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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Travis_Bickle who wrote (102737)	2/1/2009 1:00:31 PM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543802

I totally agree with some of your points, but doubt most Americans have the stomach for backbreaking work. We also aren't very smart about the environment or our immigration policies. America is the only country I know that allows "anchor babies". If you don't belong here, your kids sure don't - we have enough poor Americans - we don't need to import more. But with that said, where are the young native born 20 year-olds digging dirt? I did it in my 20's to work my way through school but I'm one of the few people that I know that ever did this. Are our fat video gamers going to pick up shovels? We are entering a drought here. If it continues, I'm just going to let my lawn die and replace it with shade, fountains, white rocks and xerophytes - plants and trees that do well here with only a spot of rain. Save the water for the vegetable garden. Will I be able to find Americans to do the work? Probably not. Digging out the lawn will no doubt be done by people who aren't ex-automotive industry but 20 year Latino kids, not college kids. One of the things I studied in college was water management. 90 percent of the water in CA is used in agriculture. There are many things that could be done that aren't done to use our water more effectively than flood irrigation... Burying plastic film under a thin layer of dirt is one. Cut the evaporation through the soil and save 40% of the water losses. There are no doubt things like this that would cheaply incentivize the use of domestic labor. Subsidize businesses that use provable domestic labor and fine or seize the business if there is fraud. But I don't see people lining up for that approach, especially small business.