Yes, I understand this "point" completely. You know what my response is?
Suck it up. Home depot makes signs in spanish because it helps them sell more product, they didn't do it out of the goodness of their heart. They make more money this way.
I think you still DO miss the point or are too interested in an argument to examine your position. :shrug:
You seem to have the same problem that a very large portion of our country seems to suffer from; a lack of critical examination of ideas. You get an idea in your head and you stop thinking about it once your desired position and the information match up. But if you were to examine that position a bit farther you might reason out a different conclusion. Here, let me help you... So to your quote, yes, Home Depot makes signs in Spanish because it helps them sell more product... but wait... who are those people who need signs in Spanish?
People who don't speak English...
who speaks Spanish and not English?
People who come from a Spanish speaking dominate country... i.e. students, vacationers and immigrants.
OK, so now let's look at those groups.
1) Students - probably speak English enough to buy things from HD that a student might need.
2) Vacationers - do you really suspect that there are so many Spanish speaking vacationers buying things at HD to warrant the added expense of recreating their signs in that language? NO.
3) Immigrants - Legal immigrants could account for the expense that all companies expend in ADDING Spanish instructions on labels/signs/packaging/voice systems... assuming that number were sufficient to warrant that expense. We should be mindful that the children of immigrants learn English... at least enough to read the "light bulbs" sign on isle 15.
In 2009, the total number of persons naturalizing was 743,715 (see Table 1 and Figure 1). The leading countries of birth of new citizens were Mexico (
111,630), India (52,889), the Philippines (38,934), the People’s Republic of China (37,130), and Vietnam (31,168).
http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/statistics/publications/natz_fr_2009.pdf
Only 111,630 legal Mexican immigrants were allowed in the country in 2009? What percentage of those do you think speak enough English to find the "nails" at HD? Do you think the HD would really go to such expense for 111,630 people? That's about 2,232 per state.
The Home Depot operates 2,193 big-box format stores across the United States (including all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam),
Does your position still seem reasonable or do you think the Home Depot might be catering to illegal immigrants?
"The consumer" pays the price? Yeah, the Spanish speaking consumer. If they don't, Spanish speakers will take their business elsewhere. Capitalism.
I don't really understand the bold portion. It would seem you are saying that the only people who pay for the added cost is only carried by Spanish speaking people...
I never saw a price tag that had a separate price for English speaking people...
Elsewhere as in... not in the USA?
Capitalism? Yeah, you've just exposed another hole in the "capitalism is wonderful" mantra. Capitalism means never having to be responsible for or to, anything but profit.
Your whole point is based on some sort of assumption that English is the language this country "should" speak, to the exclusion of all others. It's a big country with a lot of different people in it.
Obviously you don't get the point as evidenced by... well, everything you've said so far. English IS and has been the dominant language in this country ever since the English Speaking Europeans became the dominant population back in the late 1700s.
I never mentioned anything similar to ""should" speak, to the exclusion of all others." That is simply a strawman.
