Posted On: Friday - March 22nd 2024 5:01PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Economics Race/Genetics
As a Libertarian site, Peak Stupidity is, OK, I am, down with the economic idea of Division of Labor. That is, in a smooth-running free-market economy, whoever is best at and/or more efficient at the work is, via the magic of pricing and Supply & Demand, the one who ought to be, and ends up, doing said work. I don't extend that concept to include invasions to our country, though.
Secondly, it's a personal quirk, I guess, but I like to be able to do whatever work I can do myself, on vehicles and my house, in particular. Therefore, I've only had people do work on my house less than a full handful of times. Once, it was the city, after I'd accidentally sawn through the gas line - fixing that was not my area of expertise, my having never worked as an EOD "technician"! Then, there was our roof. I'd done 2 smaller jobs, and I found roofing pretty straightforward, but there's an economy of scale problem - I estimated a week's work, and the weather forecasts don't accurately go out nearly that far.
Roofing is one of those jobs that's been long ago relegated almost solely to illegal aliens and other Hispanic young men. Privatizing the profits, but socializing the losses works wonders, well, depending if you are on the private or public side of it. It's easily been a couple of decades since I've seen more than rare occurrences of OTM's (in border patrol parlance, but then there are Other Than Mexicans on roofing crews, from Guatemala and what-have-you). It's a pretty lucrative business too, with often the one White guy running the business and doing sales. That's too bad for those Americans replaced, both White and black.
I wasn't there, but I would guess it was probably a crew of Americans who did the roof of our house back in the mid-1980s. It was a decent job*, as I'd only done a few spot repairs since, with 30 years having gone by - an ACTUAL 30-year roof.
For my required (re-)roofing job,I made an effort to get a crew of 3 White guys. Seeing as this job had been decades coming, there was no rush, so, when I saw the guys working on a house across the road, I hired them. I wish I could, but I can't say their work was splendid. I had to point out one spot of bad wood that they were obviously otherwise not going to concern themselves with. Additionally, the lead's estimate for the materials that I bought was ridiculously off - 50% over in shingles and paper, and even the nails. This was a simple roof, so I had a much more accurate estimate from 2 minutes of
So far, so good, is the story, though, after almost a decade. In contrast, a nearby monstrosity of a house built ~ 1 1/2 decades ago has one of those high and complicated roofs. It was done by Mexicans, as was all the building of that house. Regarding the latter, that construction was not stellar. Upon the house's first sale, there were crews of various sorts - roofing, siding, HVAC, etc., there for 6 months afterwards, off and on, but mostly on, to repair all the problems discovered during the inspection. That had to be $75,000 by my rough estimate. The builder lost his ass on the project. I know this because we had a semi-heated discussion in which I twice noted that he'd lost his ass. After twice replying in a small Lebowski manner that "That's just, like, your opinion, man...", he admitted finally that "Yeah, I lost my ass."
Well, recently there was a Mexican roofing crew going up on that. same roof, working under a friendly White man who told me "you just can't do this work without illegal aliens". Yeah, well, that's just, like, his opinion, man... but, anyway, I'd thought they were going to fix some bad spots. (It IS, after all, a complicated roof.***) Nope, they redid the whole thing. Lots of the roofing could be 3rd generation, after only 1 1/2 decades!
As with Cheap China-made Crap, you may think you're getting a good deal upon the sale. After the 3rd go-around, it turns out to have not been such a deal. As for American society, as a whole, it's never been a good deal, and it can't be, no matter how good the work. Well, maybe if ICE only let in former German BMW engine mechanics....
PS: I didn't argue with the recent-day privatizing the profits guy. He even said, IIRC, that you can't do otherwise when all the competition is doing this. It was too nice a day to argue about it.
* ... in addition to the materials - the shingles and tar paper - having been of good '80s AMERICAN quality.
** Were they that bad at math or greedy for extra material for a future job? I'll never know, but I kept 4 of the extra bundles for repairs, a little tar paper, and one bucket of nails, and the rest went back to the store for a significant refund.
*** It's very nice to have a lower one with decent slopes upon which I can walk on and check out comfortably. That won't last forever, alas.
Comments:
Possumman
Thursday - March 28th 2024 7:39AM MST
PS Hey Bill what are they using on the flat roof---TPO or EPDM should easily last 20-30 years--I have some torch applied rubber on my two little room extensions--(one is a screen porch) that is easily 20 years old and still looks good. Flat roof tech is better than it used to be.
Moderator
Wednesday - March 27th 2024 4:11PM MST
PS: Wow, Bill. That sounds like an argument that could keep lawyers in late-model BMWs for a long time. I never thought of that - luckily, no HOA for me.
Bill H
Monday - March 25th 2024 11:33AM MST
PS Our HOA has a brilliant policy of not repairing flat roofs until thy start leaking, and doing no inspections or maintenance at any time. The only way you know they are leaking, of course, is when they do interior damage but, because the HOA is only responsible for exterior repairs, the homeowner has to pay the cost of interior repair. Even though the interior damage was caused by the HOA not doing it's job on exterior maintenance.
Possummman
Sunday - March 24th 2024 7:07PM MST
PS. I'm in Maryland and yeah pump jacks are a kind of spindly scaffolding attached to the side of a building that you can pump up and down with your foot.google it. Scary til you get used to it. If you ever do. The Asian guys hanging siding were generally Vietnamese for the most part. As far as black guys go there are few in the trades and by that I mean about none. You have to show up every day and on time and work. I hired a few and fired a few, helpers mostly. For many the drug test was hardest test they ever took
Moderator
Sunday - March 24th 2024 7:01AM MST
PS: Thanks for your take on the roofing business in the past, Possumman. What do you mean about the pump jacks? I take it you mean they used them to pump up some boards to stand on to work on the siding?
I never saw Asian, and I assume by that you mean Oriental, guys doing ANY of this residential construction work. Perhaps that's just location. You may be out in California. You won't see too many black guys doing any work out there because the State is what, 5 or 8% black?
I never saw Asian, and I assume by that you mean Oriental, guys doing ANY of this residential construction work. Perhaps that's just location. You may be out in California. You won't see too many black guys doing any work out there because the State is what, 5 or 8% black?
Possumman
Saturday - March 23rd 2024 7:06PM MST
PS. Was in the business. In my area at one time roofing and siding was done by big ol' American boys. Crackers mostly and they did framing trim carpentry and hung drywall etc. Then the Asians seemed to take over the siding end of it. Driving vans with pump jacks hanging off of racks. Made sense walk boards on pump jacks favor skinny Asian dudes as they are kind of wobbly. Now the Mexicans and other short squatty guys from south of the border have all of it. And if one comes off a roof there are always two to replace him. Oh well I'm retired now