Stephen Colbert Seeking to Prove Americans Won’t Take Jobs Held by Illegals
Opponents of illegal immigration insist that employers want cheap labor. But what if all employers really want is available and reliable labor? That means illegal immigrants.
Every month, I hear from at least a dozen employers — construction site supervisors, farmers and ranchers, restaurant owners and managers, etc. — who tell me that they couldn’t survive without illegal immigrant workers. It’s not because, as some on the right suggest, these employers would have to pay more if Americans did those jobs. It’s because homegrown workers just aren’t going to show up and take those jobs, no matter what the jobs pay.
To prove it, the United Farm Workers — with the help of comedian Stephen Colbert — are inviting unemployed Americans, the very people who you’d think would be most eager to do even distasteful work for a paycheck, to take jobs away from farm workers. The unemployed are urged to apply for the thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.
The offer is also open to any anti-immigrant Washington pundits who’d like to get closer the subject matter on which they so freely opine. Applicants can fill out an online form and sign up for training and job placement at www.takeourjobs.org.
Not everybody at once. Don’t push. Plenty of opportunity for everyone.
To draw attention to the effort, and push for comprehensive immigration reform, Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report featured the “Take Our Jobs” campaign on the July 8 episode.
As someone who grew up in farm country, and who spent his first summer home from college in the Ivy League lugging 30 pound boxes of peaches and plums in a packinghouse, I love the idea.
A few years ago, I saw a strawberry farmer interviewed on CNN. He said that, in 30 years of growing strawberries near Oxnard, CA, a native-born American had never approached him and asked for a job picking strawberries. Not once.
Same in every developed western country.
Here, they made an experiment. They offered 100 unemployed persons a job at McDonalds. Out of 100 persons, one (!) showed up for the job interwiev and got the job. All 99 others declined immediately or “forgot” about the job interwiev.
The reason: simple. If you get free housing, health care and $ 400 on top of that, why work hard 40 hours a week for maybe $ 1000?
I want to know where the McDonald’s are that are paying $1000 per week that no one is willing to do. For $1000 a week, I will haul my 73-year old butt to any McDonald’s that pays that for 40 hours’ work. My daughter, who is a floor-care specialist and was making $45,000 a year with benefits, had to settle for cleaning toilets herself for 35 hours a week at $8.00 an hour. I sold aluminum siding by phone then door-to-door. Don’t tell me Americans won’t take low-paying, low-skill jobs. I have worked as a waitress, grill cook and hamburger flipper while getting my education; then as a legal secretary and a credit manager. After retirement, I answered phones for a cemetery and set appointments. I worked as a telemarketer for said cemetery and for a vacation share place. They were jobs that were flexible and paid well if you worked hard. Of course, the current crop of workers are not willing to do all that, and they are on the government meal ticket. I didn’t have that choice.
Assuming 40 hours per week at $8 per hour, minus taxes. If you take home $250 per week, that would be $1000 per month. I believe the writer meant per month, not per week.
My daughter is currently an assitant manager at a Taco Bell. She is getting paid just under $20,000/yr.
I know some of the folks who work at her store. The store owners refuse to allow them to have more then 30 hrs of work per week. None of them are making even $8/hr, so they don’t even see $1000 per month unless they work a second job, which most of them do.
I have friends working at other fast food places and it is the same.
…and your point is what exactly? Burger joints, hotels, motels, retail in general are not made to be high paying jobs. It`s all about what the market will bare. Low paying jobs are meant to be a starting point for young people to get started in the workplace, not a 40-hr/wk job to feed a family on. Take it or leave it but it doesn`t mean we should discard out immigration laws because some people won`t take low paying jobs.
If you want to be outraged save it for the politicians, multinationals and enviro pressure groups who either shut down jobs in the name of some stupid critter or send them overseas at the expense of hard working Americans…
It’s absolutely true that most Americans (natives) won’t do these jobs given a better alternative (increasingly less so in this recession), but that’s true in all society. The middle to upper class in Japan or France won’t rush to meat packing industry or fruit picking labor when the lower, poorer half have more incentive to take those jobs. In America’s case, the lower class tends to be illegal Latino immigrants. Their presence in these crappy jobs VASTLY outnumber that of Asian or European counterparts for reasons that are obvious.
The ‘day without a Mexican’ argument is ultimately a weak one. There aren’t many Mexicans picking up fruits in China or Korea, believe me. It’s whoever is forced to take those menial jobs in their culture. If we deported every illegal Mexicans working these jobs, we’d be in some short term trouble. But EVENTUALLY, the next rung in the ladder of poverty will take those jobs. At worst, we may end up outsourcing them.
By the UFW’s own figures, 1/4 of farmwork is done by Americans, and 1/4 to 1/2 is done by Americans or legal workers. So, there are plenty of Americans already doing those jobs.
I’ve been pointing out other problems with the UFW’s “joke” for a week now, and a few days ago I posted to Colbert’s own forum: link.
Colbert’s a tool, serving the interests of those who profit from illegal immigration in one way or another. If he weren’t a tool he would have made the points I make at the link and pointed out how anti-American the UFW’s little joke is.
It would have been great if I could have gotten help with this before, but you can still help now: help show Colbert’s audience just how he’s a tool.
The lower rungs being footholds to higher rungs is in fact the key. Look at your history of boxing champions in this country which was limited to people willing to risk being beat up to earn a living. Even the winners could not avoid getting hit in the head multiple timess — just look at Muhammad Ali who was the greatest in the world one time. Originally in US professional boxers were English ruffians. They were succeeded by the Irish, by the Italians, by the Blacks and most recently by the Latinos. Just natural succession.
Then please explain the current crop of MMA fighters?
Also, for a long time minorities were pretty much forced to stay in their own league, much like in American baseball. Look up the origins of the term “Great White Hope” for further examples. Or read this article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128245468
The pace of change is not what it used to be.
Change , social, scientific, etc is happening at an exponentially increasing rate. The past , and history is never with out merit or influence BUT the past is gone faster and more completely. Much of it will not reoccur.The argument that because something happened before it can happen again is no longer a good one.
Take away:
Section 8 housing
WIC
Food stamps
Endless unemployment benefits (at 99 weeks, its just another welfare program)
Medicade
Then you would see those on the lowest rung a lot more motivated to take those jobs that ‘American’s won’t due’. Also remove the indirect tax payer subsidies affording to illegals such as:
Free medical care via the emergency room
Schools and other social services
Prison space to hold the criminal aliens (Mexico exporting part of its crime problem to the USA)
Additional water, sewer, and garbage collection costs (fitting 20 people in a building that is designed and taxed as one meant to hold 4 does have a cost to other property owners).
Additional insurance costs from illegal aliens driving without insurance or adequate driving skills.
You would see the costs to society to hire illegals drop dramatically with those costs being transferred to wages where they belong. So are we going to pay $500 for a head of lettuce? No… Agriculture will respond just like the rest of society has responded since the days when the plague caused a massive labor shortage.. innovation.
