Farmer on NPR said he couldn't find an American who would pick fruit...

[Ray From Cleveland]

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??.

Conservative farmer and Trump voter: American's won't do those jobs.

Removing illegals will not magically create a labor pool for farmers all across the United States who can't find enough labor now- legal or illegal.

But I do get it- Conservatives think that allowing enough small farmers to be drivenout of business for lack of labor will improve the economy.

So what is your clam here, that if we don't have illegals and immigrants, we will quit growing food?

Farmers will stop growing the food that requires workers to pick it. Not that complicated- if the farmers can't find someway to automate the picking- which does work for some crops- they will be driven out of business- or find another profitable crop for their area- which is not always a possibility- they will be driven out of business.

Grain farming will continue of course- largely automated now- a few hard working people can handle hundreds of acres- but not fruit, not produce.

That will be driven out of the country- already much of it has- that garlic you buy probably comes from China. Napa will be okay- because they already pay a premium for legal migrant workers so they can get enough workers for their crops- but lettuce growers? Lot more lettuce will be coming from Mexico and Central America.

I don't know many people that would give up their business simply because they can't find workers. I also don't believe that they wouldn't be able to find workers without immigration.

If we get to the point where farmers can't find workers, engineers will find a way to produce machinery that will do the job those workers used to do. After all.......they already use automation to replace humans that will do certain jobs Americans were willing to do.

But even on a stretch, let's say your predictions come true, what's wrong with us importing our commodities?

 

[Bassman007]

...he said an American tried it and gave up after one box.

Question.

How much does this farmer pay a fruit picker to pick one box of fruit?

Obviously, just enough to entice an illegal alien, but not enough to entice an American who has other employment options.

Solution.

Pay your workers more, enough so someone can actually live off what you are paying him, maybe enough for groceries, rent, utilties, with a little extra left to go to the movies on Saturday.

Illegal aliens don't need that. They live 12 to an apartment, eat rice and beans, and send the rest of their money to their families in Mexico or Central America.

So, the farmer wants us to let in illegal aliens so he doesn't have to pay a living wage for an American.

So, why are the Democrats AGAINST a living wage for American workers?

This is why Trump won the election, because American workers realized the Democrats have abandoned them.

Why would an American work for 3 dollars a day and an apple?

Never fear Asplundh is paying a 95 million dollar fine for hiring illegals.............

Asplundh to Pay $95M in Immigration Case, Largest Ever Fine

 

[ptbw forever]

For those who wonder what the OP is talking about- here is the link to the article- and yes- Blackrook lied in his OP.

'They're Scared': Immigration Fears Exacerbate Migrant Farmworker Shortage

The pickers range in age from 21 to 65, and all of them are Mexican. As in the rest of the U.S., growers in heavily agricultural northern Michigan rely overwhelmingly on migrant laborers to work the fields and orchards.

According to the farm owners, the workers either came from Mexico on temporary H2A visas or they have paperwork showing they are in the U.S. legally.

Johnson Farms' owner, Dean Johnson, 67, says it's just about impossible to find Americans to do this work. "We've tried. We really have," he says. "Sometimes people come out on a day like today and they'll pick one box, and then they're gone. They just don't want to do it."

"It's really sad," adds Johnson's daughter, Heatherlyn Johnson Reamer, 44, who manages the farm. "They'll come, they'll check it out, and usually they're gone within a day or two."

It is not an article he is talking about, moron.

It is an unsourced NPR sound byte.

Don't you ever get tired of me showing what an idiot you are?

From the OP:

Farmer on NPR said he couldn't find an American who would pick fruit..

..he said an American tried it and gave up after one box.

........
So, the farmer wants us to let in illegal aliens so he doesn't have to pay a living wage for an American.

From the article that I also listened to- and went to NPR and sourced:

Johnson Farms' owner, Dean Johnson, 67, says it's just about impossible to find Americans to do this work. "We've tried. We really have," he says. "Sometimes people come out on a day like today and they'll pick one box, and then they're gone. They just don't want to do it."

