Posted on 11/15/2011 10:19:20 AM PST by JerseyanExile
Skinning, gutting, and cutting up catfish is not easy or pleasant work. No one knows this better than Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select, which has a processing plant in impoverished Uniontown, Ala. For years, Rhodes has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits.
Most of his employees are Guatemalan. Or they were, until Alabama enacted an immigration law in September that requires police to question people they suspect might be in the U.S. illegally and punish businesses -
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
We need tariffs badly, it is just both parties have gone gloBULList, like you apparently.
I don’t think the fact that Americans don’t stand out there with the illegals for work means they don’t want work. They may or may not want work but standing with the illegals would not be tolerated by the illegals. I challenge you to go out there one morning and act as though you are waiting for a job with them. They will very likely beat you up or worse. There is a reason why when employers hire illegals it is then hard for them to hire citizens. Illegals are clannish and tough and will make conditions very hard for citizens to work with them. I have seen it in action.
It is true that it is hard to get people to work day labor for just a day or two here and there. It does have to do with unemployment and other benefits being steady- if someone on unemployment starts working a day or two here and there it would be a large hassle for them to deal with the office people and they may well lose their benefits. I can see both sides- I do think unemployment and other programs that unemployed people can access should pay less than minimum wage to encourage people to take all sorts of jobs.
There is more than one side to this story, but illegals should not be part of the equation. Every illegal hired by anyone has their wages subsidized by taxpayers through programs they access because- newsflash- the illegals can’t make it on those low wages either.
One cannot look anything but schizophrenic when on the one hand a person will call themselves “Free Traders” and on the other hand lament the welfare state at the same time.
The only point you are proving is that for a few pennies on the dollar you are willing to destroy a century and a half of manufacturing technology and infrastructure that saved the world during two world wars. The dirty little secret that Free Traitors won’ acknowledge is that the cost of labor, on average, in the USA is about 10% of the finished product. So by off shoring production we save maybe 5% after added transportation expenses etc.
Exactly. McDonalds, Burger King, picking up road kill on the side of the road in rain, snow, loqusts, is more appealing. Our food is under-priced with regard to labor, and as a result, obesity.
No one has to hire illegals- it is a choice. Every business that hires illegals competes with businesses that don’t hire illegals. I know farmers that hire nothing but illegals and farmers in the same area hiring NO illegals- same with ranchers, construction. It is a choice and not only are illegals UNFAIRLY competing with legal workers- businesses that hire illegals are UNFAIRLY competing with businesses that don’t.
There is a key difference between work and toil. Work is ennobling and provides both dignity and value for both the individual and society. Toil is borne of desperation and is simply an act of human exploitation which has no place in a civilized society. All "businesses" which rely on toil to survive are ipso facto illegitimate and cannot survive except via the corruption of the society that tolerates them.
The issue is not immigration, or even illegal immigration. The issue is society's tolerance for human exploitation and the systemic moral corruption that this entails. It is all interlocked.
Fixed.
Correct. And if the going rate for gutting catfish really is $100/hour how long do you think it would be before a mechanical catfish processor was on the market to do the job at a faction of that cost? That’s what happens in a market which isn’t distorted by the availability of slave labor.
And? Did I advocate for hiring illegals?
For years, Rhodes has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits. Most of his employees are Guatemalan.He should be explaining this to the judge.
BINGO!!
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