I worked with an options trader whose family owned factories. He had the same complaint, saying that in the old days they had workers who were drunk, etc., and used it to justify hiring illegal aliens at their plants.
The employers Bert discusses could get better workers if they paid more; or, could deal with the lower productivity if they didn't have to compete with unfair, ruthless foreign competition.
The problem isn't the workers, it's the idiot trade and macroeconomic policies we've adopted over the past few decades.
In the sixties even a drunk could find work in construction or the garment district in New York and still afford an SRO hotel, which is why you didn't see homeless back then. That's how valuable American labor was.
pierrem15, you beat me to it. you are 100% correct. Illegal immigration has forced Americans out of many occupations. In my hometown people used to make a good living and raise an entire family working as a carpenter and that just isn’t the case anymore with the low wages.
I hope and expect that under the emergency declared by President Trump that he will soon make E-Verify mandatory for employers. What will the cheap labor express do then?