents cheaper, and don't care if it's picked by illegals. So producers are hiring illegals to pick it X cents cheaper. They are giving consumers what they want and don't care about what consumers don't care about. Again, money talks, BS walks.

They started hiring illegals to pick produce way before inflation made the dollar what it is today. The farmers who hire(d) them and our government which subsidizes the farmers are responsible for illegals being hired into that work, not the consumer. You can use the consumer as an excuse all you want from this, but we're not the ones saving very much or making any money off of this. The farmers are.
 

glenn1

Lifer
Sep 6, 2000
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stark is a douche and this vid will go viral. he's doomed.

Regardless of whether you agree with his political positions, he was clearly being a dick. If he's going to behave this way and can't treat his constituents with a minimal amount of respect, then doing town hall meetings seems counter-productive.
 

Lanyap

Elite Member
Dec 23, 2000
8,295
2,391
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What a smartass (Stark).


Years ago most people in the US did not care as much about illegal immigrants. They knew they were picking produce, providing low end services, working in low end jobs that others did not want to do and were generally ok with it to lower prices. But now that there are so many illegal immigrants here and they are standing on street corners in every city in the US and shopping next to them in Walmart it's more of an issue.
 

drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
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They started hiring illegals to pick produce way before inflation made the dollar what it is today. The farmers who hire(d) them and our government which subsidizes the farmers are responsible for illegals being hired into that work, not the consumer. You can use the consumer as an excuse all you want from this, but we're not the ones saving very much or making any money off of this. The farmers are.

You know, the entire idea that it's the small business owners (local farmers, local construction companies, day laborers, etc) that encourage (let alone make possible) illegal immigration is entirely bullshit. There are two main reasons why.

First: If there were any real possibility that this was the case, the bleeding hearts in Congress would have long ago passed this legislation (wait, isn't there already legislation to this effect?). The problem is that they (the liberals in congress) know that this will not even begin to help the problem, and thus they don't want to look like morons when their grand plan to fix illegal immigration by smacking down on the ebil republican (seriously, where did this idea come from that all small business and farm owners are republicans?) business owners that FORCE the poor illegals to work for SLAVE LABOR is complete tripe. Which brings us to our next reason.

Liberal law makers would be forced to admit that their artificial wage floor doesn't work. For all the screaming liberals do about "fair market wage" and "true market wage", liberals are very against actually letting the free market determine wages. "True market wages" are the wages for which employees agree to work. They're not determined by the consumer or the business owner. Enforcing laws that penalize employers for employing workers at true market wages stands to hurt liberal politicians just as much, and thus they will not do it. Forcing their artificial wage floor on domestic farms would cause the price of EVERYTHING to skyrocket (you know, like it has in every other industry). Industries who use food as ingredients will simply buy more from overseas farms. Domestic farms will close, and the workers will be just as out of work as they are...still making $0/hr.

Seriously, though, low wages are not an inherently bad thing. Low wages lead to low prices...which you liberals have even admitted in this thread. The market will reach its own equillibrium. As labor prices drop, finished goods will be less expensive...thus the buying power will be the same. The difference is that our goods will be more competitive in the global market. Minimum wage is a form of redistribution of wealth that simply doesn't work; buying power isn't increased. In fact, instead of increasing the buying power of the poor and unskilled, you simply REDUCE the buying power of everyone else.

Mostly, though, I don't buy in to the idea that the majority of illegal immigrants come here to pick in the fields for $4/hr. No, most illegal immigrants come here to take advantage of the massive amounts of public services we have here, from public schools to medical services to welfare and beyond. The vast majority of illegal immigrants are not contributing members of society. Getting rid of the few low paid jobs they do have isn't going to get rid of the people.

That said, if you want to make it part of "immigration reform" which combines penalties for businesses who hire illegals with a revision of minimum wage law, enforcement of expired visas, and a strengthening of the enforcement of the border, I'm all for it. It's all moot, though, because if you do the last three, the first will take care of itself.
 

Taejin

Moderator<br>Love & Relationships
Aug 29, 2004
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holy crap this guys is a complete tard, how in the hell does he get re-elected? he is exactly what is wrong with our government and he should be thrown out of office. for a elected representative of the people to treat citizens in his district like that is inexcusable.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVpMwqv7QM

hey look its OutHouse, he's full of shit again..

har har get it?

I'll be here all night folks
 

Hacp

Lifer
Jun 8, 2005
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Yes, these people are not here on vacation, they are here to make some money, which ultimately comes from the grocery buying consumers.
Currently consumers demand their groceries as cheap as possible, not "American picked," they are speaking much louder with their wallets than they are with their ballots.

They're here to take american jobs and american wealth and send it to mexico.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
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Everyone should post/send this video in as many places as they can. If people don't know what traitorous assholes our elected representatives are, then the apathy will continue.
Yep. What the fuck. That is unacceptable. Looking on Wikipedia, it seems like the guy has a history for shit like that. Yet the morons elected him most recently with 76&#37; of the vote? :eek: :eek:

I think not too long ago, people speaking out against illegal immigration were looked at as some radical minority. But I think what we seen in Arizona and support for it's law, as well as this town hall meeting of regular folk shows that many US citizens think its a problem and want the government to do something meaningful.
 
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werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
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How is he full of shit? You agree with that congressman?
Outhouse - it's in the name, dude. Of course, that's only funny to city folks. We country folk know that an outhouse is not full of shit, it is above shit. Or to use a colloquialism, it is above Stark.
 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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Regardless of whether you agree with his political positions, he was clearly being a dick. If he's going to behave this way and can't treat his constituents with a minimal amount of respect, then doing town hall meetings seems counter-productive.

Yeah really, the first thing I think when watching this is, "Jesus, what a dick!" The way he berates his constituents is not something you usually see from someone who wants to be elected by these people. :thumbsdown:
 

JohnnyGage

Senior member
Feb 18, 2008
699
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That video is plain scary. To have your congressman show up and show complete contempt for his constituents is flat out appalling.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
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you leave morons like stark in office and worse yet you stop treating them like the public employees they are, this is what you get. If your not going to manage your employees they will manage YOU.
 

drebo

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
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Do you want to work in the fields?

I don't...but, then again, I'm skilled enough so that I don't have to.

There are, however, plenty of unskilled Americans and legal immigrants who would probably be happy to.
 

Triumph

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,031
14
81
I don't...but, then again, I'm skilled enough so that I don't have to.

There are, however, plenty of unskilled Americans and legal immigrants who would probably be happy to.

Unfortunately, they're probably not. I mean, yeah they're definitely just skilled enough to be able to handle field labor, but due to the entitlement mentality in this country's breeding and education, they probably believe that they're too good to do that kind of work.
 

JohnnyGage

Senior member
Feb 18, 2008
699
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you leave morons like stark in office and worse yet you stop treating them like the public employees they are, this is what you get. If your not going to manage your employees they will manage YOU.

Amen, brotha!!