Blackrook lied to you- and you are gullible enough to swallow his lie, hook, line and sinker.

The NPR radio sound byte was not sourced, moron.
Do you ever get tired of arguing with people who actually know things?

Blackrook heard the sound byte on the RADIO(as I did because I have been on the road for the past few days)and assessed that sound byte.

Blackrook paraphrased what the clip said accurately.

Blackrook didn't source the NPR article because he is a) an idiot and b) because he lied about what it said.

Because I am not an idiot like you and Blackrook- and because I heard the same radio article- I easily went to NPR and provided the actual citation- and the actual article.

And proved Blackrook lied when he claimed the farmer was saying he needed illegal labor and was encouraging illegal labor.

The farmer- a Trump voter- of course said no such thing.

But to you- that is 'paraphrasing'

To everyone else- that is lying.

He didn't source the article because it is IRRELEVANT, dumbass.

He was listening to the RADIO(as in national public RADIO), not reading the article. The farmer WAS indirectly supporting illegal immigration, that is why the idiot kooks at NPR ran with it.

 

[xotoxi]

Entire cities (ESTL STL DET.....) full of young un-employed sucking housing, food stamps, utilities, Welfare etc. For generations now. There's your workers. Time to break the cycle.

I agree. Hard work on the farms would do these young people a lot of good. Empty out the ghettos and put them in shanty towns. They can learn again that life is better when you work hard and pay your own way.

A simple question for you....what if they don't what to leave the "ghettos"? What if they don't want to be put in shanty towns?

Do we force them?

Maybe built shanty towns and remind them with entry signs that "Work Sets you Free"?

Why don't we move them into shanty towns and give them FREE ROOM AND BOARD for LIFE!!!

And free clothes and free medical care.

We wouldn't even have to pay them.

 

[Slyhunter]

Ok so if we get rid of all the illegals and farmers themselves raise the wages and those jobs are still unfilled will you complain that American workers (the hardest workers in the world) are lazy? I myself wouldn't think it an issue.

do it first.

 

[Slyhunter]

...he said an American tried it and gave up after one box.

Question.

How much does this farmer pay a fruit picker to pick one box of fruit?

Obviously, just enough to entice an illegal alien, but not enough to entice an American who has other employment options.

Solution.

Pay your workers more, enough so someone can actually live off what you are paying him, maybe enough for groceries, rent, utilties, with a little extra left to go to the movies on Saturday.

Illegal aliens don't need that. They live 12 to an apartment, eat rice and beans, and send the rest of their money to their families in Mexico or Central America.

So, the farmer wants us to let in illegal aliens so he doesn't have to pay a living wage for an American.

So, why are the Democrats AGAINST a living wage for American workers?

This is why Trump won the election, because American workers realized the Democrats have abandoned them.

And when your apples cost 6 times as much as they do now you will be the first one on here making a thread whining about how much produce cost.

When apples, big screen tv's, model cars, etc. cost 2 times as much Americans will be able to afford them because they'll have fucking JOBS!

 

[Slyhunter]

How about 15 per hour plus partial benefits.....that's a start. No American should do that job for any less.

How about if the only skill set you have is picking fruit you figure out the problem is with you and why such a job isn't worth $15/hour.

No employer should be required to pay a job requiring skills worth $2/hour to pay $7.25/hour.

No one should be an employer with jobs that only require $2/hour to do.

 

[Care4all]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

 

[Bassman007]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

Sheesh 2 billion words or less please

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

If you only offer $12.50 an hour to pick fruit, of course you're not going to find many workers. But that's the beauty of supply and demand. If you can't find workers for $12.50 an hour, you offer $13.50 an hour. If you still can't find American workers, you offer $15.50 an hour and so on.

