The Myth of "Jobs That Americans Won't Do"

SC Headlines ^ | June 14, 2005 | Doug Kendall

[Founding Father]

A good article that debunks a myth and points out some unintended consequences of welfare and minimum wage laws.

[marty60]

Thank you for posting. Absolutely RIGHT ON.

[spinestein]

[Through welfare (redistribution of wealth), our government has created a dependent society: “Why should I go out and get a low-paying job when I can sit on my butt and draw a government check for almost as much?”]



True.

Also similar to the poor urban dweller saying "Why should I work at McD's flipping burgers for chump change when I could be selling crack for at least ten times the income?"

[glock rocks]

On top of all that, illegals raise the cost of health care, education and other services—and those costs are passed along to taxpayers, in the form of higher taxes, fees, fines, licenses, permits, etc.—

And diseases they carry... TB, hep, etc. with their concomitant social and fiscal wrath

[gubamyster]

ping

[blueblazes]

I don't think there are jobs Americans won't do if you take welfare away from a lot of them. I don't object to helping people but that's what the difference is frequently - why would they work for minimum wage (or less as I'm sure some of these migrants don't even get that) if they can make more off welfare? That's human nature.

Besides that, we don't see the real cost of migrant labor as people have noted. THere are all the hidden costs of their health care, housing, education, social services, imprisonment, whatever - that the taxpayer picks up. That's no bargain to me.

[Dumb_Ox]

Ask any doctor in the USA if he would work for minimum wage and he’ll laugh at you, because he has gone through years of training and he feels his work is worth more than that. It’s the same mentality with any worker, whether or not their feelings (and pay grade) are justified.

He'll also laugh at you because medical schools can judge how many applicants to accept. The medical field has professional control, and not market control, over its own certification process.

[mmercier]

Illegals put downward pressure on entry level wages. People all want the lowest price for a service, therefore those businesses that employ illegals and pay no workers compensation, taxes or benefits prosper. There is scant enforcement of labour or immigration laws, the only threat is the IRS, and they are "manageable".

This is not going to change as long as the government refuses to enforce existing immigration and labour statutes. Enforced, those statutes are inevitably imposed on someone's campaign contributors... So we can all understand the enthusiasm of elected politicians to enforce these statutes. It is a race to the bottom, for everyone but those who sit at the top; in a business where there is no competition, only contribution.

[speed_addiction]

As a business owner I can say this, some jobs are not worth more than minumum wage. I have a small ice distributorship in addition to my gas station. No way is sacking ice worth more than minimum wage. Maybe a little more, but not $7 or $8 an hour.

Some jobs are not meant to raise a family on.

[spinestein]

[It’s not that there are “jobs that Americans won’t do,” it’s the simple fact that Americans don’t want to be paid chicken feed for the work that they do. Since some businesses don’t want to pay what workers feel the job should pay, the jobs go unfilled. These businesses instead hire illegal aliens and attempt to justify it by saying that Americans don’t want to do the jobs.]


I have contempt for politicians or journalists or anybody else who use the “jobs that Americans won’t do” line on us and then describe those jobs as if there's something shameful about them. In the past, I've worked as a janitor, a dishwasher, a landscaper, and even as a *gasp* minimum wage clerk at W'mart. I knew it was better to work those jobs getting dirty and sweaty for low pay, back when I needed to, in order to make an honest living.

Because this is America I've been able to move up to much better paying jobs according to the level of my ambition and even do work that I enjoy, but I'm proud of the jobs I worked in the past and I don't feel like listening to the likes of some arrogant, know-nothing jerk on TV telling me that such jobs are unworthy.

[upchuck]

South Carolina Ping

Add me to the ping list. Remove me from the ping list.

[b4its2late]

Through welfare (redistribution of wealth), our government has created a dependent society: “Why should I go out and get a low-paying job when I can sit on my butt and draw a government check for almost as much?”

[Born to Conserve]

It's not just that Mexicans are willing to work for less, they're willing to work harder. If you tried to compete in the lawn care business against a bunch of Mexicans, you would be paying twice the wages for half the work -- four times the amount for what gets done. I know people in the business, and they either got out or switched over. Now more people can afford lawn care. If you forced higher wages, people would go back to mowing the lawn themselves with the labor of their kids (I definitely know about that).

The nice thing about free markets is they tune themselves. The commies found out what happens when you try to micro manage the economy.

[b4its2late]

And many of the ones that do just that, sit on their butt and collect, actually believe they work for the government. I've experienced it first hand.....

[Founding Father]

When each of my sons turned 14 they began working in the summers outside in 95+ degree temperature mowing, weeding, painting, etc. starting at minimum wage and usually getting about a 25 cent raise a year. It taught them hard work and the value of an education.

[Frank_2001]

Excellent post!

[Peach]

Thanks for the ping. If we weren't such a welfare society, even since Clinton signed the welfare reform bill, then there wouldn't be these supposed "jobs Americans won't do".

[Black Tooth]

It's not just that Mexicans are willing to work for less, they're willing to work harder.

Of course they're work for less. Where they come from they make little or nothing. They enter a country illegally, and are offered jobs that are well below our standards, yet many times above what they were used to. Who wouldn't expect them to work hard?

Ask yourself, how hard would they work for a Mexican pay scale or 3 bucks a day?

[Peach]

And just after typing my message to you about the country's over-reliance on welfare programs, there is this tidbit from the Heritage Foundation which feels the same way. LOL

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422927/posts