Pick up a few back issues of magazines like Popular Mechanics. There are systems in development that will for example, pick, wash, sort, and bag spinach via a mobile platform that does it, automatically, in the field. Other examples are automated mapping and picking systems for orange and apple orchards. Why haven’t you seen any of these systems deployed yet? Well, what is the urgency if you have an endless supply of pseudo-slave labor. There is simply no financial incentive to do so.
Want to help those on the lowest rung out further? REDUCE THE COST OF HIRING PEOPLE LEGALLY! I run a very small construction firm ‘on the books’ (which means a legit W2 payroll) with great difficulty. I pay my laborer $13 an hour. That however, is not the real salary. By real, I mean the real cost to employ a simple laborer legally after all the taxes and mandated government insurance kicks in.
A couple weeks ago, I sat down and went over my payroll costs. I added up my Social Security tax, Medicare tax, unemployment (the employer pays a much larger share of the UI costs) tax, disability tax, workman’s comp insurance (mandated by law), and liability insurance (partially based on payroll). It costs me about $0.42 for every dollar of salary. Wait! It gets worse! You see, being ‘legal’, my laborer still doesn’t see $13 per hour. He has his share of the Social Security tax, Medicare tax, UI tax, Disability tax. Plus he has state and federal income taxes as well (and a payroll tax if we work in certain urban areas).
Last pay period, my laborer made $591.50. He paid $105.71 in FICA, UI, Disability, Worker Development, State income tax, and Fed income tax (granted, he may get a portion of the fed tax refunded). I paid an additional $175.22 in taxes. Add in another $70.55 for workman’s comp (excludes overtime wages), and an estimate of $2.50 for liability.
So for my laborer to take home $485.79 it costs an additional $353.98 to reach the real wage.
You can get around this by hiring illegals. You pay cash, workman’s comp payrolls are ‘fudged’ if not outright faked. By fudging is you use the illegal’s bogus Social Security number to ‘pay’ him minimum wage at 30 hours a week when he is making double that wage and working 60 hours. The emergency room IS your ‘workman’s comp’. If you pay a man $13, he actually gets $13.
Now the usual argument of the pro-illegal crowd is, “well, if we make these people legal, these problem go away!”. Tell me, what will happen to 12 million to 30 million new ‘citizens’ who often have limited skills, limited proficiency in English, when you take away the cost advantage of hiring them? You end up with 12 to 30 million new welfare cases, which will add a further disincentive for the new citizens to work (just like those on welfare now!). In the end, I suspect this is what the far left wants: 12 to 30 million new voters.
As long as the incentives to hire illegally stay in place, websites such as takeoutjobs.org are mendacious at best. At worst, they are a cruel joke on those of us who have to live in areas disrupted and bear the true costs of large numbers of illegal aliens.
Add that $13 per hour under the table wage to the benefits his girlfriend and kids are getting from the state (in my case Washington State – very generous to illegals) in the form of outright welfare – WIC – food stamps and Medicaide/dental care – subsidized housing etc and that family is living quite well and certainly not in the poverty zone like so many seem to think. More like lower middle class.
Offer this same deal to a US citizen with a wife and 3 kids to support and I imagine many of them would jump at the chance for such a deal.
VERY well said. You should clean this up a bit and submit it as an article counterpoint.
“In the end, I suspect this is what the far left wants: 12 to 30 million new voters.”
You said it ALL.
Take away all of the government goodies and what do you get? Hunger. Which is a great motivator. Ask anyone who lived through the Depression.
If employers refrained from employing illegals, then we would not be discussing this issue, but this is not the case. By the way there are loads of illegal Asian workers in the US as well. That fact the are less numerous that Latinos is because we do not share a land border with Asian countries.
My problem with this “they do our jobs for us” argument is that it’s very similar to the argument sSoutherners made before the war. “Nobody really wants to pick cotton, so why not have an underclass that does it for us.” Now it sounds like I’m comparing open borders proponents to slavery proponents, and that’ exactly what I’m doing. See, open borders proponents want to create a permanent underclass of people that will never be able to advance in society. They can’t get educated, they usually refuse to learn the language, and no “respectable person” would be caught dead socializing or living in the same neighborhood as them. This is not a compassionate thing to do. To intentionally create a menial labor underclass that we on the top continually take advantage of. Now, I’m not saying I’m immune from this, I shop for vegetables same as everyone else. But I will argue that this system is wrong.
By fixing the system, by closing the borders, and perhaps streamlining the immigration system, and yes, getting some useless teenagers to get their hands dirty, we could eliminate this. Create a system where people have to work, but they can be assimilated into the American mainstream, the way my Irish, Italian, and Armenian ancestors were. There’s no real reason not to do this except for political cowardice, which both parties are filled with (the republicans more than the democrats).
Michael, you are absolutely correct on all counts, IMHO.
Unfortunately, if someone is willfully brain-dead enough to believe that “… if all employers really want is available and reliable labor … [t]hat means illegal immigrants”, that person is never, ever going to comprehend the reality, let alone your astute observations about it.
Why PJM continues to allow B.S. statements like that to appear on these pages is a real mystery. Either way, it’s one of the reasons I don’t spend much time reading or commenting here any more.
This country was built on “underclasses”: Railroads, subways, bridges, dams, streets, etc. That is why there was a need for unions, to prevent death as a wage slave. Slavery is how both Greece and Rome provided civilization for their elites.
Therefore, any liberal who makes believes that offering amnesty to illegals here would resolve the need for illegals is just interested in currying favor with this group for their votes. The reason illegals perform these tasks is BECAUSE they are here illegally. Once these people become fully credentialed Americans, they will not do these jobs anymore. Indeed, they will hire illegals to work their businesses. How many of the illegals who have been granted amnesty are still picking our crops.
My view is that if the business cannot be mechanized, then it should be closed. No more strawberries, no more zucchini, no more apples, pears, apricots, peaches, or watermelon, no more lettuce – unless you grow it yourself! If you grow it and pick it yourself, then you should be allowed to sell it from your driveway free of all taxes for whatever the market will bear along with ice tea and lemonade. The market will survive or collapse under the rules we set, but we shall be free of illegals – both their labor and the exploitation of their labor. A consequence of these draconian measures is that we will finally have access to better quality fruit. I am tired of the fruit lottery! Aren’t you?
But immigration is forever. We have no guarantee that the illegal aliens’ grandchildren will be willing to do those jobs, so what will be the solution fifty years from now — MORE immigration?
Much of what you say is true, but some jobs should definitely be taken by Americans, especially young kids from poor neighborhoods with barely a high school diploma.