As a landlord, I've been ripped off many times. I have overpaid electricians and plumbers. But in the end, I never used them again and found more reasonable priced professionals. In fact, I just hired an exterminator for several bee problems I had. I called few places that wanted several hundred dollars to solve the problem. So I called a local guy, and he came here and killed all the bees for a hundred bucks. He came here three times, but he got the job done for the hundred bucks.

So I won't debate you that some professionals do charge outrageous fees, but if you do your homework, you won't be paying that kind of price for services. A couple of years ago I had a washing machine with a bad kill switch at one of my apartments. The guy I called said he would fix the problem for $185.00. I told him I would just get a new one. He tried to convince me that my washer was a great model and worth the repair investment.

So I went to YouTube and found a video how to fix it myself. When I went to buy the part, it was only $18.00. I thought that because of the outrageous estimate I got from a professional, the part had to be at least $75.00. Turns out this clown was going to charge me $160.00 for labor plus the part. I fixed it myself in about an hour.

So don't be misled about what so-called professional people charge. If it's too much, chances are you are getting ripped off and you can easily find people to do the job much cheaper if you do your homework and look around a bit.

 

[JimBowie1958]

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

There are none such.

There are only jobs that employers are too cheap to pay good wages for so they get black market labor or break the visa laws.

 

[leftwinger]

We'll if Americans won't do those jobs then who should do them?

Good question. My backup plan is 3AM busloads of prisoners. Low pay but, time off sentence if good. Chain gangs for all I would care. shoot bad behavior. Win win.

 

[Care4all]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

Sheesh 2 billion words or less please

ah yes, I should have considered how many mentally disabled we have on this board!

 

[Aletheia4u]

...he said an American tried it and gave up after one box.

Question.

How much does this farmer pay a fruit picker to pick one box of fruit?

Obviously, just enough to entice an illegal alien, but not enough to entice an American who has other employment options.

Solution.

Pay your workers more, enough so someone can actually live off what you are paying him, maybe enough for groceries, rent, utilties, with a little extra left to go to the movies on Saturday.

Illegal aliens don't need that. They live 12 to an apartment, eat rice and beans, and send the rest of their money to their families in Mexico or Central America.

So, the farmer wants us to let in illegal aliens so he doesn't have to pay a living wage for an American.

So, why are the Democrats AGAINST a living wage for American workers?

This is why Trump won the election, because American workers realized the Democrats have abandoned them.

And so, what is he trying to say? Is he trying to say that the immigrants are too lazy to pick his produces ever since they became citizens?

 

[Care4all]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

If you only offer $12.50 an hour to pick fruit, of course you're not going to find many workers. But that's the beauty of supply and demand. If you can't find workers for $12.50 an hour, you offer $13.50 an hour. If you still can't find American workers, you offer $15.50 an hour and so on.

As a landlord, I've been ripped off many times. I have overpaid electricians and plumbers. But in the end, I never used them again and found more reasonable priced professionals. In fact, I just hired an exterminator for several bee problems I had. I called few places that wanted several hundred dollars to solve the problem. So I called a local guy, and he came here and killed all the bees for a hundred bucks. He came here three times, but he got the job done for the hundred bucks.

So I won't debate you that some professionals do charge outrageous fees, but if you do your homework, you won't be paying that kind of price for services. A couple of years ago I had a washing machine with a bad kill switch at one of my apartments. The guy I called said he would fix the problem for $185.00. I told him I would just get a new one. He tried to convince me that my washer was a great model and worth the repair investment.

So I went to YouTube and found a video how to fix it myself. When I went to buy the part, it was only $18.00. I thought that because of the outrageous estimate I got from a professional, the part had to be at least $75.00. Turns out this clown was going to charge me $160.00 for labor plus the part. I fixed it myself in about an hour.

So don't be misled about what so-called professional people charge. If it's too much, chances are you are getting ripped off and you can easily find people to do the job much cheaper if you do your homework and look around a bit.

well, When we added central air to our forced hot air heating system in the house I had Sears come out and their estimate was $4500, I then found an electrician that did AC installation thru a friend who had work done by him that put it in for $1900, so I saved a bundle!

