Worker shortage hampers Katrina rebuilding

MSNBC, many MSM and non-MSM ^ | 9-13-2006 | AP

[spintreebob]

People have the money, but struggle to find contractors to do the job. A push to train thousands of new construction workers on the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast found an unlikely pupil in Sandra Ramsay. . . . .The worker shortage has been tempered by the estimated 100,000 Hispanic workers who moved to the Gulf Coast region after last year’s storm. One-quarter of the workers in New Orleans after Katrina are undocumented Latinos, according to a recent study by researchers from Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley. The study also notes the federal government has waived certain immigration laws that make it easier for employers to hire undocumented workers, but some have balked at hiring them. . . . .

[spintreebob]

It isn't just Katrina area. Nationwide there is a shortage of workers. People say they don't want to move to the gulf area for a job. But they also don't want the jobs that go begging in Chicago and downstate Illinois. We need to get rid of unemployment comp.

Work is out-sourced to other countries when it can be done anywhere, such as manufacturing and software development. But for those types of work that can't be outsourced, a lack of workers means the work just doesn't get done. The size of the pie of economic activity is dynamic. One factor in it growing and shrinking is our attitude towards work, and towards allowing those who want to work to immigrat to do it vs holding the jobs empty hoping that the lazy will do their civic duty and get a job.

[shekkian]

Why not hire illegal immigrants (oops, sorry, undocumented workers) for those jobs Americans won't do?

(sarc off)

[avital2]

why not hire the Katrina transplants collecting unemployment in Houston?

[spintreebob]

I don't see much difference between Katrina, Illinois and Utah (USA page 1 story that is clueless trifecta on Mormons, conservatives and immigrants
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-09-14-utah-cover_x.htm

[blam]

"why not hire the Katrina transplants collecting unemployment in Houston?"

Wouldn't that be racial profiling?

[Leisler]

When I was a kid, a colonial house, maybe three bedrooms, bath and a half and two cars was considered you were really well off, rich.

Many carpenters, tradesman were the only provider and owned a modest home with low taxes.

Not anymore.

I'd have to tell a kid not to go into a trade, or if so, only plumbing or electric. The rest of the house construction sucks. No benefits, holidays, retirement, heath insurance, working outdoors, damp cold all winter, no work/pay days due to weather.

Untrained, illegals with new companies, building where the code enforcement was weak to begin with and now has been let go...ey ya ey!

In a way we have a worker shortage, in a way not. At the prices companies want to pay, you will have trouble finding good workers. This is because if you are a reasonable good worker, show up, etc..you are going to be bought by companies making higher value/profit items that can afford it. So what you have at the low end in low profit business that can only afford low wages. The money isn't there. So to be honest what you have is a shortage of high quality at low price.

Less and less people mow their lawns like they used to, or their kids don't. People used to maintain their houses, put up shutters, paint rooms, clean gutters. Not anymore. It wasn't uncommon for people to work on their car, a little and change the oil. Not anymore. So people want to live like really rich people. But just like non rich business they don't have the money to pay, basically, Americans who want to live like Americans.

The working class in this country really takes it on the chin. Un organized, invisible to the political classes, competing against low cost asian manufactures overseas and imported illegals at home. The Democrats don't care because self supporting working class don't need any of their services, and hence are a threat to the Democrat dependents that might try working their way off the Democrat plantation. The Republicans don't care because they just pretend to care about cultural values but are really at core about money, grasping and climbing, and working class don't have much excess money and are considered failures at the cocktail parties.

Like I've said, if we let lawyers, journalists and politicians come across the boarder and start up here, the border would be closed tomorrow

[stevie_d_64]

I'm actually surprised that the MSM generalized the area as the "Gulf Coast Region" this time...Although I know they don't mean it...It's ALL about New Orleans folks...

And until WE pay (once more) to get the thousands of the dregs of the "welfare and unwilling" a first class ticket back to New Orleans and their new homes paid for by, yes, you guess it, us...They are there to stay, wherever they are scattered...

Another amazing yet unsurprising fact in all of this Katrina mess is the fact that the other states directly effected by this storm, and in someways as equally devastated by Katrina, you don't hear much about that???

I wonder why Mississippi has almost, but not totally recooped, and is well on its way to finishing all of the things that needed attention after that tragic natural disaster???

I know and understand the scope and attention is more than what I have described, and that I honestly think the human tragedy is way above and beyond the materialistic confines of rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure to an area in our country that HAS suffered a tremendous blow to its existance...

