Those Jobs Americans Won't Take

[Adam's Apple]

The Unwilling Americans
By Daniel Gross, Slate
January 18, 2007

Last week, I wrote about the phenomenon of jobs Americans aren't willing to do. If companies can't hire the number of people they want to hire at the wages they want to pay, the reasoning goes, it must be because lazy, soft-handed Americans simply aren't willing to roll up their sleeves and do difficult jobs. Managing hedge funds and starring in reality TV shows? Absolutely. But, by this logic, not landscaping, picking fruits and vegetables, meat processing, manufacturing carpets, soldiering, or working in information technology.

for full article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2157828/?GT1=9010

 

[90K]

These are real times we are witnessing. Our culture is becoming increasingly more educated and that trend is driving to white collar and higher paying jobs. The American dream and yet at the same time we have a lot of good paying blue collar jobs that for some odd reason can't be filled all the time by willing and able bodied American citizens, instead these positions are being held for foreign labor either legal or illegal status. I feel that is really wrong and it discriminates against us as a nation.
In the past two years when I've have any deliveries of furniture or equipment to my home it's been Hispanics. Do I care? No not really and they bust the job out quickly and don't lolly gag around skylarking! I had a new roof put on my home and at 0800 they arrived on site and by 1330 these guys were loaded up and moving out. A home a few doors down took 3 days to put a roof on. Point is if I were a business owner I'd be really hard pressed not to want hiring my country men or women if I was loosing profit to my competitor. And I wouldn't be required to pay the same wage and these workers would be glad to have a job unlike my fellow countrymen and women.

Now on the other side of things I lost my good paying job and I was applying at different places and I had skills in construction, I have a good work ethics like being on the job early, coming in sober and ready to turn too once I punched it. I was not hired because I was an American, the owner could hire 2 Hispanics for the price of me. I was very upset with that practice but looking back I could see his reasoning behind the practice.
I believe there isn't a clear answer on addressing this because we all like lower prices and to keep those prices competitive we turn the other way. Profit margins are positive from those business owners and you know they arer’t complaining. Our country has been outsourcing computer work to India for over twenty years and now many large companies have their customer service techs/reps in places like the Philippine, India because of there ability to speak English and because of the lower rage that can be paid. It is pretty alarming to me but we have too many groups that support this because of the overall finical gain across the board.

 

[Darwins Friend]

Can we come to grips with the fact that we’re just cheap?

We’ve become addicted to paying a wage far below what it takes to support an actual human being, because….we can. Hypocrisy that blinds all of us to the fact that in the vast majority of the jobs these hidden folk do – must be redone, again and again to get it right – or we just lie to ourselves and say it’s ‘good enough’. It isn’t.

 

[Merlin]

I don't claim to have all the answers or even fully comprehend all the consequences, but I do know that when our Government started making laws against young people working, things got worse. Illegal aliens do a lot of work that teenagers should be doing. The time I was born and I guess the place I was born too, has a lot to do with the way I think, but long before I started school I had certain chores to do in the mornings and evenings. When I was about 10 years old I started hiring out to the neighbors when I had time and if I didn't have time, I would do a lot of the work by moonlight at night. By the time I became a teenager I would work for a dollar a day in the summer vacation while the grownups were getting 5 or maybe even 10 dollars a day. When I was 15 I got my first gas driven lawn mower and cut grass for 50 cents an acre while the grownups were getting a dollar fifty + an acre. I wasn't in this boat by myself, all this was standard practice with everyone I knew and we didn't think anything about it. To put things in a little better perspective though, 25 cents would buy a picture show ticket, a box of popcorn, and a small soda pop. I also know that I didn't have time to get into any trouble. We had marijuana back then too, but if you used it, you were an outcast. At my age I have never once even seen a marijuana cigarette, even with my 4 years of military service and 2 years overseas.
To get to a point somewhere in this post, I have a 13 year old Grandson that wants to do odd chores around his neighborhood, but finds it too difficult to find anyone that will let him because of all the liability laws and laws against teenagers working. That gives him too much time to sit around doing nothing in his spare time but playing games on the computer or some other silly outlet. There are countless other teenagers in this country that would work for spending money. Why does our Government tie their hands with the claim that they are helping them? Put them to work. Bus the city kids to the country and let them pick the lettuce or tomatoes, or watermelons, or whatever else needs to be done. They wouldn't have to pay the teenagers full wage, they would get their work done, and they would keep a lot of kids off the streets while making some of their own money, and maybe even be too tired to get into a lot of trouble and stay in more at night knowing they had to go back tomorrow.

 

[red states rule]

2006 'Mass Layoffs' Were the Lowest in 10 Years; Media Ignores

Posted by Tom Blumer on January 25, 2007 - 07:10.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its monthly report on "mass layoffs" yesterday. It also included annual totals and an eleven-year chart of mass layoff history.