BUT electrical work and rewiring, I just didn't want to take a chance, same with reworking the plumbing in a bath remodel, wanted a Union worker, a licensed professional...cuz I just felt more secure that the job would be done right...

Here in Maine, we have learned to shop around, most people are in business for themselves in that kind of work...companies of 1... you can negotiate up here and even barter! I thought bartering was dead, but it's not!!!! My hubby is a singer/musician part time....he works a regular job and gets a gig here and there like at town festivals or lobster bakes during the summer... well this guy in construction, installed a new back deck for us for free and Mathew sang at two or maybe three of this guy's parties out at his summer camp on a lake....for free....

oh, and my mechanic, the son in law of a friend who worked full time at some auto repair, but did work on weekends in his own garage, fixed a problem with my car for free but I had to crochet an afghan for his wife, just like the one I made for his mother in law....which his wife loved....and wanted one..... I just think that is so cool, that things like bartering, still go on!

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

So, why are the Democrats AGAINST a living wage for American workers?

I've been pointing out this hypocrisy for years. Of course, those of us with a brain know this is not about a living wage. It's about votes

 

[Yarddog]

The pay is crap, the working conditions are crap but more than anything else, its just plain hard work.

That's why American's won't do it.

Thanks to RWNJs, family farms are going under. But, have no fear because pino trump's 1% buddies are right there, ready to buy them out for pennies on the dollar.

.

You've never done hard work before? is it because your an American?

 

[Gracie]

...he said an American tried it and gave up after one box.

Question.

How much does this farmer pay a fruit picker to pick one box of fruit?

Obviously, just enough to entice an illegal alien, but not enough to entice an American who has other employment options.

Solution.

Pay your workers more, enough so someone can actually live off what you are paying him, maybe enough for groceries, rent, utilties, with a little extra left to go to the movies on Saturday.

Illegal aliens don't need that. They live 12 to an apartment, eat rice and beans, and send the rest of their money to their families in Mexico or Central America.

So, the farmer wants us to let in illegal aliens so he doesn't have to pay a living wage for an American.

So, why are the Democrats AGAINST a living wage for American workers?

This is why Trump won the election, because American workers realized the Democrats have abandoned them.

He didn't look hard enough, and he offered a couple of bucks per hour, probably.

 

[Ray From Cleveland]

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

If you only offer $12.50 an hour to pick fruit, of course you're not going to find many workers. But that's the beauty of supply and demand. If you can't find workers for $12.50 an hour, you offer $13.50 an hour. If you still can't find American workers, you offer $15.50 an hour and so on.

As a landlord, I've been ripped off many times. I have overpaid electricians and plumbers. But in the end, I never used them again and found more reasonable priced professionals. In fact, I just hired an exterminator for several bee problems I had. I called few places that wanted several hundred dollars to solve the problem. So I called a local guy, and he came here and killed all the bees for a hundred bucks. He came here three times, but he got the job done for the hundred bucks.

So I won't debate you that some professionals do charge outrageous fees, but if you do your homework, you won't be paying that kind of price for services. A couple of years ago I had a washing machine with a bad kill switch at one of my apartments. The guy I called said he would fix the problem for $185.00. I told him I would just get a new one. He tried to convince me that my washer was a great model and worth the repair investment.

So I went to YouTube and found a video how to fix it myself. When I went to buy the part, it was only $18.00. I thought that because of the outrageous estimate I got from a professional, the part had to be at least $75.00. Turns out this clown was going to charge me $160.00 for labor plus the part. I fixed it myself in about an hour.

So don't be misled about what so-called professional people charge. If it's too much, chances are you are getting ripped off and you can easily find people to do the job much cheaper if you do your homework and look around a bit.

well, When we added central air to our forced hot air heating system in the house I had Sears come out and their estimate was $4500, I then found an electrician that did AC installation thru a friend who had work done by him that put it in for $1900, so I saved a bundle!

