What Is Wrong With Americans?

What's wrong with the American people, more particularly, the American worker?

The American worker I saw several decades back was a dynamic go-getter and opportunist (today these are politically incorrect four letter words).

He was either working hard with the thought of getting ahead or he was looking for new ways to get ahead.

Getting ahead was what this country was all about.

Now this so-called American Worker looks like some alien life form.

I call up the local used sports equipment store and offer the kid there $150 off the record to put together a treadmill for me.

The kid at first responds enthusiastically, then flakes out.

I go to Craigslist to contract not one but two local mobile mechanics and one shop mechaninc to install a fuel-saving device in my car...all three refuse on grounds that it isn't approved or safe or this or that.

I make it a point to go to a local floor shop to have new linoleum tiles installed. The installer starts asking questions about how old my house is, and what type of linoleum I have. When it turns out the linoleum might contain asbestos, he not only runs scared and refuses to do the work, but threatens to report me to the local environmental authorities.

I call up another guy who is a solar-panel expert, but who has no license due to the outrageous licensing fees the government charges (and we call this a 'green' government?). He timidly says he will install absolutely nothing, but will stand there and tell me what to do because he is so terrified of practicing his trade without a 'license.'

I call up an electrician to install a simple electricity meter at my fusebox, so I can monitor my electricity use. He says he will not install an 'electric meter' because that is the realm of the local electric company.

Finally, I need a toilet reinstalled, so I call up a plumber who says the local shut-off valve is frozen, and that the outside key valve is without a lever and stripped. I call up another plumber and he says the same thing. The toilet is left sitting in the middle of my kitchen.

Confronted with all this frozen initiative, I had no recourse left.

I make it a point to support and contact local businesses for any jobs I need done.

But the results I got were zero.

So what did I do?

I recurred to the only dynamic, go-getting population we seem to have left – Mexicans.

Not Chicanos, mind you. The last three Chicanos I hired seemed to be pumped up on testosterone and severely lacking in skill or will to get anything done.

Mexicans.

A Mexican put together my treadmill.

A Mexican mechanic installed the fuel-saving device into my car without comment or complaint.

A group Mexicans installed my linoleum tiles quickly and efficiently. When they ran into the asbestos tiles, they had no problem – they just laid the new tiles on top of them instead of removing them.

I had a Mexican install my solar panels – a jack of all trades who seems to have done a good job.

I had an expert Mexican electrician install my own electric meter at the fuse box – yeah he charged me an expert fee, but he got the job done.

Finally, I had a white guy install my toilet.

I started going after small one or two-man operations and I scored.

But as it turns out the hard working young man who turned off the water and installed my toilet (where the other two plumbers could not) was the son of immigrants from GERMANY. So this guy was only a first generation American - brought up by Europeans.

So you see, the American worker is not what he used to be.

Instead of the dedicated, hard working man he used to be, he has turned into a bureaucrat, a complainer, a wet noodle, a flaker and a useless boot filler.

I have never heard so many American merchants retort to my complaints about a product or service with something about 'I do this for a living' and 'I have a family to support' as if that excuses their bad service.

Instead of going out there and making some money, he has become accustomed to putting his hand out and coming up with sob stories to fill his pantry.

You know who the hard working and earning people are not?

The Mexicans.

You can feel the dynamism with these people.

They are out to make a buck and have you call them back for more.

They are hard working, they have skills, they have manners and they charge reasonably (not the $200 one local plumber charged my just for showing up).

Most of the ones I met have green cards, some others might have been illegal, I don't know, but I do know one thing – they get the job done!

I have bent over backwards to support local American businesses what I have gotten in return have been hold ups, excuses and threats of being reported to the government for this or that violation combined with expensive costs.

No thanks.

I am not a cheap person, I am just a person who wants things done when someone agrees to do them.

All I have gotten from American workers lately have been excuses and threats.

The last round of contracts struck me as strange.

What the heck is wrong with us?

And then it struck me.

We are not only lazy...and greedy...and bureaucratic...but afraid.

We can no longer install toilets, linoleum, electric meters, solar panels or assemble treadmills because we are struggling with our lethargic laziness on one hand and our sheep-like fear on the other.

The American worker is becoming more and more of a liability instead of an asset.

Its the Mexicans who are working hard, earning hard and spending hard (believe me, I am not proud saying this).

I had restaurateur friend tell me the other day how upset he was with the local sheriff (Arpaio) because he was scaring his (Mexican) clientele away by persecuting illegal immigrants.

Just sitting down at a pizza place, restaurant or buffet, and what do you see?

