See other Immigration Articles
Title: WHAT JOBS AMERICANS WON'T DO?
Source:
NewsWithViews
URL Source: http://www.newswithviews.com/Duke/selwyn40.htm
Published: Apr 3, 2006
Author: Selwyn Duke
Post Date: 2006-04-03 12:46:47 by christine
Keywords: None
Views: 227
Comments: 23
One reason we're supposed to rejoice at the pitter-patter of illegal feet is that foreigners are only coming here to "do jobs Americans won't do." It's one of those basic assumptions upon which the argument in favor of forgetting we have borders, a culture and laws rests, and even President Bush mentioned this "truth" while speaking about immigration reform recently. And, undoubtedly, there are certain immutable laws of economics. Only, this isn't one of them. The next time someone mindlessly parrots this mantra, just ask, "What jobs would those be?" As you'll soon learn, the answer doesn't really matter, but sometimes we're shamed by didacts who oh-so-sternly say that illegals are the people who "pick our fruit for us." So, fruit picking - something that must be in league with being a rat catcher in Victorian London or Wile E. Coyote's stunt double - is as good an example as any. One amusing aspect of the fruit picking fiction is that millions of people in our country engage in this activity as a form of recreation. Why, there are folks who embark upon autumn ventures to the hinterlands to pick apples and consider it a fun family outing. But I digress. I have to ask, if I paid you $800 an hour to pick fruit, would you do it? Except for the silk and satin set, I have a feeling most would beat a path to my orchard. And this brings us to what is a true law of economics. There are no jobs Americans won't do. There are only wages Americans won't work for. And this relates to a fact of contemporary American life: immigrants, illegal or otherwise, depress wages. Oh, some would dispute this? Well, they're wrong and I intend to prove it. There's another universal, unchangeable law of economics called "supply and demand," and most of us understand it. Regardless of what product or service is at issue, if demand increases relative to supply, prices increase; if supply increases relative to demand, prices drop. And this phenomenon is relevant here. Why? Quite simply because, like it or not, within the context of a free market system workers are commodities whose value is determined by supply and demand. For example, a skilled neurosurgeon doesn't make a half a million dollars a year because what he does is so important. If that were the case, he'd earn more than people who hit, kick and throw balls around and sign autographs. No, his income is a function of his rarity; create 100 million more just like him, and his salary will become relatively paltry. Thus, increase the supply of workers relative to the jobs available and the value of workers decreases. This is not opinion, my friends, but hard, cold fact. Immigrants swell the worker pool, thereby increasing competition for jobs, allowing employers to pay less for the same employees. We've all heard of a "buyer's market" and a "seller's market"; well, high levels of immigration transform us from a worker's market into an employer's market. Big business loves it. Of course, the immigration lobby has an answer at the ready when this truth becomes inconvenient. "How much do you want to pay for a head of lettuce?!" they exclaim. What's so ironic about this argument is that its proponents are generally the very same people who'll zealously campaign for increases in the minimum wage, an action that can also increase the cost of doing business and, therefore, retail prices. But since they say they want to help poor Americans, let's discuss that. The natural, free market way to help low income Americans is to increase their value by making them rarer commodities. How do you do this? You guessed it, by severely curtailing (a moratorium would be ideal) immigration. Do that and America becomes more of a worker's market, forcing businesses to offer more money to attract applicants. Would goods become more expensive? Perhaps, but while this isn't the focus of this piece, that may be more than offset by the elimination of the social consequences (e.g., hospital, welfare and education costs) of absorbing millions of often illiterate (some can't even read and write their own languages) Third World immigrants into our nation. Regardless, this is the traditional, healthy, free market way of spreading the wealth around. And I'd rather redistribute wealth through the market than through socialism. Lastly, there's another irony here. Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers Union during its heyday, is a hero of Americans of Mexican descent. So much so, in fact, that his name is often associated with the dual cause of promoting immigration and the re-conquest of California and the American southwest, known as La Reconquista. Conveniently forgotten, though, is a very inconvenient fact: when Chavez enjoyed the peak of his power, he was a fervid - bordering on venomous - opponent of illegal immigration. And he not only railed against it but often actually reported Mexican illegals to the INS so they could be deported. He also protested illegal immigration on the border in 1969 and had civilian border guards who were sufficiently heavy-handed to make today's Minutemen seem milquetoasty. What motivated him? Quite simply, he was charged with the responsibility of keeping his union members' wages as high as possible. And he understood the law of supply and demand. We have a union called the United States. I just wonder if membership therein means anything anymore. Of course, there's always cheap lettuce. © 2006 Selwyn Duke - All Rights Reserved
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: christine (#0)
Excellent article. It's all about the money.