That the focus of attention is to the assinine reasoning of the MSM and the people who live and breathe by its pontificating BS, that the government should have done more, done it quicker, and was responsible for the tragedy...

"...yet he who is without sin, cast the first stone..."

I find that to be most appropriate to point out...

I do not think the issue about this natural disaster should be focusing on the undocumented workers flocking to the area to rebuild that place, or the agregious amount of money allocated to fund such an unprecidented project...

I think it should be more of a lesson to the country and the rest of the world, that it really should be up to the individual to be prepared as best as possible to NOT be dependent on others and its government to be the total backstop to your existance and sustinance in the event of something like this...But be grateful for any assistance coming your way, and not gripe about that being not enough...

That may be an unrealistic expectation or fantasy...But it sure beats any other liberal persons idea of a utopia on earth...

"Preparation and Prudence beats Procrastination and Paranoia everytime..."
("Stevie-D-64", 1997)

[stevie_d_64]

I'm actually surprised that the MSM generalized the area as the "Gulf Coast Region" this time...Although I know they don't mean it...It's ALL about New Orleans folks...

And until WE pay (once more) to get the thousands of the dregs of the "welfare and unwilling" a first class ticket back to New Orleans and their new homes paid for by, yes, you guess it, us...They are there to stay, wherever they are scattered...

Another amazing yet unsurprising fact in all of this Katrina mess is the fact that the other states directly effected by this storm, and in someways as equally devastated by Katrina, you don't hear much about that???

I wonder why Mississippi has almost, but not totally recooped, and is well on its way to finishing all of the things that needed attention after that tragic natural disaster???

I know and understand the scope and attention is more than what I have described, and that I honestly think the human tragedy is way above and beyond the materialistic confines of rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure to an area in our country that HAS suffered a tremendous blow to its existance...

That the focus of attention is to the assinine reasoning of the MSM and the people who live and breathe by its pontificating BS, that the government should have done more, done it quicker, and was responsible for the tragedy...

"...yet he who is without sin, cast the first stone..."

I find that to be most appropriate to point out...

I do not think the issue about this natural disaster should be focusing on the undocumented workers flocking to the area to rebuild that place, or the agregious amount of money allocated to fund such an unprecidented project...

I think it should be more of a lesson to the country and the rest of the world, that it really should be up to the individual to be prepared as best as possible to NOT be dependent on others and its government to be the total backstop to your existance and sustinance in the event of something like this...But be grateful for any assistance coming your way, and not gripe about that being not enough...

That may be an unrealistic expectation or fantasy...But it sure beats any other liberal persons idea of a utopia on earth...

"Preparation and Prudence beats Procrastination and Paranoia everytime..."
("Stevie-D-64", 1997)

[CindyDawg]

Make work a requirement for welfare assistance too. Many people, esp. the elderly and single moms are stuck in this system. If they go to work they are in worse shape than they were before.

[Gabz]

why not hire the Katrina transplants collecting unemployment in Houston?

Exactly my first thought.

[P-40]

Nationwide there is a shortage of workers.

And yet our welfare rolls remain high...

[stylin19a]

hydroshock ping !

[stylin19a]

only gunna get worse.
O'hare expansion heats up...where are the workes going to come from ?
within 5 years boomers retire in droves....who is there to replace them ?

[stevie_d_64]

"Hire" is such a strong word...

And "collecting unemployment" would assume they were employed at one time...

If they are collecting unemployment from the state of Louisiana, then yes, I would think thats more plausible...

If you knew the constraints and conditions of collecting unemployment from the state of Texas, you would know that there are a lot of hoops and conditions to meet to get that check every week...And even then you have about 6 months to get it done and get back to work before your well dries up...

Something I do not think the coffers in Louisiana put conditions on for their people...That would be too mean to expect from its citizens...Regardless of where they are (displaced)...

[SR 50]

Those transplants are not the working type. They are the welfare type. You would have to train them on how to use a broom and shovel before placing them in the work area.

[stevie_d_64]

Bingo!

[stevie_d_64]

Dearborn, Michigan???

Aloha, Ackbar

Durka Durka Mohammed Jihadi...

I would think I would rather be hearing Tejano music than that posibility...;-)

Good luck!

[spintreebob]

Currently the primary purpose of the O'Hare Expansion project is to provide campaign workers and money for the RahmDuckworth campaign in the IL 6th against Roskam.

[texgal]

why not hire the Katrina transplants collecting unemployment in Houston?

Because they won't go to work as long as Houston Mayor White insists on the taxpayers making their rent and utility payment and they can get food stamps. Lots of able bodied folks could work, but won't as long as someone else is paying their way.