Home Depot Day Laborers

I needed to pickup a few household things today (bug spray, etc) and decided to take a first step in becoming a loyal Atlantan by shopping at Home Depot instead of Lowe's. The closest Home Depot is only a couple miles away, so I printed out some Mapquest directions and drove over.

It was the first time I ever saw day laborers. On one side of the street was Home Depot and its enormous parking lot. On the other side, three dozen Hispanic men standing in groups of two or three or four. I could not for the life of me figure out what they all were doing there. It was not until I was walking back out to my car after making my purchases that I pieced it together. A shiny new Land Rover pulled up with a thirtyish white male behind the wheel. Two groups of laborers raced to the car and the first three that got there piled in. They spoke with the driver for a minute, and then the Land Rover pulled out with three new employees aboard.

I do not know anything about the morality of this situation, whether these unpleasant and unstable working conditions are deplorable, or the best chance that these men have to make money for their families here or in their home countries. It was just a very strange thing to see, to be confronted point blank with one of the most vexing questions facing our country today.