Here is a little about what I experienced in Colorado Springs, Illegals and Homelessness:
Years ago I moved to Colorado Springs to look for a construction job and possibly relocate from Arizona. I lived in a large motel complex that rented rooms by the month, after moving in I noticed that 80% of the people living there were Mexican men who would wait in the main parking lot in groups every day waiting for some one to pull up and offer them work for the day. I had seen something like this before when I was homeless in Arizona, other homeless people I met at county parks, would go to certain spots around Mesa to get what they called day labor (basically employers preying on cheap cash labor) , (Note: I was living out of my van, most were living out of their cars ) these were not illegals but Americans that could not find work. People need to realize that once you become homeless getting a job is not really an option, not because they do not want a job, but in order to be hired by a legitimate company you need a Phone Number and Permanent Address, once you loss those you are in a bad way, it cost at least $1,500.00 up front to get an Apartment and another $90.00 to $120.00 down to get a Phone. Off note I had met a lot of women that would come to Phoenix to get and Apartment and a new job to find that $500.00 was not going to get them an Apartment, Phone, Electric, etc, a lot of them danced at Strip Clubs until they earned enough money to get the essentials and be able to apply for a regular job. I was lucky after a month or two a friend allowed me to park at their house and use their address and phone number to get a full time job.
Back to CS so here I was living with illegals and looking for work, I had my van and it had over $10,000.00 worth of tools in it so I was very concerned about it being broken into, but after meeting some of the folks there I did not worry any more, everyone looked out for each other. But the point is there were a lot of illegals in that city, this was in 1981. I did find a framing job with a local construction company in just a few days, but after working 2 weeks for the guy he up and tells me he doesn’t have the money to pay me, but he could give me drugs instead, I was floored and said NO, after doing more checking I unfortunately found out his main thing was dealing drugs, I thought about turning him in but decided that might lead to bad things so just dropped it, actually that had happened before, in Arizona, you never know. Illegals were every where in Arizona, at the time they mostly worked doing Farm and Landscaping jobs and a lot of them were allowed to live in the nearby Orchards or there were certain landlords that would rent to them. I never saw any illegal Mexicans working in Framing you need to have the proper tools, a van or truck and have good math skills, we did have to contend with snowbirds coming down for the winter months and working for half the price, problem was the snowbirds were slow, framing in Arizona is VERY different then the Midwest.
Back to Colorado Springs, I ended up staying there for a couple months and did find legit contractors to work for, but the wages were low and decided to head back to Arizona where the wages were better. When I was in CS it was a very nice community it reminded me of a town in the Midwest, really nice parks and a well kept clean city. So fast forward to now, Colorado Springs is cutting taxes and local government services because the voters have voted for it and the recession is cutting into the tax revenues, so if you would like an idea about what it is like to live in a city whose services are being cut right and left, (Smaller Government) read these articles at the DenverPost.com:
Colorado Springs cuts into Services 02/03/2010
Colorado Springs experimenting with loss of services 07/04/2010
Quote from second: article
“These medians and parks that are being adopted are in wealthy neighborhoods,” she said. “We are seeing the creation of a community of haves and have nots.”
To those people who want smaller Government be careful of what you wish for, unless of course you are one of the top 2% then hell yes. To the rest of us it means a wider gap in the class structure, America works because the 98% were receiving enough income to buy a Home, a new car or two, nice furniture and some toys, plus for some the ability to send your children to College. It has been undermined for the last 10 years and our bottom lines have been going down or flat not up like some would like us to believe. The America we love and remember needs to change and change fast or we are going to be a two class nation, cheap labor is great for those that reap the rewards but does nothing to keep America strong. The 98% need a decent income so the American dream survives, right now the top 20% own most of the wealth in this country.
Check out the information in this article at sociology.ucsc.edu; Who Rules America? for the data of wealth distribution from 1983 to 2007. Come on America Wake Up, money is power but so are your choices, buy American made products and vote for people who are behind the 98% not the top 2%, I am for people making money but not because they prey off or want cheap labor, Americans have fought hard for a better life, but that is being taken away by a very small majority, Greed can be good, but not when it hurts 98% of Americans. Just my 2 cents, lol, well .05 cents now.