For example, many construction contractors and plumbers need apprentices to learn a specific trade, like carpentry, plumbing, or electrical work. These are all good jobs that have a future. So why don’t young poor kids (who barely have a high school diploma) take these jobs, especially poor black and hispanic kids who always find it harder to obtain steady employment? The world isn’t really beating down the doors for kids today who only have a high school diploma, let alone those who don’t even have that. Yet, for some reason, most (if not all) of the apprentices I see are immigrants. Would these young white, black, and hispanic Americans rather be unemployed than have a hard but good job that, if you stick with it, could also give them a good, solid, financial future? Good carpenters, plumbers, stone masons, tile men, and electricians all had to start somewhere. Don’t kids today get that? Oh, I know, they all want to be the CEO of a huge corporation as soon as they get out of high school. I don’t even want to talk about how arrogant our college graduates are. True, construction is down now because of the economy, but in a good job market there are plenty of opportunities out there for poor kids with only a high school education. That is, if they are willing to work for it.
Most American children do not learn to work because their Daddies do not teach them and discipline them to work, and that is because their Daddies do not know how, themselves, and lack discipline to learn.
There is no “level” of work. All work is necessary so that other work may be done. The really necessary work is the hole-digging, nail-driving sort that affords some the luxury to sit at office desks and consider ourselves “indispensable” at what is altogether an unnecessary occupation.
What wetbacks do in this country is the necessary work while Americans sit on their butts feeling important about something that is not required.
We do not need imported labor. We need to stop sitting, get up and do the work ourselves!
I want my job back from the illegals hired by contractors who are out to save a few dollars on wages by not paying tax’s!!! That’s the trouble,that’s the main cause of this problem it’s with the employers,their the one’s who want illegals here ./If you hire an illegal the fine should be 10years on the rock pile with no time off & all your wealth taken away for tax evasion!!! :X
Rueben, again you lie and again you are easily disproven.
In Crider Georgia the poultry processing plant, which was employing illegals, was raided. The number of illegals was almost 100% of their workforce. After the raid every job that had been taken by an illegal was filled by a resident of the local comunnity at a wage above what had been payed to the illegal.
Illegal immigration surpresses wages. I am in construction and will not hire illegals and I have no issue in getting Americans who want to work. The issue is that the guy who uses illegals is able to underbid me so that the amount of work that I have available is limited.
Its all about the money. In America, if you make less than $11,000/year, you get allmost that for doing nothing plus food stamps, free healthcare, and get to sit on your dumper doing nothing at all.
Now, what was that reason why Americans will not do those low paying jobs again…I forgot!
The problem of what to do with guest laborers has been with us since before the Roman Empire and it is one of the reasons why that Empire collapsed. The Roman Freeman used to be the hardest and most accomplished laborer and inventor the world had known. Which was why the Roman Empire was so successful and powerful. But the Roman Freeman eventually found his labor undercut by cheaper and more abundant labor from Rome’s provinces. The Freeman thus demanded that the state subsidize his labor so he could compete. However the subsidy eventually became a form of unemployment insurance in that the Freemen lowered his standard of living so as to exist solely on the basis of his subsidy without working and producing at all.
This subsidized laziness is what is destroying America and Europe. Welfare and unemployment entitlements were intended to be temporary and short term and certainly were never meant to replace a person earning his daily bread by labor. But in the West these entitlements are now permanent and indefinite. Indeed, they have so sapped the spirit and will of so many Westerners to work that governments now have to impose draconian taxes especially on the wealthy but also those individuals who still take responsibility for themselves and their families and go to work to earn a decent living.
Apropos of your point, I recall an extended teachers’ strike in New York City in 1967 that lasted more than 30 days. September is apple-picking time and many of the teachers supplemented their meager savings by riding upstate to work in the orchards. If your family needs food, you find a way.
Well, isn’t that the reason why illegal immigrants are here? so they can provide money for their families back in Mexico? If people are easy to pass a law that all higher classes don’t have to pay taxes, and if they did… it would only be a dent in our deficit, so it doesn’t matter if they paid or not and then when it comes to illegal immigrants “suppressing” our economy and workforce then why does THAT matter? We are screwed both ways! As Americans, we need to stop blaming other people for our mistakes and downfalls. The richest people here in America don’t even care about helping out their own Americans, — that is something we need to fix and look at before we can start pointing fingers to people who can be vital to our community. Higher class Americans make more than average, if they paid for their taxes as well, then we wouldn’t be sitting here complaining so much. Overall, what I’m saying here is, look at our own people are screwing us up before you start looking at other people.
I spent all of last week in Oklahoma, they passed an anti-illegal bill in 2007. I traveled to three of the biggest cities and several small towns. I stopped at gas stations, and fast food places numerous times per day. I was not waited on by an hispanic. . . not even once. And to my knowledge, no business in the state had to close down when the illegals left.
Would the same thing happen in welfare driven societies like Detroit or East LA? I don’t know, but in the Sooner state things are working out well in this regard.
It’s a brilliant and funny but very sad campaign.@ Lee; it’s really hard to outsource food production; where do you send your farm?
We could hire legal workers from abroad, which does happen.
My point is, as long as the job is there, someone will take them.
All of the cucumbers & most of the tomatoes sold at Costco come from British Columbia.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I run a cafe and employee many college age kids. The type of attitude from these kids that they might actually have to wash some dishes by hand or actually come in on time on a regular basis is unbelievable. I’d say that maybe a quarter of the kids have a good work ethic and the rest will never be able to be hired for work more demanding than a barista.
This test only goes halfway. To make this a proper test, abolish all of the incentives for not working. For example, if an unemployed person turns down a job, revoke their unemployment benefits. Abolish any form of food stamps for such people.
Yes, those are not wonderful jobs. But working such a job is a lot better than starving to death.
“For example, if an unemployed person turns down a job, revoke their unemployment benefits.”
I believe that was the rule at one time.
Good article. But why use ILLEGAL’s
Shouldn’t we use a “guest worker” program to fill the jobs “on the dole” Americans won’t do?
You are specifically stating that only ILLEGAL immigrants will do these jobs. Therefore if you wanted to test this theory you would have to prove that LEGAL immigrants would not want to do these jobs. This stunt does not address this issue. To prove that only ILLEGAL immigrants accept these jobs they would have to offer the jobs to those who wished to LEGALLY immigrate to the US for them. That is conveniently left out of the test and I think we know why.
Second; you never did state what the wages and or benefits that were being offered. You only mention that it is not 50 / hr. The website also left this out. It would be interesting to know what would really happen if the farm owners had to compete with other employers in the area for unskilled labor. This stunt does not address this question.
Why bust your ass on a crappy job when the government will provide for you on someone elses dime? Plus, there are a lot of people who wouldn’t want ANYONE to take these jobs, because it might hurt someone self-respect to stoop to such menial “dehumanizing” labor…
It’s a liberal paradox.
Totally agree about the parenting issue. But do not agree with the “americans won’t do the job” stance. How about we stop giving people wages without work (welfare). I have seen too many people come in saying they are “looking” for work, but they just want me to sign the sheet of paper the Unemployment Office demands they turn in each week to continue to receive unemployment wages. And then the Dems go and extend the free wages, and try to do it again. Just how does this compel low wage earners to go get a job?
