Posted on 06/08/2006 11:22:20 AM PDT by freemarket_kenshepherd
The much-criticized claim about “jobs Americans won’t do” seems to have left the president’s vocabulary. But though opponents of illegal immigration call the jobs claim a myth, the network news media have adopted it as an argument that needed addressing.
“The American people are the ones hiring these people in many cases to do jobs they don’t want to do,” NBC’s Matt Lauer reminded his “Today” guest on May 1. “Few people question the ability of illegal immigrants to work hard and, according to labor statistics, work cheap on jobs most Americans are unwilling to do,” said CBS’s Byron Pitts on the April 10 “Evening News.”
The media are famous for embracing political phrases and running with them – but not usually those of George W. Bush. Back in 2004, Bush was saying “there are good, honorable, hardworking people here doing jobs Americans won’t do.” He stuck with that phrase, but his language changed recently, as the “CBS Evening News” showed May 18. “We’ve got people sneaking across here because they want to work. And I think it makes sense for them to have an orderly way to come on a temporary basis to do jobs Americans aren’t doing.”
Though Bush has gone from jobs Americans “won’t do” to “aren’t doing,” other administration officials haven’t gotten the memo. White House adviser Dan Bartlett appeared on CNN’s “The Situation Room” May 26 saying, “And we need to have a system that is above board, across the board that deals with the realities of our economy and the realities of workers who are doing jobs that Americans won’t do.”
Even the left-leaning Pew Hispanic Center proved that point was incorrect. [end excerpt]
(Excerpt) Read more at businessandmedia.org ...
No, but you are not an unskilled laborer. Obviously, unskilled labor (which is what most of the jobs foreigners start off with) is never going to pay $25 per hour.
I don't think there has ever been jobs American's won't do, we are innovative and hard working people, there is jobs some American's won't do, for next to nothing, when they can stay home and collect more for not working.
How 'bout.... ENFORCEMENT of ALL our LAWS.
I watched something yesterday (probably on FOX) about a woman getting help at a shelter with food for her TEN children and herself and saying how she was so poor and never had enough money -- and I'm thinking: Honey, why did you have ten kids if you can't feed, clothe and house them? Sorry, sounds cruel, but sheesh, enough is enough...
$10 an hour would raise the price of a head of lettuce ten cents a head... I'll gladly pay the ten cents to have the jobs done by American's, legally.
Our "leaders" have turned their backs on "we the people". America to them is a trade zone, designed to make big bucks for the already rich foreign interests. We're only important to them because we're the ones paying the bills.
The globalists in both parties need to be thrown out on their greedy butts.
Roofing laborers, painters helpers, construction grunts, etc. are all receiving $10-14 per hour in my area, but there is a definite shortage of native-born folks who want to do it - or can show up for work more than a day or two in succession because of their drug or alcohol habit. We do have some serious problems with the lower-skills end of the American work-force.True... a friend of mine (location and name withheld) only hires "illegals" (she follows the letter of the law, but assumes privately that the papers are fake) because she can't get native born workers who will stay with the job, or who are willing to do small things like show up sober every day (she's a painting contractor). And -- because her laborers are from the same ethnic enclave, she doesn't have advertising expenses... a worker moving on knows another reliable person willing to do the same job. And she pays above the local rate for painters.
We're used to cheap and abundant goods and services. Without immigrant labor, we either have to pay more, or have access to less -- or both. There ain't no free lunch, in the labor market or anywhere else.
I have to disagree with the absolutes. There probably are people like that on welfare, I'd imagine. But don't you think there are also some invaders who came here for jobs but ended up with many kids and on welfare?
I would submit that US citizens could be found to do most any job, if it didn't involve exploitation, low salaries, no benefits and no opportunity to move up.
FWIW, back in 1997, substitute teaching and tutoring paid more, with more respect, than it does now. What hurt that? Why, whole bunches of wives of workers in tech here doing those computer jobs "Americans wouldn't do".
Baby boomers are retiring. It's a group in which many like doing things like gardening, babysitting, laundry, etc. Between that, and students, and training programs for non-employed US citizens, one can't help but suspect that these jobs would be filled. Those employers would just have to get used to paying minimum wage, giving decent conditions, and having employees who could speak their language and expected respect.
In my area, too, a lot of these jobs used to be done by blacks or semi-rural whites who came into the towns to work, but now many of these people are virtually unemployable. Crack and meth have completely destroyed these two groups in my area.
I think you got a lousy company or at any rate, one with a crummy site supervisor. I've had varied experience getting work done - one time I had a great company doing some interior renovations, and everything went fine for 2 days - and then the (white native-born) worker went on a drunk and everything went downhill from there. The owner had to get his son in to finish the job. He told me that when he employs people, the first thing he has to tell them is not to call him when they get arrested, because he won't bail them out. So anything can happen.
I'm not saying that immigrants are better. NYC was full of Poles and Russians who worked for construction companies, and some of them were pretty shaky. (Some were good, though.) But my point was that it's hard to find steady, willing native-born people who can fill the demand at the lower end of the job scale.
-- and I'm thinking: Honey, why did you have ten kids if you can't feed, clothe and house them?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
She probably never figured out why she kept having babies, it's something in the air.
The other day, one of my daughters and I were discussing the jobs illegals are doing which Americans "won't" do. Our exchange went like this:
Daughter - "Why would any American in their right mind pick lettuce in the hot sun for $3.25 an hour?"
Me - "Would you do it for $3.25 an hour?"
Daughter - "Of course not!"
Me - "Would you do it for $13.00 an hour?"
...(long, thoughtful pause, as she is making less than that working for an aerospace company)...
Daughter - "Sure!"
Me - "The only reason you can't is because growers can hire them at rate you won't work at. If they weren't, or couldn't, they would have to pay a rate Americans would accept - or not get their lettuce picked. Why, you might even have a shot at this higher paying job!"
...(she drove off, thinking deeply about it)
I think another myth is illegals don't have skills. What do people think they were doing in their home counties?
My experience tells me they don't have any idea how to turn a wrench or work with machinery.
They don't learn that stuff quickly. And, when you try to explain to them how to do things mechanically they nod their heads, say, "Yes. I know." and proceed to stand there and try to figure it out. They have no or very little mechanical aptitude yet they get hired and are treated better than the native Americans who came up through the ranks.
This is the printing industry. The first pressman can't yell at them or say anything derogative. If they do they are disciplined.
You are right on. This is what I've been saying for years. It's not that Americans won't work, it's that our government doesn't want them to work. I keep asking, "Why do we let millions of illegals work here when we have millions of Americans on welfare?"
Take away the dole, and they'd do these jobs.
Good work.
Agreed.
And it will correct itself one way or another.
Especially, if illegals are given an opportunity to become legal. Amnesty -- no! New or improved process -- yes.
Because, the pool of dirt cheap labor will be gone. Dirt cheap labor drives down wages. Very low wages are unattractive to most Americans.
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