On the foreign students walkout from summer work program...

I was reading the news this morning, about the students walkout from a chocolate factory that is part of their J-1 summer work program. I don't mean to sound mean or crude, but I'm not sure if I'm totally sympathetic.

For all we hear, these foreign students from different countries, pay a handsome fees to come to America for a summer work program. They expect too earn handsomely, have fun jobs, do traveling, experience the culture, make friends. Instead, they get crappy factory assembly jobs, work night shifts, hardly have time or make enough money to go out or make any friends or experience the culture. They are not happy, and I won't be surprised if they want their money back.

The first thing that comes to mind when I read the news was, they got what they're coming here for. This is the American culture. We work till we drop. These foreign students can't ask for anything more accurately reflecting what's really going on in America. If they think, by paying $6000 for a J-1 visa fees, they would come in, get a cushy white-collar job that pays them (enough to cover the medical school tuition, as one foreign student has put it), they must be either dreaming, or smoking god-knows-what.

And, hey, they can make friends in the factory too. I remember fondly of the summer jobs in factories that I used to have when I was in high school. Sure, it's long hours and it's tough, but it's also fun since they're all in it since students made up half of the workforce in the factory during the summer months.

Sometimes, I don't know about the kids and young people these days, who would not (and could not) handle even low-paying or boring work that might be transient or entry level. Everyone expects to make quick bucks in a hurry. Everyone expects to become the next Bill Gates after a few years. Oftentimes, I get tired just hearing the whining of the younger generations, simply because they are asked to put in the sweat.

Yes, yes, I know I sound very unsympathetic, and I'm over-generalizing. Of course there are honest, young students who would do what it takes. But it's often those who aren't, who would scream the loudest for "their own rights." The Chinese factory workers are getting good at it. Maybe they should be sent back to China to get their summer-work program.