This whole argument is BS and needs to just go away. First, if people want to come to the US and work in cheap labor jobs let them, they just need to do it legally! That means everyone contributes to the system (FICA, Tax, etc) Second, if the employers were paying a living wage lots of people would take the jobs. What we have with the illegals is basic slavery and nothing else! Imagine if hospitals only paid minimum wage for doctors. Do you think real qualified MD’s would show up for the interviews? This is not about Mixicans sneaking under the fence. This is about employers and business leaders wanting to cheat on taxes and cheat the American people. Put the employers in jail and watch how fast the problem goes away.
In my younger days as a mailboy/jack-of-all-trades at a large company, I was occasionally called upon to corral & supervise manual labor for office relocations, minor construction, etc. We didn’t go LOOKING to employ illegal immigrants, but they ended up being the ones we employed and stuck with.
Not because they worked for less. Not because they put up with anything they shouldn’t have had to. It was because they actually WORKED. They didn’t think the work was beneath them. They thought they were there to work, and to do their jobs well, and they conducted themselves accordingly. We couldn’t find many native-born Americans ready to work for us regardless of wage, and those we did hire were consistently lazier, less dedicated, and less competent than their illegal co-workers.
I’m aware that the U.S. can’t support the population increase that comes from illegal immigration, but I’d certainly be interested in a straight-up trade with Mexico: their unskilled laboring class for ours. A man can dream, at least.
The main problem is the welfare: with welfare there is no incentive to take a low-pay, hard-working job. Some jobs are pretty crappy so people don’t like them on top of all.
Employers need to worry how to automatize, so they will be able to reduce costs and need less labor to do the same.
Instead to have ten people picking up fruits from trees for 1.000$, have a robot and a man driving it around the trees in an air conditioned truck so the man can do 2000$ and the employer save 3.000$.
Instead of having ten men cleaning by hand the street for garbage, use a man with an industrial vacuum truck. Again the man can be paid 2.000$ for the job (that need more skill than using a sweeper) and the employer save the need to pay more people.
Obviously this imply, also, to keep tax low, scrap the welfare and keep the unions at an arm length.
You have a point. I have seen how people whine about how many months they have been trying to get a job, while illegals don’t have time to rest from all the work they can get. That’s because Americans have so many government entitlements that they can afford not to get jobs that would make them sweat: if they don’t work, the government will feed them well anyway. Illegals don’t have that incentive for not working: if they don’t work they don’t eat.
This is were the problem gets worse: the US born and raised children of the illegals will also get entitlements and would also avoid doing the jobs that their parents did. The cycle starts again and more illegals will be needed to do the jobs that the new Americans won’t do.
No one is arguing that seasonal workers aren’t needed. Lets talk about the real jobs in this country, jobs that were once used as entry level for the young people or people who chose or could not afford college, those jobs are the construction jobs which not long ago were the life blood of many places other than the car-building north. Illegals are being gathered under the umbrella of individuals who go out and pawn these people out like whores to work while they act as supervisors, (Pimps).
If there was a way for the illegals to tap into the jobs of politicians, comedians,and writers like Ruben Navarrette Jr., DO you honestly think there would be such a clamor of support for illegals? Simple answer is No!
Businessmen who hire illegal aliens are simply claiming for themselves a form of corporate welfare that was never officially enacted. They get cheap labor, cheaper than the very cheapest legal labor would cost, and the difference is in essence billed to the taxpayer in the form of added social costs (schools, hospital visits, and so on). The premise of the argument is faulty, because there is really no such thing as a job that “Americans won’t do”. Rather, there are jobs Americans won’t do for the amount of pay offered to illegal aliens. Apologists for the use of illegal alien labor would also have the lifestyle of the illegal alien become the new baseline. One of the reasons illegals can afford to work for such low wages is their willingness to live, for instance, with 15 people in a 2 bedroom apartment. That may even be a step up from how they lived in their home country, but you are not surprisingly going to find few American citizens willing to live that way.
If all these jobs are truly unfulfillable without illegal immigrant labor, why is it that every time a workplace is raided they always manage to “somehow” find legal labor replacements? Personally I’m sick and tired of seeing entire towns turned into run down slums resembling Tijuana just so some businessman can be the overlord of his plantation of modern day “field Negroes”.
I guess I am from another planet, but I can’t imagine being unemployed, having a job opportunity and then turning it down because you don’t like it.
I’ve spent my entire life doing work I despise. I do it because I like to eat and pay my bills. I’ve been unemployed for 2+ years now. I have not been on welfare or unemployment. And yes, I have been looking. I’d give anything to have ANY job right now.
If hiring illegal aliens cuts costs for employers then why are the prices for goods being sold at extremely high prices, and getting higher?
I keep hearing the arguement that cheap illegal workers will work for less money, but the companies that hire them still charge higher and higher prices for the products they produce. Inflation might account for some of those higher prices, but when I go to the supermarket and buy lettuce, carrots, broccoli, I don’t see lower prices, ever!
The issue of illegal aliens doing jobs that Americans won’t do is ridiculous.
I work in the high tech industry and have witnessed illegal aliens being hired, replacing higher paid American workers. This trend is pervasive in many corporate entities throughout the United States.
The solution to illegal immigration is to replace politicians who rely on the votes of illegals, and dead people continually integrated into the voting process. Until we as Americans stop whinning about the problem and get to work on the cause, we will still be having this conversation into the next century.
The fist step to common sense solutions is to implement term limits to both houses, the Congress and the Senate. Every 4 years new Americans should replace current lawmakers. Perhaps if we had term limits, politicians like Pete Stark would learn that in the private sector insulting people doesn’t pay as well, better yet perhaps his private sector position would be given to an illegal alien.
J. Alan Renna,
I agree about the need for term limits. Our Founders never intended our representatives to turn it into a lifelong career! But the flip side to that argument, which also has merit, is that we do in a sense already have term limits. It’s called the voting booth. How in the world does such an unconscionable a-hole like Pete Stark get re-elected time and time again?! Bad politicians are surely a reflection of bad, uninformed, and unengaged citizens. Our fellow citizens are the main problem.
I understand that voting is a means to cleanse the system and in an informed society people will normally do the right thing. That’s assuming we are getting truthful news.
Term limits per politician would guarantee that “at least” every 4 years regardless of the fraud, the lies, the voter ignorance, (Alvin Greene), and a bias news media now prevelent in our system would offer another opportunity for “Hope and Change”, every election.
If we solve the problems at the source, perhaps then we can move forward.
What do you think, should the American People be focused on cause, (term limits), or continue fighting over the effects of Lifers in politics?
E.G. Alvin Greene was chosen to represent the Democratic party in South Carolina, not because he was qualified but rather
Ruben, is that a fact?
I was, until recently, an Operations Supervisor at a large Veteran’s Homeless shelter. Of the 300+ residents there, many were unemployed – from the exact same professions (Construction, Housekeeping, Food Service) that were now occupied by illegals. Any one of them would leap at the chance to gain employment in their own fields – and can’t, because some damned illegal is there instead.
