Reply #21: I understand that there are educated wealthy and middle class

[Cleita]

Mexicans who enjoy the same services and goods that Americans do. I did work in the restaurant industry in Los Angeles doing payroll in the past and because I am Spanish speaking I was usually the person who got to deal with the workers, so I got to meet a lot of the faceless mostly teenagers from south of the border (not all were Mexicans) and hear their stories.

Ask yourself this question. Why are Central Americans so willing to work for minimum wage and even less if things are so good in their homeland? Why would teenagers who should be in high school, busing tables, cooking and taking care of other people's children for a pittance, and usually a hefty dose of abuse from other Americans who resent their being here?

Also, making children work for tips even if it is the culture is plainly wrong anyway you look at it. You know I got into a pretty big fight with my Chilean mother who refused to look at the injustices heaped on the underclass in her native Chile. It caused a rift between us for many years, but she had no problem hiring teenage maids and then throwing them out when they got pregnant. But it was part of the culture as you say.

We also have our problems here. While people cruise around in their SUVs and live in their McMansions, there is a growing underbelly of very poor people and a disappearing middle class. If this keeps up maybe Mexico might start looking better.

I didn't mean to offend, but the big illegal alien debate starts with those people who are so desperate, they must come here to do better. As one of the busboys once told me, "here I earn $3.75 an hour. Back home I earned 75 cents a day. I would rather be home than here though if my family didn't need me to send money to them." So you figure it out.