AZ,
My mom told me to go to college, and my dad told me to learn a trade...I did both! Got a degree in Environmental Science, and worked for the Ohio EPA a few years until Reagan cut the budget and so many of us lost our jobs. I then found work with a house framing crew, which morphed into a nearly 40-year career in the remodeling business. I did OK, and it was hard work the whole time, but I liked the independence.
Back then there were no Mexicans framing houses in central Ohio. None. It was all just regular American guys like me (white and some black, though the blacks mostly did the trowel trades and concrete work). We all worked together, it was great. But even then, I could see that with the computer age dawning, I was the last of a breed of American Joes working the building trade jobs. My son's generation (he's 35) had no interest in doing this type of physical, outdoor work. This is where the Mexican immigrants filled the labor void, framing houses, roofing, and doing drywall. As a remodeling contractor, I had customers who did not want Mexican guys doing the drywall work in their houses in the 1990s.
And at that time, the quality paradigm of those Mexican crews wasn't up to American standards...they were fast and cheap, but not that good. BUT, I knew even then that eventually they would have better quality, learn English, and assimilate into American culture, and take over the building trades. And that is what happened. The work I see those guys doing today is top-notch. Fast and good.
I used several Mexican sub-contractors for drywall and roofing and stucco, they were/are good hardworking gentlemen. Just like my Hungarian immigrant Great-Grandfather who came to Ohio in 1913 and built his life here. I guess times have changed, and though the current generation of Americans aren't much interested in the building trades, the immigrants have stepped in to fill that void, and that's a good thing as I see it.
My mom told me to go to college, and my dad told me to learn a trade...I did both! Got a degree in Environmental Science, and worked for the Ohio EPA a few years until Reagan cut the budget and so many of us lost our jobs. I then found work with a house framing crew, which morphed into a nearly 40-year career in the remodeling business. I did OK, and it was hard work the whole time, but I liked the independence.
Back then there were no Mexicans framing houses in central Ohio. None. It was all just regular American guys like me (white and some black, though the blacks mostly did the trowel trades and concrete work). We all worked together, it was great. But even then, I could see that with the computer age dawning, I was the last of a breed of American Joes working the building trade jobs. My son's generation (he's 35) had no interest in doing this type of physical, outdoor work. This is where the Mexican immigrants filled the labor void, framing houses, roofing, and doing drywall. As a remodeling contractor, I had customers who did not want Mexican guys doing the drywall work in their houses in the 1990s.
And at that time, the quality paradigm of those Mexican crews wasn't up to American standards...they were fast and cheap, but not that good. BUT, I knew even then that eventually they would have better quality, learn English, and assimilate into American culture, and take over the building trades. And that is what happened. The work I see those guys doing today is top-notch. Fast and good.
I used several Mexican sub-contractors for drywall and roofing and stucco, they were/are good hardworking gentlemen. Just like my Hungarian immigrant Great-Grandfather who came to Ohio in 1913 and built his life here. I guess times have changed, and though the current generation of Americans aren't much interested in the building trades, the immigrants have stepped in to fill that void, and that's a good thing as I see it.