During my life, Ruben, I have done food service, dug the hoppers for swimming pools in the blazing July sun, moved furniture, worked as a construction laborer. And I am, Sir, as white as the driven snow. So much for the lie that white people – let’s not mince words, this is precisely what your psychobabble implies – not just anyone won’t do those jobs, White people won’t do them. Well I certainly did.
As long as people like you keep fostering lies represented as truth, Ruben, no one will be taking you seriously.
I agree–being unemployed has a better benefit package than lots of jobs do! Kill the incentives to not work, and there will be lots of people who miraculously find the “dirty” jobs palatable.
One thing I have pondered from time to time. With all these wonderful, hard working, willing to do anything illegals coming here, wouldn’t it be rather simple to create construction, manufacturing, agricultural paradise in a land where they don’t have to sneak in and steal identities, forge social security cards, refuse to pay taxes, hide their children from authorities and deplete health care, schooling and law enforcement resources?
Is it that difficult to create those very same opportunities at “home”, where a substantial amount of the money they make here…goes anyway? Speaking a native tongue, and going to high schools where you don’t have to disrespect the national flag by hanging it upside down or replacing it with the one from the place you would rather be?
With all these wonderful, enterprising, can’t live without ‘em folks are all from the same place…doesn’t it make sense that by now, they would have built a Garden of Eden in their own backyard?
Alas, we would have to suffer the indignity of not being invaded by millions of the undocumented “necessary” crummy job fillers, and we would have to make do…however that turns out. It would seem to teach us a good lesson. Maybe we would decide that we need a process that allows for the free transport and placement…as well as protections, rights and privileges to the tens of millions who snuck in and hide out.
Maybe not.
But it would certainly cut down on the need for our federal government to take sides against its own individual states, seeking to protect border crashers. For our high school educators to no longer need to punish our own kids for celebrating their own flag.
Maybe, just maybe…it would inspire BOTH countries…to learn to cooperate, so that BOTH of their respective citizens could enjoy their own country without apology or the need to scam the truth.
But first, one would have to come to the understanding that it benefits neither side to keep up the sham that the current situation is “mutually beneficial”. It will never be a net benefit under the current scenario. And playing semantic games or being led by comedians posing as legislative geniuses…also known around here as leftist Democrats…simply moves us from the ridiculous to the sublime.
You continually fail to focus on the major reason illegals were overlooked for generations in this country .In particular those from your native homeland Mexico. When crops are ready for harvest it is understood that they do not wait for people to come and pick them. If they are not harvested they rot. Agriculture 101.So originally in bumper crop years illegals were hired after legal migrant workers, to help bring in the yield.
You brush over the fact that these are not the primary jobs that many Americans are upset about being crowded out of. The ones I refer to are the blue collar labor jobs. Those that in the past were the first stepping stone for many young Americans who decide not to move on to college from high school for financial reasons or academic reasons. Or just a simple desire to do physical labor as opposed to mental. Many young people in this country simply choose to want to do physical work while they are young and able. In the past many chose the labor trades to learn a skill that they might utilize for their own well being and future, because their father did such work or they felt drawn to more mechanical skills than academic and found their calling in the trades.
No one really worried about being pushed aside from a trades job because farm laborers were not considered for this type of work. They simply came across legal and illegal, picked the harvest and went home. No major drain on our social system. It began to be a problem when the illegal discovered that he could remain here without much molestation. It started in the farm area refrigeration and packing plants who work their crews longer than do the farmers in the fields, and has now spread to almost all sectors of physical labor force in our country.
You are dead wrong about Americans not willing to work jobs that illegals will. I know of many entry level jobs,MacDonald’s, Dairy Queen,the local sheet rocking business,plumbing, painting, concrete, and construction contractors,the trucking industry, who all hire illegals in lieu of red blooded American youth. And why? As you mentioned the tax liabilities, and competition. If one hires illegals to bid a job for less and gets away with it, they all will follow suit. This is a legislative problem that must be addressed, small business is overburdened with taxes,that destroy them.
Unions have also destroyed the American labor force with ridiculous demands on employers for benefits that cause the price of labor to rise exponentially. Now the unions want to draw their memberships from the illegals as well. Check out the SEIU. How long do you think supposedly cheap labor will remain cheap, if they are allowed to continue with this trend?
Once again Navarette you project the illegal alien as a victim of America, who is doing us a favor by coming here to work. You continually get it wrong.
You truly are a “died in the wool” liberal socialist who pushes the responsibility of caretaking an alien upon the country of his invasion, when the responsibility for this individual solely lies with the country of his origin.
You claim to have worked the field. Apparently you realized it was not your cup of tea, and you moved on, to your credit.
Many of your compatriots who work the fields realize the same thing, and to their credit they try to improve themselves, but it shouldn’t be at the American taxpayers expense. Only those who are legal should be acknowledged for their efforts. It is not America’s responsibility to take care of Mexico’s problems. Two previous Amnesties one Democratic and one Republican, have proven to be failures. The third time is not a charm, but an invitation for more invasion. It needs to stop immediately. Harsher penalties on those discovered in this country need to be imposed on both the employer and the illegal employee. If you think Colbert’s idea is such a brainstorm why not try this instead. Have Mexico ban all of its citizens from coming into the U.S. for an entire year. Have it take care of its people equally as does the U.S.and see how long that last’s. Mexico is the problem for its people not the U.S. In my book illegals are an ungracious bunch, who have been convinced they are a privileged class because of thinking like yours.
While I quite agree with the observation that there are some jobs that Americans won’t do at the wages of illegal immigrants, I’m not really sure that’s a bad thing. I read another article a few days ago – and I thin it was even on PM (but it might have been Hot Air) tha most of these crappy jobs would simply not exist if the immigration laws were rigourously enforced. They’d be replaced by better ways of doing the same thing, but with more mechanization – by raising the price of labour, you incent businesses to substitute capital, where possible.
In response to the thesis that it’s “kids today” and their attitude of entitlement: in Errol Flynn’s biography, I read that in his younger yeras, he once had a job where he castrated sheep by biting their testicles off, in an assembly-line fashion, one young ram after another. Now, I have never been mad enough at my daughter to want her to have that type of job when she graduates from high school – she can keep her sense of entitlement, thank you very much.
Oh please, in areas where there are not illegal immigrants the jobs are filled with Americans who are true Americans with work ethics. My son has a summer job of cleaning out hog trucks. Not very glamorous but in the rural farming communities there aren’t any malls or fast food joints for the kids to work. Parents don’t cater to their kids every whim and people living off of the government just because they can are frowned upon. Welcome to fly-over country! Where the lazy city-slickers get their free food from….
