Posted on 05/01/2006 1:20:55 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
Which Americans Wont Work?
J. D. Pendry
The yearly per capita income in Wyoming County, West Virginia, the place of my birth and much of my youth, is $19,110.00. In neighboring McDowell County, its $16,483.00. The state average per capita is $23,794.00. It costs more money to attend school for one year at the University of California, Santa Cruz than the per capita income of my state. Its also interesting that West Virginia has the highest rate per capita of military veterans in the country. Seems people who work hard for what they have are willing to serve and defend our country while the spoiled brat classes who have never worked for anything chase military recruiters away.
The jokes on us, however. Taxes paid by people making 19 thousand a year, some of them serving in our Armed Forces (psst, being a Soldier is one of those jobs most Americans dont want to do), find their way to the University of California, Santa Cruz in the form of federal dollars. Since Ive clawed my way up from dirt poor to middle-class, Im willing to fight to keep what Ive earned and to prevent my small piece of West Virginia hillside from becoming part of the Islamic caliphate. If everything is given to you, youve never had to earn anything and you are left to want for nothing, you probably take it for granted that what you have will always be there and that the job of protecting it falls to others of lesser status than you. Lord help me for agreeing, but when John Edwards said there are two Americas out there, he may have been on to something.
Wyoming County is coal mining country. Theres currently a shortage of skilled miners in the state. Federal mining safety regulations require extensive training for this physically demanding and inherently dangerous job. Coal supplies more than half of our countrys electrical power and has the potential to lower prices at the pump through coal liquefaction if some wide-butted millionaire Congress people I know would actually work for our state and America. Yet most Americans wont work in the mines. Wait. What did I just say? Its only a matter of time until Senator McCain sends the illegal immigrants; there I go again, undocumented guest workers here to do the job most Americans wont do. He may need to do that to keep your lights on because I hear the miners are packing up to head to Yuma, Arizona for the five-month lettuce-picking season. McCain promises these lazy Americans fifty bucks an hour to do that job. For five months work, thats better than forty grand a head. Bring the buses John, when you get to Wild Wonderful, head south on state route 10. Well be waiting for you at the McDowell-Wyoming county line.
There is another reason the good Senator from Arizona is worried about lettuce pickers:
YUMA, Ariz. -- Shortly before Thanksgiving last year, Tom Nassif did something few law- abiding citizens would ever think to do: He called the U.S. Border Patrol here and suggested agents stop manning a highway checkpoint intended to keep illegal immigrants out of the country.
A former U.S. ambassador and currently the president of a powerful farming association, Mr. Nassif told officials that the agency couldn't have picked a worse time to beef up enforcement. Didn't they know it was lettuce season? Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal, March 11, 2005, As Border Tightens, Growers See Threat to Winter Salad Bowl
Senator McCain again proves to us that pandering is the first priority of politicians. I have to tell you though hes in the minor leagues compared to Pander-in-Chief Hillary.
"I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants. We might have to move towards an ID system even for citizens.
People have to stop employing illegal immigrants, I mean, come up to Westchester, go to Suffolk and Nassau Counties, stand in the street corners in Brooklyn or the Bronx (and) you're going to see loads of people waiting to get picked up to go do yard work and construction work and domestic work. You know, this is not a problem that the people coming into the country are solely responsible for. They wouldn't be coming if we didn't put them to work." Hillary Clinton to WABC Radio's John Gambling.
Thats what Miss Hillary said before she made her faces of the people who clean our toilets speech at an immigration protest. She thanked the mob for doing the jobs Americans wont do - watching her kids, cleaning her house, doing her laundry, cleaning the hotels and washing the dishes. Incredible. She told the gathered crowd that she wants to keep them as the permanent under-class, which is the same status they held in Mexico and elsewhere. The truth is socialists like Hill need a permanent and dependent under-class to keep them in power. I wonder. What would the reaction have been if she made the same speech to a group of Black Americans? I envy people who work hard, but I pity people who cheer at the prospect of forever doing Hillarys laundry. Now thats pitiful.
