PRESTOPUNDIT -- "An intense brain-buzz, guaranteed" (2blowhards)

Making PrestoPundit jealous -- Patterico fisks Steve Lopez. I really wanted to whack Sunday's Lopez column around the block -- but spent most of the day working. I work weekends at a major retailer which has cut commission sales wages by 2 - 5 dollars in the last year. (Read Patterico to see why this comes to mind). I make enough working Saturdays and Sundays (I take care of the kids during the week) to just about cover the family's state and local taxes.

The wife of a retiree at the store told me that in the old days a salemen for the retailer could support a stay-at-home wife and kids. The "old days" were the '70s and '80s. But what I have noticed even in the time I've been there is that most all of the 10 and 20 year native born sales force has quit the store -- and the sales staff has become largely foreign born (from all parts of the globe) as wages have fallen (that suppy- demand thing). Some on the sales staff are literally selling and learning English at the same time. The wife of this retiree now herself works --- as a bureaucrat for the INS. When I told a fellow saleman that I'd run into her, the person off-handedly said, "oh, I've got to call her and ask her a question" on some problem she faces with her visa or green card, or something. A bit of blogger reporting from one of my little corners of the world.