Nobody is saying that migrant workers don’t work REALLY hard at jobs that many people don’t want. However, I wish we would give up this talk of a “comprehensive” solution. First of all, it never is, and any comprehensive bill is just an opportunity to screw things up worse and load it up with additional pork. I’d rather see congress solve ONE problem at a time. Since they have ZERO credibility on enforcement, that needs to the handled first. After that, they can present a plan to allow for temporary work visas for the millions who want to work in the US. Thirdly, tackle the issue of what to do about the millions who are here permanently, but remain illegal.
I sure hope Colbert does do what he says he is going to do because if he can prove that someone is turning down work while on unemployment then these progressive entitlements should be “stopped” immediately.
Stephen Colbert is a stooge who has never had to do hard work. I am a white woman who has spent her entire life doing the jobs that “no white person will do.” I grew up in state schools (as in places for kids whose parents are too crazy to be trusted with their care), was told that college would be my salvation and then forced to pay for it with student loans despite a straight A average. It took 8 years, during which I worked and did not complain as I felt that people have to deal with the lot life hands them.
Well, I’m complaining now. All of these years I have watched as I was turned away from union jobs in which color of skin and nationality were blatantly held out as the most important factors for “good cultural fit.” I’ve cleaned houses, restrained mental patients, worked retail and served as an unarmed night security guard. My favorite time of all was in California where the racism on both sides was so thick you could cut it with a knife – the white people seemed to believe themselves so superior that they felt any lousy job should be reserved for illegal aliens (they even have their own illegal alien temp agencies in San Francisco!)and the illegal aliens were so hateful that I couldn’t pass a shapeup without being called gringa, puta or the like. What a nice warm family we are becoming in America!
My suggestion to the Stephen Colberts of the world: read “Nickled and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich. It will open your eyes to the new American way where those who are born with money will keep it and remain detached from the reality of the poor while those who never had it will increasingly have to compete for the scraps left over by protected immigrant and minority groups. And *sigh* no, I’m not a racist. I hold my government responsible for the inequalities we experience, not my fellow countrymen.
If people really wanted to make a dent in the amount of illegals that work the fields, they would start their own gardens in their back yards and grow their own food.
However, American’s are lazy and fat and prefer a supersized rear end over healthy children.
Undocumented workers have not been the majority of people picking our crops for many years. At this time only 2% of agricultural workers are illegal immigrants.I did know some college students doing the picking.
They are no longer relegated to the very bottom of the job market but still predominate in the unregulated trades.
Migrant farm workers are a bad example because thay are not illegal. They’re not citizens but they’re regulated.
In construction for example, if the illegals start at an entry level the worry is when they get found out and fired or leave. You now have to start training someone else. Hard to do on a project with a time limit.
Young entry level citizens don’t want to work with the illegals. For one the illegals may not speak english and two they don’t welcome the legals to the crew. they want those jobs for themselves.
Anyway if the illegals would suddenly disappear most those positions would be taken by local citizenry. The not so nice jobs would be taken also. Maybe only temporarily as an entry level to the work force type job but they would be taken. In some cases the wages would have to go up but it would hardly be noticed in the grand scheme of things.
So is Mr. Colbert saying if these undocumented workers were here legally they wouldn’t still take these same job’s, seem’s to me that these employers are just wiggling their way out of paying unemployment,state ,federal and social security taxes
All other arguments aside, Ruben’s comments on parenting and the laziness endemic in much of American youth have to e some of the most intelligent I have seen on the subject. I mucked stables, fixed fences, cleaned toilets not because I hade to but because my father instilled that sense of responsibility in me. Btw, I’m not yet 30 and I still have some savings despite having spent a couple months un-employed.
This entire article is a laughable red herring, much like this entire “debate”.
Whether or not Americans will or will not do these jobs is completely irrelevant…it still doesn’t justify people entering this country illegally. Period. Furthermore, guest worker programs could easily be ramped up to accomodate the needs of business owners in filling these sorts of positions. The only reason this isn’t done currently is because of all the illegals!
Once and for all, Lefties, it’s very simple: if someone crosses the US border without authorization from the US govt, they are a criminal and deserve to be deported. And no amount of heart-string-tugging personal interest stories…or calling people “racists!”…or weepy “what about the kids?!?” deflections are going to change that.
The right response.
You’re right
The labor cost argument is a red herring; the real canary in the coal mine (if I may mix metaphors, and species) is the cost to businesses of government compliance. If all my business’ taxes, fees, and regulatory costs weren’t taken – and squandered – by the various levels of government, I could give my employees 50% raises, or hire 100 more workers. The question remains: would I see a 50% increase in productivity?
Perhaps the jobs cited as not desirable for Americans to perform should be exported!
make prisoners do it
TNR has published the best retort yet to Mr. Navarrette’s flawed premise:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjJiZDc0ZTYzYTNmNDA3MGYzYmMwMzA0MzYwNjVkMDk=
Mo – God bless you. I pray you find work soon.
If US citizens won’t do the jobs at the wages on offer, and non-citizens aren’t available to do the jobs, then the wages will go up, or the jobs won’t get done. This is a result of “The Law of Supply and Demand”. I first encountered it when I was about 7 years old. I guess it isn’t taught in schools any more.
Hey, while I’m in the neighborhood, does anyone — ANYONE — really believe that Mr. Navarrette is DEEPLY CONCERNED about the strawberry crop? Is that it, Ruben? You just hate to see all those shrubs sitting around untrimmed, right? The thought that a motel somewhere might not get all its’ rooms cleaned keeps you awake nights. Funny, you’re always on about immigration, but this is the first time I’ve seen you worried about staffing problems at MacDonald’s. Could you maybe have an agenda you’re not telling us about?
The offer is also open to any anti-immigrant Washington pundits
Being anti “illegal immigration” does not mean you are anti-immigrant. So why not name some names so we’ll know who you mean? And I take it you want to promote illegal immigration?
As for the theme of your piece: What utter nonsense. In the part of the US where I live there are very few illegal aliens and all the jobs Americans won’t do get done by Americans. Farm work, landscaping, toilet cleaning, construction (where they have unions because too many people want the jobs), picking up the garbage — all of it. The Doctors tend to be immigrants and their gardeners and house cleaners American.
If a Union wanted to use me to make a political point (along with a B level comedian looking for someone to ridicule — with Ruben Navarrette willing to jump in and help) I don’t think I would apply either.
I don’t know about California but I live in an agricultural area in Kentucky. About 20 years ago, tobacco farmers started importing illegals to cut and house (harvest) their crops. This job had always been done by locals and was a primary source of income for high school and college kids. I worked many a long hot day in tobacco fields all over this region when I was young. When my son and nephew came of age to land some summer work the local farmers laughed at them. Their rationale was “I can get a full grown Mexican for what I’d have to pay you.”
For the first few years, the illegals moved on when the crop was harvested. Then the farmers got greedier and wanted their cheap labor to be ‘on hand’ for other jobs. They started buying up campers and trailers and housing 10 or 12 illegals in a space that was designed for 4 people. The same workers who harvested the crops stayed around to prepare them for market after they cured out. Our little community suffered the endless drinking, fighting, drunken driving and general lawlessness that ensued.