A "mass layoff action" involves "at least 50 persons from a single establishment." Since 1988, employers have been required to give 60 days notice of "covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs." The BLS Mass Layoffs report compiles those notices.

The total number of "layoff events" in 2006 came in at the lowest on record (BLS began compiling these statistics during the second quarter of 1995), while the number of people who filed unemployment claims as a result of those layoffs was the lowest in 10 years. On a percentage-of-workforce basis, the number of unemployment claims filers in 2006 was also, along with the layoff events, the lowest in the 11 full years BLS has reported on this information.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/mmls.nr0.htm

 

[trobinett]

I don't claim to have all the answers or even fully comprehend all the consequences, but I do know that when our Government started making laws against young people working, things got worse. Illegal aliens do a lot of work that teenagers should be doing. The time I was born and I guess the place I was born too, has a lot to do with the way I think, but long before I started school I had certain chores to do in the mornings and evenings. When I was about 10 years old I started hiring out to the neighbors when I had time and if I didn't have time, I would do a lot of the work by moonlight at night. By the time I became a teenager I would work for a dollar a day in the summer vacation while the grownups were getting 5 or maybe even 10 dollars a day. When I was 15 I got my first gas driven lawn mower and cut grass for 50 cents an acre while the grownups were getting a dollar fifty + an acre. I wasn't in this boat by myself, all this was standard practice with everyone I knew and we didn't think anything about it. To put things in a little better perspective though, 25 cents would buy a picture show ticket, a box of popcorn, and a small soda pop. I also know that I didn't have time to get into any trouble. We had marijuana back then too, but if you used it, you were an outcast. At my age I have never once even seen a marijuana cigarette, even with my 4 years of military service and 2 years overseas.
To get to a point somewhere in this post, I have a 13 year old Grandson that wants to do odd chores around his neighborhood, but finds it too difficult to find anyone that will let him because of all the liability laws and laws against teenagers working. That gives him too much time to sit around doing nothing in his spare time but playing games on the computer or some other silly outlet. There are countless other teenagers in this country that would work for spending money. Why does our Government tie their hands with the claim that they are helping them? Put them to work. Bus the city kids to the country and let them pick the lettuce or tomatoes, or watermelons, or whatever else needs to be done. They wouldn't have to pay the teenagers full wage, they would get their work done, and they would keep a lot of kids off the streets while making some of their own money, and maybe even be too tired to get into a lot of trouble and stay in more at night knowing they had to go back tomorrow.

Damn, these are the kind of posts I just admire, right from the gut!

Merlin's early childhood mirrors mine. I worked in the apple orchards of Sebastopol, CA., on Sat., and Sundays. We got paid by the box, and I felt were fairly compensated. Its how I was able to afford my old Oldsmobile. I worked as a egg gather after school till 5:00p.m., then on Tues., and Thurs. worked from 6 to midnight at the corner Shell gas station. Pumping gas, cleaning windows, and checking oil. I thought it was pretty cool.

This kind of work ethic has served me well. Yet Merlin has made a good point, what with government intervention, these opportunities have disappeared for my grandchildren, even though their parents(my children)would have no problem with them doing the same.

I've never wished for my government to be my "babysitter", and save me from myself.

I just wish that the radical left thinking that seems to permeate our government would BUTT OUT!

This country wouldn't be finding itself in the position it is today, thats for damn sure.

 

[roadhouse158]

Yes we are on a downward spiral in this country. As much as I hate John Edwards, he says one thing right. He's just off by about a decade. I imagine that in about 10-15 years your really going to see 2 classes of people. The rich and the poor. No middle class at all. Pointing out the problems is very easy. Union's aren't the answer. They are a big reason so many companies are moving overseas. Not the only reason; but one of the big ones. I agree about the child laws. I believe local high schools should join with local companies in hiring 10th-12th graders. This should be part of the curriculum. If transportation is a problem, then the city or company can arrange for this. If we want to remain a great nation, we have to work as one. Stop trying to crap on others to move ahead ourselves. If WE don't start turning things around then the Government will do it for us. Do you really want it to come to that? Instead of people protesting the President for everything he does, they should be out in front of the companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and pay CEO's 8 figure incomes, while the lower workers make the minimum. This country has forgotten that's what we were founded on. Not Government control. Control by us. We have the rights to make a difference. Just not the direction.

 

[sealybobo]

The Unwilling Americans
By Daniel Gross, Slate
January 18, 2007

Last week, I wrote about the phenomenon of jobs Americans aren't willing to do. If companies can't hire the number of people they want to hire at the wages they want to pay, the reasoning goes, it must be because lazy, soft-handed Americans simply aren't willing to roll up their sleeves and do difficult jobs. Managing hedge funds and starring in reality TV shows? Absolutely. But, by this logic, not landscaping, picking fruits and vegetables, meat processing, manufacturing carpets, soldiering, or working in information technology.

for full article:
More jobs Americans won't do.

Is this person a conservative? See how they were defending illegals back in the Bush years? They talk much differently today.