[PGR88]

Don’t tell me there aren’t jobs Americans won’t do.

In California, I go to a car wash and gas station and its completely foreign labor, mostly illegal. Meanwhile, American youth unemployment is 50%, “college prep” kids sit home, and these kids are expected to simply borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund their education.

Here in my small-town in PA, the car wash and landscaping businesses are staffed by college and high school students on break. No illegals needed or seen.

[Vaduz]

Over-educated elite labor-virgins,that cover 99% of congress and senate.

[rbg81]

I actually don’t agree with unpaid internships either. If you want someone working for you, you should pay them for their time. Even if its minimum wage.

[Blue Collar Christian]

I’m in the motorcycle business. I took my son with me to a trade show in Long Beach, CA about 8 years back so he could meet celeb racers and see some cool product. I was pointing out the quality of Alpinestar boots and flipped a boot over to show him the “Made in Italy” mark and was surprised to see “Made in Croatia”. Talking to the factory reps at the booth, they explained how the next class of Italian craftsman was Croatians that were grateful for the opportunity that the current generation of Italian work force entrants were above. The young Italians all want white collar jobs. Sound familiar?

[NeverForgetBataan]

Great Post. Thank You. I’m certain that after the 1986 amnesty, the trend of replacing traditional teen summer hires with illegals began and has not ever stopped.

Case in point: the fast food industry. Ownership quickly realized that illegals were a dream come true. Illegals Don’t go off to college. Don’t need time off to study for finals or the prom. Don’t get ambitious and get a better job. AND, don’t complain about having to work on their day off.

I have been told as well, that it’s very common for them to send a friend or relative as a “fill in” if they happen to need time off for a sick kid or whatever. They (illegals) solve allot of staffing hassles.

[Clock King]

I hate what America is becoming. It won’t last, and what will be left will be a new Dark Age for a century at least.

[Buckeye McFrog]

In some of the more affluent neighborhoods around me, teenagers don’t WANT to work. If they have a job it’s only because Dad MADE them get one, and it is only a matter of time until they can figure a good way to get themselves fired
and go back to the videogames and cruising around in cars their parents bought for them.

In the less affluent neighborhoods, teenagers are all getting sucked into Americorps-type GovJobs programs that offer college tuition benefits, free meals and above-minimum wages for “community organizing”.

[sickoflibs]

RE :”In the dismaying-but-not-surprising category of news stories recently, this one in the July 2 New York Times got my attention. It describes how the Obama administration is killing off the summer-internship programs, many of them unpaid, that are so popular with high-school seniors and college students. Sample quotes: In April, the Obama administration issued a fact sheet listing six criteria aimed at preventing employers from violating the Fair Labor Standards Act with their unpaid internship programs. . . . The guidelines, from the Labor Department, have left employers scrambling to bulletproof their internship programs. . . . Some employers . . . have converted to paid internships but in the process have cut back on the number of posts they can offer. Others have abandoned their programs altogether”

You don't understand their real problem with this. These internships are not fair because not everyone is offered them. Only the motivated take these internships, much like private school vouchers. What about the slug who has no ambition and doesn't understand the benefits of experience? It is not fair that he is ‘left behind’. If we all can't progress, none of us can, (unless you are in a union then the rules are different.)

You have to understand the democrat value system. It is better to get unemployment benefits from the government than to take a job that pays less then democrats say is fair, even if unemployment benefits pay much less than that fair wage.

Why not raise unemployment benefits to the minimum wage for 40 hours? Why do democrats not pay a 'fair' wage?

[TopQuark]

What a great read; thank you.

All too often we focus on politics as the source of our problems. Politics is just a reflection of culture, however, and that's where I try to look for answers to long-term developments. This author is a great cultural observer, and it was a pleasure to read this article. Thanks again.

[Tammy8]

This attitude has ruined a generation of young people who have no clue about adult life skills. Most do not have the skills to do any type of work, have no work ethic and want to start at or near the top. Most don’t have basic finance skills to even maintain a lifestyle in an apartment and get basic bills paid.

I have said all along that one of the truly tragic things about hiring illegals is they take those very important first jobs away from our young people. Those first jobs are where you learn work ethic, getting along with others and other vital things to succeed in any job. They also take the ladder jobs away from people who don’t want to go to college so it is extremely hard for them to start at the bottom and work their way up in construction and service industries especially due to mass hiring of illegals.

This country will always have this type of work and it does our own citizens no service to keep our citizens out of those jobs. We truly need to deport all illegals and open those jobs up to our unemployed and young people so that they can learn the skills and confidence to be productive citizens.

[knews_hound]

The jobs I had before I joined the Army;

Lawn Care - Now done by illegals

Construction grunt - Now done by illegals

Dishwasher - Now done by illegals

Anyone notice a trend?

Cheers,

knewshound

[Musket]

Here's the thing that ticks me off - I'm workin' the crap jobs right now, I've been doing it for 3 1/2 years. I would be doing O.K. if I could work 60 hours a week, but since THE LAW says anything over 40 hours MUST be paid TIME AND A HALF, my boss - and ALL the crap job bosses - won't let ANYONE work over 40 hours. So that forces me to have 2 jobs. So even though I work over 40 hours (at 2 jobs), I STILL only get paid the regular hourly. So what good is this freekin' law other than to force me to juggle 2 jobs?

This stupid law should be abolished or at the very least an opt out.