Our jails and court systems were crowded with people who couldn’t speak English and whose identity was rather liquid. They shared identity papers, drives license, etc and it was impossible to keep up with them. Once they were bailed out of jail, they bailed out of the area.
They were absolutely the nastiest people in the world. Every nook and cranny was a bathroom to them. Trash was someone else’s problem. They threw it any and everywhere. When the place they lived became too nasty even for them, they would as often set it afire as clean it up. If someone refused to rent them a house, it would likely go up in flames within a week.
When tobacco went bust, they started taking other jobs, mostly restaurant and lawn service jobs which were also traditional part time jobs for high school and college students. After that they took all the construction jobs at the expense of our young people just starting out. Then the skilled trade jobs started disappearing for our kids and families. Labor prices went so low that flooring installers, bricklayers, concrete finishers and many other tradesmen were working for less than they had 20 years ago.
I will always blame the greedy farmers who started this and the greedy construction industry that followed their lead. I really don’t have a problem seeing any business that hires them being confiscated and the owners jailed.
I know too many people who would gladly take any job paying 7.50 an hour right now. I just have to call bullshit on that ‘doing jobs no one else will do’…..at least in my neck of the woods.
sorry it still does not justify illegal immigration. First I do not think these hiring mgrs are looking really hard for legal immigrants or citizens to do the jobs. I know many people who would gladly take the jobs esp when out of work. I know I was one of them. Next if there are 12-20 MILLION jobs that americans will not do, then why in the hell do we have welfare and all these extentions on UI? It makes NO sense to have that many Americans get to live off of me and my tax dollars if there is work to be had. Its usally the liberal left that are the ones who think they are too good for a certain type of job. Next illegal immigration dosent affect just job, but healthcare, schooling, crime and national security. We cannot be sane in thinking that an open boarder is safe. The illegal immigration debate is not about immigration..never was. It is about special rights for Latinos and the eventual reconquista of the southwest. Plus the dems looking to swell voting ranks with new bloods and have more people under their thumb. Frankly there is NO good reason for illegal immigration, none, nada, zip. If we want this country to be successful again we need to stard by demanding our citizens pull their own weight. start doing jobs’americans wont do’. start raising american men and women who take care of themselves. Not just keep breeding useless baby momma and daddies who want to be treated like a child forever and not work.
-a legal immigrant
Kill welfare and those jobs will be in high demand. The problem is a systemic failure of government to enforce a fundamental value of the Judeo/Christian work ethic…
You don’t work, you don’t eat.
Also check out the recent analysis of state budgets. Ship every illegal back to beaner land, and the state budget deficits evaporate.
If Eisenhower could do it in the 50’s, we can do it now.
When my son,(now finished with college and in the US ARMY)
was looking for jobs, we filed out one application after another at places that had non-English speaking men hanging around or arriving in trucks. He never got a call back. Big kid too! 6’2″-130lbs.Respectful,spoke English well…
If people have a choice take a job formerly held by an illegal or lose income for a week……….watch how quickly they will take that job. As a child who grew up in the fertile San Joaquin, the first flood of harvesters were actually white migrants escaping the hideous destructive winds of the MidWest. They’d lost their farms and businesses and headed West to begin a new life and worked as farm workers from harvest to harvest to support their families until security and a steady job was found. Eventually they found permanent jobs/or the wind stop blowing and they returned to their home states. Then the Mexican Bracero program was initiated and labor contractors brought in crews to harvest and moved from field to field. There were abuses corrupt contractors, lack of adequate housing and sanitary conditions and exposure of workers to chemicals. Same things the white migrants tolerated before the Mexicans arrived. However, unions and Democratic politics ruined a perfectly good program by over legislating and the result an open border that has become an actual threat to home security and a President paralized by his ability to govern effectively because he chooses to advocate exclusively for purposes of political maniuplation. Unemployment stopped requiring proof of job searches that would be audited in the presence of the applicant…..Liberals considered this dehumanizing and ended this process which was, in fact very effective. Unemployment recepients were not allowed to decline a job because it was below their former pay grade or “education.” When you have a family to feed, or you yourself are hungry, you will pick fruit or clean toilets or serve as a day laborer if it is the difference in eating and paying the rent or not. Where did we go wrong? It’s time to make people take what they can get and stop enjoying an extended vacation at taxpayers’ expense. Colbert is just another liberal trying to make excuses for left wing politics……he knows nothing more than an ignorant idealistic socialist. The first three years of my life my home’s walls were canvas, my bed a pile of blankets on the ground and my playground the fields and orchards of California, Oregon and Washington. I know of what I speak. I later worked fields and orchards and packing sheds until I headed off to college…at my own expense. Presently, the government incites laziness in Americans of all colors. The government must change from an inciter to a motivator and utilize tough administrative rules for unemployment and welfare and by doing so help us all.
My homeowners assocation needed to hire a lawn care company to cut the grass on properties undergoing foreclosure. A contractor hiring illegals offered $35 per lawn. My two teenage sons (who already cut grass for some yards) offered to do it for $25. However they were required to obtain liability insurance and there is the possibility that they would be in violation of our state’s child labor laws. There is definitely a bias that favors the employer of illegals. Indeed, if the employer keeps a copy of form I-9 with a photocopy of a fake ID, he is immune from liability even though he knows he is hiring illegals.
Farmers can buy automation equipment to do the work that no American can do. Such equipment is available but it would take time to install it. Australia has a large agricultural industry that manages to thrive without cheap illegal labor. They have no choice due to geographical barriers. US farmers also try to restrict agricultural imports from Mexico – how hypocritical! Why not allow unrestricted food imports until US farmers figure out how to live without alien labor? By the way, the direct labor component of most food we buy is very small. Farmers can afford to pay more for legal labor without losing money.
According to the takeourjobs web site: “Work is performed outside in all weather conditions (Summertime 90+ degree weather) & is physically demanding requiring workers to bend, stoop, lift & carry up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.”
Sounds like a perfect description of the construction work I used to do every summer during college for minimum wage. The only thing this stupid stunt is proving is that unemployment pays better than farm work. Of course Colbert will pretend that “homegrown” workers won’t take the jobs, and count on his audience’s lack of critical thinking skills to pass it off as reality.
When things get bad enough…you will take anything. Im 86 and lived through the GREAT DEPRESSION, my Dad lost his job and picked up a shovel and worked for the WPA…..
It isn’t a myth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA2kgUFrtmI
The real myth is that the vast majority of illegal aliens are hard working and law abiding fruit pickers who make our country a better place.