BUT electrical work and rewiring, I just didn't want to take a chance, same with reworking the plumbing in a bath remodel, wanted a Union worker, a licensed professional...cuz I just felt more secure that the job would be done right...

Here in Maine, we have learned to shop around, most people are in business for themselves in that kind of work...companies of 1... you can negotiate up here and even barter! I thought bartering was dead, but it's not!!!! My hubby is a singer/musician part time....he works a regular job and gets a gig here and there like at town festivals or lobster bakes during the summer... well this guy in construction, installed a new back deck for us for free and Mathew sang at two or maybe three of this guy's parties out at his summer camp on a lake....for free....

oh, and my mechanic, the son in law of a friend who worked full time at some auto repair, but did work on weekends in his own garage, fixed a problem with my car for free but I had to crochet an afghan for his wife, just like the one I made for his mother in law....which his wife loved....and wanted one..... I just think that is so cool, that things like bartering, still go on!

That's kind of the way things should be in this country. But you have to be careful. Just because you are paying more money for something doesn't always mean it will be done better.

It's kind of like what I just did with the exterminator. I found all kinds of places that had 1-800 numbers. So what does that tell me? It tells me I would be paying for something I didn't need.

For instance let's say I called Orkin or something. All they do is take the call. They have exterminators that subcontract for them. So they call a local exterminator (which I could easily do myself) to do the job and charge more than if I called him myself because they just beef up the price to pay the operator and organization. They really didn't do anything except take the call, then call a local exterminator, and perhaps give you their company guarantee.

I don't need to be paying middlemen for something I can do myself. The only exception to that is my insurance agent. If something happens, I don't want to argue with big companies or have to read through all kinds of documentation if there is a problem. I let my agent do that; it's what I pay him for. My agent is out to keep me happy, so the insurance company knows they can't pull the wool over my agents eyes. They may be able to do something like that if you dealt with the company directly.

 

[Bassman007]

Yes, I'm sure of it.

Americans will do any job for the proper compensation. Up north in these ungodly winters, I see linemen out in -0 degree weather during snow storms with winds 30mph on polls restoring electric power. I see the same in such weather repairing water lines.

The supply and demand system is the most perfect when it comes to employment. If you can't find workers,you need to increase your offers. If you find many workers, you are probably paying too much.

The system works good until you throw a monkey wrench into it like unions or immigrants. Then it F's up everything.

electrical work in Massachusetts charge $100 bucks an hour for the customer....those guys on polls in frigid weather get a pretty penny in the north, and THAT'S why they do it....

Plumbing work is also $100 an hour there, and this was 10 years ago....

Picking fruit is a much much harder job in the physical sense! the workers will have back problems and arthritis and many other painful ailments when they get older and if the Farmer does not contribute towards their health insurance, that's another expense that a $12.50 an hour job worker can not pay on that kind of money....

We who live here will get hit with higher prices on our food....shoot, $15 an hour with no benefits is not enough for any American to take this hard labor job....

Besides, THEY DON'T LIVE near the middle of nowhere farm land, the ones unemployed live near metropolitan area for the most part...you gotta pay an American a lot more money to be able to move themselves to a new area, find a home to rent, a car to drive, insurance etc....

I don't think $20 an hour with no benefits, is even enough....

And who in the world when they are young and strong, will want to live in the middle of farm land in the middle of nowhere? who would waste their youth picking veggies and fruit, when this would be the time to find a career path and the learning period of their future?

WHY don't the farmers apply for the visa for Migrant workers?

Liberal: We need to raise minimum wage to $15.00 an hour.
Conservative: that will increase the cost of our products and services.
Liberal: You won't notice the fifteen cent increase in your big-mac combo!

