I live in an a somewhat rural/suburban area. 10 years ago there was probably 4-5 lawn cutting services. I just looked in the phone book and there are now 19. I know 1 of them because they do the lawn maintence on apartments my Dad and I own. According to the owner they have been slow over the last 3-4 years because of the influx of these businesses. Many are made up of layed off factory workers who decided to "pull up their bootstraps" as Rush calls it.
It's the same here in the outlying suburbs of Chicago. There are at least 30 landscapers in our area, many of which, like the construction crews, are staffed with illegal aliens. It's become really tough to survive in this business given the competition and "ahem" labor cost advantages of certain companies. A couple of years ago a good friend of mine who was laid off at the time tried to make a go of starting up a landscaping business but backed out when he saw how many companies were fighting for the same business.
Yeah, I've heard Rush utter that line a number of times. He is either so insulated that he doesn’t know what is happening to everyday Americans or, more likely, finds that it’s in his own economic interests to hew to the republican party free trade line.