Mexicans and large families sitting down to eat and paying for it cash.

Go to a local mall, and what do you see?

You see that a large percentage of the shoppers are Mexican...and they are spending hard too.

Anglo-Americans, it seems, are all in debt and unemployed, sitting at home watching cable or shopping at Walmart.

You can feel how discomfited I felt when the last two or three times I walked into a local gun shop, there were three or four Hispanic gun shoppers ahead of me, with more coming in.

Granted, I live in Arizona, but it is the first time I see Mexicans taking up such a large part of the local economy. These people work hard...and they spend hard.

I am not happy about it, but there it is.

The last bastion of the Anglo-American male was the gun shop.

The last time I went to a gun shop I saw ONE there...the rest were Hispanic.

Like I said, when you go to a mall, Chuck E. Cheese, Peter Piper Pizza, Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, etc, what you see are Mexican families (not Anglo-Americans) spending cash.

When you go to luxurious high-end shopping malls, what you see are the educated foreign B1B visa workers and their families babbling in foreign tounges.

When you go to Walmart, you finally get to see Americans (or whats left of us).

On the one hand, I can see why corporations and businesses are for the Dream Act - it would legitimize a whole population of motivated, hard working, hard spending individuals which would bring them even more profits.

What business would not want that?

But don't get me wrong - I am totally against the Dream Act.

I am just underlining the fact that our corporations and local businesses are seeing THEM as economic assets...NOT US.

And what's become of 'us.'

I don't know.

I don't recognize 'us' anymore.

I see more and more working age young Americans who...

-believe privacy is obsolete

-are unashamed of using and looking forward to receiving 'food stamps'

-are waiting for their parents, or the government...or somebody to bail them out

-are unashamed of renting themselves out as boy toys or girl toys to their 'mate'

-depend on their parents for economic support

-see socialism and government involvement as a good idea

-have no plan for the future except fulfilling themselves

-are unwilling to stand up for anything or anyone, including themselves

Specifically, the American worker I see as turning into a lazy bureaucrat, fearfully following the numerous laws, rules and regulations in the hope of not getting into trouble while sneakily seeing what all those laws, rules, regulations and laws can bring him or her.

The American worker (both self-employed and employee) is now a complainer, sneakily using as much legalese as possible to use his complaints as a threat.

The American worker is a gutless bureaucrat, keeping up on the latest laws, rules and regulations (and there are plenty of them) in order to not only avoid trouble, but make them work to his benefit.

The American worker is greedy, overcharges for work and expects to be paid immediately and in cash.

The American worker is a lazy clock watcher. No work on the weekends. Limited hours of work on workdays. No late calls, please. Leave for home as soon as the clock strikes five – if anything remains unfinished, that's another day's problem.

The American worker is disloyal. No loyalty to employers. No loyalty to customers. No loyalty to relatives or extended family. The only loyalty the American worker has is to himself and to the mean green.

The American worker is ignorant. No self-motivated apprenticeships, no willingness to expand on skills, knowledge or experience beyond their small field of specialization and even there, no willingness to stay up to date.

The American worker is corrupt. Jobs half done or incomplete, phony paperwork, overcharging, shoddy workmanship or products, lying, covering up, passing the blame.

The American worker lacks ambition. The majestic dreams of yesteryear – getting married, starting a family, establishing a business or career have turned into how to get by the easiest way possible while having the most free time possible and doing all the things you want to do.

To top it all off, America itself is falling behind in fields it was supposed to be a world leader:

-America is begging off Russian help in getting its astronauts to and from the International Space Station

-New American high technology weapons like the F-35 and Stealth Bomber are looking more and more like high-priced daydreams which don't really work (note the 'Stealth Fighter' that was not only seen but shot down over Yugoslavia and the cutting-edge technology drone captured by the Iranians)

-Our first rate currency, the Dollar, is being rejected around the world

-Our pro basketball team regularly loses in the Olympics

-In Videogaming, South Korean players regularly trounce American players and Russians teams regularly defeat American teams while European companies are surpassing American companies in videogame titles

-in computers, Ubuntu operating system (based on the Finnish Linux) is proving to work smoother and faster than either Macintosh (Unix) or Windos (DOS)

-Our main export to Asia is scrap paper and scrap metal (trash)

And Americans themselves are by and large a reflection of this downward trend.

Before closing, I would just like to apologize to all the (I believe 25%) American workers who are NOT like this for the above description.

You are probably what's keeping this country going.

But there you have it.

The state of the American worker today is scary.

This is the type of individual who is more likely to whine, cry and hold his hand out for a dole than hold up the Republic.