The reality is most of them are moochers who leech over 500 billion dollars out of our economy every single year.
http://grendelreport.posterous.com/what-if-20-million-illegal-aliens-vacated-ame
Over 30% join racist and ultra-violent ethno-centric gangs. MS-13 gang members murdered my best friend 3 years ago in prosperous and “safe” Northern Virginia simply because he was a white man that was dating a hispanic woman. They’ve turned our once peaceful and beautiful area into a slum in about 10 years. They’re actually systematically ethnically cleansing non-hispanics from areas all over the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6YBQ-w1UQ8
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=8419 <- Warning Graphic
Over 35% are on welfare. And they makeup nearly 40% of our federal prison population despite being roughly 5% of our general population. They're also extremely hostile towards America and Americans and show absolutely no loyalty to this country whatsoever and are instead leftist hispanic nationalists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIW-BZ8oLrk
They're destroying our country and assualting our citizens. Anyone who supports illegal immigration is a national traitor as far as I'm concerned.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vweyjuhsLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPvFWN-LQGU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2AwKdY8Pp8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWS3WFXJTk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8fVqcVTKMw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrqo7pQbMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxhESLd22lo
Secure the borders. End the madness.
Actually this article gave me some good information. My 22 year old son is learning disabled. He’s managed to find a job bagging groceries part time at Winn Dixie but it’s not enough for him to live on. I’ve been worrying about how he can support himself after I’m gone.
I realized, reading this article, my son could probably earn additional money doing seasonal farm work on the days he’s not bagging groceries. And apparently farmers even notify state labor departments when they want help????
This is wonderful! I know one native born American who’s going to be doing farm work as soon as I can figure out where he should to go apply.
And way to keep pushing the lie that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are farm workers when that’s really less than 10% of illegal immigrants. Be honest for once Ruben. Just admit that you’re yet another hispanic nationalist who cares more about your race than your country. The lie that illegal immigrants are stealing jobs that “Americans just won’t do” has been thoroughly debunked. There’s even a popular show on the Discovery channel called “Dirty Jobs” that shows Americans swimming through pools of feces in order to earn a paycheck. How dare you insult the American people by protraying them as lazy deadbeats. The idea that Americans won’t do construction and factory work would be laughable if your agenda wasn’t so transparent.
I have a few points.
1. If you can’t find a legal resident to cut your lawn you are not paying enough.
2. If you contractor is using illegal labor both he and you are stealing jobs from honest people and in effect using the new slave labor.
3. Require a urine test to check for drugs and alcohol for all publicly funded programs such as Food Stamps. WIC, Medicaid and any housing assistance.
4 Add tobacco, cell phones and cable TV to that list. If you spend money for these items you need to reallocate your income toward food, housing and medical care BEFORE you use other peoples money.
Once the obvious sets in for the kiddies out there playing with there I Phones, and other assorted toys has a chance to discover hunger and poverty this will change.
As to jobs, go to a construction site in Texas and see if you see anybody other then mexicans. Wonder how many of those are legal? Probably none, but as our govt refuses to deal with this, we will never actually know. Back when I first moved to Texas in 1984 most construction jobs were white and to some extent black, now, none of the above is the rule, all mexican.
Blacks are among to most poorly educated, by there choice, not whitey’s. Any rational black that values acting white is in for a real tough time from his fellow, hate America first, blacks.
Thats a partially flawed analogy -the Mexicans didnt bother with Texas because it was low-growth (up until the oil bust days in the mid-80s) and low wage. Most of the native Tejanos and Mexicans from the northern Mexican states (tamualipas, nuevo leon, coahuila) knew better and went up to northern states like IL to take advantage of connections and work construction at the comparatively astronomical wages. Currently in NE Illinois, our Laborers and Operating Engineers unions are on strike, battling for 5% annual raises from $35/hour and $45/hour respectively plus highly competitive health plans.
Between 4 and 5% of the population are the “professionally unemployed” – they are the population who remain unemployed during peak economic prosperity’ they are the population who have the gall to DEMAND federal subsidies for all of their living expenses – These people remain the hopeless.
Rather, we must put our focus and energy toward the additional 5% who are unexpectedly unemployed as a result of the Obama administration’s economic incompetency.
Of course Americans will not take the place of an illegal alien receiving illegally depressed wages – nobody should work for 20 dollars a day. Pay them a legal, livable wage, and the story changes.
Precedents have already shown that when offered jobs, even if considered a “step down,” THESE people will step up to the opportunity.
Colbert, the clown, is attempting to whitewash and fix the issue
Ruben,
your reference to the Strawberry farmer and ‘no legal citizens applied for work his 30 years in the biz’ is nonsense on the farmer’s part.
Santa Barbara County employed legal only pickers up until ~15 years ago. Most ag companies up unitl that time provided health insurance and other benefits.
Nearly overnight the employers 86′d the legal workers, lowered the wages, removed the benefits and VOILA! 3rd World taking over the Golden State.
But hey, keep speaking fiction..
I did ‘Colbert’s experiment’ in 2007 whereas I took 2 weeks vacation from my white collar gig and worked n the strawberry fields in and near Santa Maria, CA. It’s B S work, Ruben. The only difficulty is working with hungover, poor dieted 3rd Worlders
As someone how worked for a BIG financial company who’s CEO now sits at the throne of King Obama and received an 18 billion dollar bailout (after we were laid off because our jobs went to India and Mexico), and has the name of 2 letters in the alphabet. I can’t even count the credit card applications that came in from Hispanics that could not “spell” to fill out the commercial application for a credit card for lawn equipment….but they sure knew how to fill in the 250,000 to 500,000 dollars in the income boxes!! It’s a lie that illegals are taking jobs American’s won’t. They use our welfare country to the fullest and most non government income is paid in cash! It really doesn’t matter though cause their women collect welfare and say no man lives there…she got six kids from immaculate conception. I have seen it FIRSTHAND in California!I saw two sister’s SHARE 6 kids and each collected for 6!! Get real you bleeding liberals, I hope they put YOU out of work. Wait…no I hope you keep working so you can subsidize them!
The jobs the illegals now have were originally done by Americans, so much for that theory. Check out any construction site of any type, you will see 99% illegal, including equipment operators.
As to the border, I do believe deadly force would be cheaper than deportation or dealing with their impact on society while in the country.
As to add to my previous post. After finding this webpage by accident and then reading your article it is clear your a loon. I truly mean it, you are worse than most any Liberal I have met. You sir are just purely crazy. Sorry but your examples are flawed. The increased wages they payed those new workers were still not what would be considered a livable wage. Yes most any American who does not already make more if offered would pick lettuce for 1000 dollars a week. For a career even, are you crazy to say otherwise? No they will not do it for 300 a week or less after they pay taxes and whatever else the waste of space that hops our lines on the map does not pay. When people are saying Americans would work the jobs with a wage increase, they mean a significant increase not a “oh shit they stole our illegals we have to get some legals give them 20 cents more a hour” crap that happens. You are just plain and simply stupid. With the stuff you have written here, it is quite hard to believe you are allowed to do whatever it is you want to call it is you do for a living. Thankfully after reading your ramblings of crap, I can say I will not be returning here. Mainly and thankfully because at least most of who has responded to you seems to be sane. Lastly and quite possibly the main reason is I think your clinically insane and need help, perhaps help in your own country. Maybe they will foot your bill for you, after all its your sides way right??