You may not surmise this from my reading my words, but I sympathize with people who come here and their only motivation is to provide for their families. Those of us whove raised families and survived by doing the jobs Hillary, John and others claim Americans wont do are their kindred in spirit. Unfortunately, well-meaning, often poorly educated people have again been duped by politics and pro-communist organizations with agendas and affiliations that should alert immigrants that they dont give a rats ass about them except as their potential usefulness in pushing a political agenda or harming the United States. Waving an American flag is meaningless if a communist places it in your hands and the colors arent in your heart. Organizations like A.N.S.W.E.R. and spineless, pandering politicians are doing immigrants more harm than good. Im afraid my feelings on this matter are morphing from sympathy toward anger. At some point, if they havent already, Americans will stop seeing poor immigrants looking for work and start seeing tools used by people who want to harm our country.
I once was a registered Democrat, now Im a registered Republican. Ive never voted a straight party ticket. I cast my votes for America. Voting, by the way, is another of those jobs many Americans wont do. The politician that wants my vote will show leadership by standing on principles and standing up for America. Theyll get my vote by first securing our borders. By registering and accounting for all illegal immigrants in our country and doing it within 90 days before Election Day. By immediately deporting, without hearings, illegal immigrants found here that have serious criminal records. By deporting those that cannot show gainful employment. By providing a program that allows hard working, honest people who can clear a criminal background check to come here on work permits that require them to return to their country once each year - permits for which they or their employers must pay processing and annual renewal fees. If instead, the politicians give us amnesty, then Im for flushing the whole kit and caboodle of them on Election Day. Lets clean house of the people who wont work for America.
Perhaps. But the profit margin in that highly competitive market is only a few cents a head. Adding a half dollar to the cost would completely price the producer out of the market. You say "only" a half dollar, but that is a huge percentage increase. In other words, a non-starter in a free market.
Just because a producer's costs increase does not mean that it increases the market value of his product.
But, only seeing what you wish and blaming others than those responsible for protecting the borders and your wellbeing is an abrogation of citizen responsibility.
You are breaking the laws of this country but I'm the problem...Great Logic!
Are you sure you aren't a troll?
Is it OK for you to hire illegals and break the law?
How do you know that I am not calling and emailing my rep on a regular basis?
Only the ignorant think that illegals are making slave labor wages. I've lived many places that relied significantly on illegal labor pools in the US, and in every single case I can think of they were being paid more than minimum wage. In some more remote areas, they are the only labor available and command a comfortable wage.
Thanks for sharing this dirty little secret, Tortoise. You nailed it.
The money out of the employer's pocket is equivalent to slave wages. Paying a guy $12 an hour sounds great but it's not much when the employer passes on all of the other expenses to the taxpayers.
But the illegals on the books and they would no longer be a bargain.
I don't disagree with the proposals you make. But I don't think they would have the effect you presume.
Under our previous "guest worker" program, there were more than several successful cos. that did nothing but provide workers for seasonal businesses. They provided security checks, transportation, health care, and made sure that the workers went back home on schedule.
The employer paid the co., and the co. paid the workers.
If we had a long term "guest worker" program, I think we would see cos. like that again.
One big advantage to that program was that only the workers came. They didn't bring pregnant wives or children, who use more of our resources than the healthy workers do.
Once again, I am not the border patrol, I am not the police and so on. If I were, this situtation would not exist. The illegal problem would have been handled a long time ago.
I have worked since I was 13. Mhy philosophy has always been to make the most money under the circumstances. If that means corporate management, so be it. It it means picking oranges, so be it.
Your analyis is very good. It probably comes out to the same estimation that only 2% of the price of a head of lettuce comes from the labor to pick it. The other price is shipping, planting and watering, etc.
No, it's probably because an E-2 right out of boot camp earns more than the average person in McDowell County. If you have no jobs then don't expect to keep your young people. Especially if the best they can do education-wise is high school.
Hear! Hear!
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