Conservative: We need to remove illegals and allow Americans to do those jobs.
Liberal: Do you know how much more you will pay for fruits and Veggies if we did that??

I don't know what boat you think I came in on, but anybody that would pay an electrician or plumber $100.00 an hour is a complete idiot, even where the Massholes live.

I was born into a construction family. When I was a child, my father paid me one dollar an hour to help him do side jobs. I carried clamps of bricks to the job site, mixed cement by hand, climbed up scaffolding two and three stories high with material my father needed, carried 8" and 12" block to the job site. And the end of the night, I would come home full of sand and cement in my clothing and hair. I would try to collapse on the bed for ten minutes (hoping my mother wouldn't see me) before I hit the showers and went to bed.

Trust me, as child, I wish I could have had a job picking strawberries. It sure as hell would have been a lot easier than being a bricklayer's laborer. My father was no easy boss to work for.

Of course when I was younger, social programs didn't pay very much. If you didn't get a job or attend college, parents back then kicked you out of the house at the age of 18. It was either work or starve.

But today, people live with their parents well into their 30's and beyond. Social programs pay almost as much as having a full-time job when you consider you don't pay taxes on benefits. Having two jobs to make ends meet? Forget about it. However when I was younger, me and most of my friends always had two jobs, or jobs that worked six to seven days a week.

But the solution to our problems is bringing in immigrants to do the jobs Americans won't do.

I agree, that is the solution, and agree with much of what you said...


Oh, and to clarify, I was saying you pay for a plumber to come to your house or electrician, a hundred bucks an hour....that's a fact, and that was 10 years ago when we were getting our house there ready to put up for sale, before moving here...the worker did not get all of that money, even if it was his own Plumbing company, he's gotta pay his receptionist or book keeper etc etc....or if he worked for someone else's business he probably got a third to half of that $100 an hour depending on the size of the company he worked for....here in my area of Maine you pay $60- $75 an hour for an electrician or Plumber and most of them are a company of 1, and maybe their wife is their receptionist and book keeper....so, in a way, they make more, with lower overhead, and no union dues like in Massachusetts....

It's one thing busting your butt as a kid working for your dad and having a home and family to come home to, with dinner served, roof over head and shower....

A lot of the youth and young adults that are unemployed, (and even employed as you mentioned), live near rural areas, with their families....leaving home to go and work hundreds of miles away, where all you can see is farm land, just ain't gonna happen.... it takes a lot of money to move out on your own, even if you have a roommate, and $12.50 an hour just doesn't cut it....especially having to move so far away from family and friends and ones support system....

But not everyone even eats at a McDonalds, and dept stores are so shy on employing workers now a days, you are lucky if you can at least find someone to ring up your sale, restaurants are understaffed too for the most part, and not everyone eats out....so raising the minimum for a few million workers, mostly restaurant workers, across the U.S. probably won't affect much...

BUT darn near everyone, buys fresh groceries for their daily meals and in my house, since we own our home and no mortgage or car payments, groceries is our largest monthly bill...and if you eat healthy and well, it ain't cheap, (especially if your husband is 6ft 3'' and can eat you out of house and home)...... near everyone will be affected....and I'm ok with that....I'd be willing to pay more, for American workers, but not everyone would be in the same position as I am... plus it would make it a lot harder for small farmers to sell their product to other countries around the world, with their prices higher....

so, bringing in workers on visas to do this work is probably the solution, but we probably need to up those quotas?

Sheesh 2 billion words or less please

ah yes, I should have considered how many mentally disabled we have on this board!

Who are you writing too? there are a total of 15 people that might read your 20 paragraphs, one of them being me. Who do you think you are Stephen King? Or perhaps like the typical retarded Hillary voter you think that you are going to change the World....................

Keep dreaming, dreamer

All Trump is doing is enforcing the laws that we already have, and doing it very well

Case in point Obama also investigated the Russians and he did nothing there as well.

But everybody loved Obooba for doing nothing