Originally Posted by Rationalist

So your complaint is the cost? How much does the federal/state/county governments spend on multilingual services? Compare that to how much in taxes we get from non-English speaking citizens, legal guest workers, and illegal guest workers and things may start to make more sense.

Originally Posted by Ronnocomot

Illegal guest workers? Give me a break.

THEY ARE FREAKING CRIMINALS.

Originally Posted by Rationalist

Yes, that's what "illegal" means. Jaywalkers and loiterers are also criminals, but I can't bring myself to get worked up about them.

Originally Posted by CANGST

Rationalist, You obviously do not live in an area where you are affected by this.

Originally Posted by CANGST

Here in Southern California all the statistics point to just the opposite. Whites are the minority here.

Originally Posted by CANGST

Jobs are disappearing to immigrants. This State has catered to the needs of illegals for so long that we are now looking at a 10% sales tax in addition to high income tax. Crime is at an all time high, prisons are full. Mexican Gangs are at an all time high. When is enough enough. Eventually it will spread to where you live. As a truck driver it deeply concerns me that immigrants are taking my job. They are willing to do it for less money. That brings the economics into shambles. The price of everything is going up but pay is not because these immigrants are doing it for cheaper because they have 5 families living in one house. That does not stop them from having more kids than they can support though. Why support them when you can have the Government pick up the tab?

Originally Posted by Ronnocomot

So only certain laws are important enough to be obeyed?

Who gets to draw THAT line?

Originally Posted by InMyDreams

whoa whoa whoa! college student? i've already graduated ... thanks (this is intended to be funny). and where did i imply that you weren't as smart as me? for that matter, why the #### would i insult people in a profession that i WANTED to become a part of? you need to get some thicker ####### skin ... all of you if you found that to be offensive. believe me, if i'd known that all of this trouble would've come from asking someone a question, i'd have kept my mouth shut ... but that would defeat the purpose of a FORUM now wouldn't it.

Originally Posted by Rationalist

Interesting topic.

When I was younger, I went to Europe with my family to learn about where my ancestors came from. I remember being surprised at how many people in Spain, Germany, Poland and Italy spoke English. They also spoke many of each other's languages. Looking back it really makes perfect sense. European countries have to do a lot of business with one another that requires bi-lingual, tri-lingual, etc. linguistic skills.

I live in California now. The reality is that there is a very large Hispanic population here and it's growing. We don't do business with Mexico, the Caribbean or Central America per say, but I do a lot of business with people from these places. As a matter of fact, you'd be hard pressed to find someone in the state who doesn't do business or is friends with someone from a Latin country. If the US wants to be taken seriously in a global marketplace, we can't simply ignore the fact that there isn't one international language. Knowing some Spanish means that my services are more marketable. Each company I work for knows that my conversational Spanish will help the company.

So what would a national language look like? All of the people I work with who speak broken English or Spanglish would essentially be forced to learn. It would make immigration from non-English speaking countries, legal or illegal, much more difficult. If the number of guest workers in the Southwest dropped off in any real way (which would be a serious possibility if there were a national language), our economy would likely suffer in major ways. The shortage of pickers and processors in the farming industry would streak production and thus distribution to a halt and truckers would be out of work across the country. I can't agree with that. I'm sure that he truckers of this community would have a problem with that, too.

Originally Posted by Rationalist

So your complaint is the cost? How much does the federal/state/county governments spend on multilingual services? Compare that to how much in taxes we get from non-English speaking citizens, legal guest workers, and illegal guest workers and things may start to make more sense.

Originally Posted by Rationalist

Have you ever been to San Jose? It's not dissimilar from SoCal. 47% of San Jose is white, about 30% is Hispanic and 26% is Asian (there are people of mixed race, which account for over 100%).

Yes, but isn't this thread about federal legislation? Whites are 75% of the country.

California's population is 36,457,549 (as of 2006), but only 13.2 million are hispanic.

45% of Los Angeles is Hispanic. 46% is white. 42% speak English, 41% speak Spanish.

In what way are you (I'm assuming you're white) a minority?

A lot of this strikes me as either outdated or hyperbole. I'm not saying you're wrong, but the crime rates in LA are at [LINK POSTED BY MEMBER] Only Members Can View This Truck Forum Link. . Guest workers are responsible for nearly all picking and processing of produce in the state, which means thousands upon thousands of jobs for truckers.

Beyond all that, though, what damage would maintaining multilingual federal programs do?