Good article, Chrissie. My parents when they first married were migrant fruit and veggie pickers all up and down Californicate. And did OK, including having a car, for a young couple. They even had a tent with a wooden floor! When Mom got pg with brother after 3 years of marriage, they settled down on a single farm/ranch. And then with WWII in full swing and she got pg with me, Dad went to work in the shipyards as a welder on naval ships. To me, it's a perfect example of how people work their way up the economic ladder. One doesn't stay flippin burgers, er pickin fruit, all their lives-- unless they elect to do it for whatever reason they have. Each of these jobs taught people things like showing up to work, doing a days labor, getting paid for it. Basic, basic skills needed for the world of work.
Yep. That's the way it was back in the day before goob-give-a-way programs, multi-national corporations (loyal only to the bottom line), and a semblance of control of our borders. Back when, we helped our grandparents pick cotton for a penny a pound: you talk about some hot, back-breaking, low tech work...but they did it because they liked to eat, and have their home, farm, car, and have some jingle in their pockets. It showed me the value of paying attention in class, doing the best that I could, so that hopefully, one day, I'd have something of worth to offer prospective employers, and not have to pick that danged cotton.
LOL......ain't that the truth! I did my share of picking cotton when I was little. Matter of fact, Mom cut one of those BIG bags down and made a bag for my older brother and I. My kid brother got to use a pillowcase looking thing with a strap to put over his shoulders. My parents could pick a row on either side of them and they'd put us on their rows up ahead of them. There were mexican workers back then, or perhaps portuguese--this was Central California. They did the same with their children. My kid brother couldn't speak a word of spanish, but he'd be up by them and hear their chattering and so he'd just start talking--no particular language--more like talking in tongues, I guess! LOL....... That was really a neat feeling to have some money of your OWN, and yet helping with the family, too. I still have some scars on my fingers where the boles sliced my fingers badly. I think having done this kind of work gave our parents the determination that they wanted better for us.....and it wasn't just our own parents. There were lots of people doing hard or backbreaking work that wanted better for their families.
As a country, we had managed to survive a couple of world wars and a depression and the adults weren't really in the mood to put up with any weak shit from their kids - we did what we were told to do, or suffer some serious consequences...we had rules, not rights. And I glad of it today.
The other side of that argument that is never addressed is that most people don't want to do those jobs for GENERATIONS. I'm sure people sneaking into this country who are willing to pick fruits and clean toilets, etc, don't envision the same kind of life for their children or grandchildren. Is George Bush and company really telling these folks that that's all their fit for and all they're gonna get?
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Excellent points, and what an interesting background you have! The unfortunate thing about our economy is that increasingly we have two levels - the very physical, "low-level" kind of work the illegals are doing, and high grade, financially remunerative work the upper middle class is doing. The middle class work has been dying out so I don't know what those illegals could aspire to as there's not much available for them (or us) any more.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
Excellent point, but as long as Mexico keeps them uneducated, and they keep cranking'em out, we should look forward to an endless supply of yard guys, maids, and squalor. It WILL destroy the country we knew.
Yep!
Yesterday I was looking around in the CIA sourcebook online....and found that their literacy rate for 15 - 64 year olds (able to read and write)is something like 92%. I think the men is a little higher and the women a little lower. That surprised me. Their per capita income is said to be something like 1/4 of the US. As big as Mexico is, their population is considerably smaller, which surprised me. I think this illegal stuff is merely a way for mexico to get rid of much of her poor--that saves tons on the budget, whether it is for medical treatment or keeping them in some sort of prison.
Yep. There is virtually no middle-class in Mexico, never has been. The long-standing rich there don't like having to support an impoverished lower-class.
”We have room but for one flag... We have room but for one language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is the loyality to the American people.” - Theodore Roosevelt
It has long beene a goal of the internationalists to eliminate the american middle class. We're the only country with this degree of success, and it needs to be stopped according to them. The move up to a 'service economy' was just another step in that direction. Ship nearly all the high wage paying industrial jobs to china, india, malaysia, or wherever, and a large chunk of the middle class is wiped. Obviously, they aren't going to find a comparable job in the industrial sector, so they either try for upper jobs, for which they are unqualified, or lower, which they are overqualified for--and need 2 or 3 to reach a comparable wage level. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that 300 million people cannot live off the service sector. Too bad internationalists can't see what the non- rocket scientist can see--but then, they don't give a damn about the peons, nor their overseers....this only the elites theye are concerned with.
Huh! You may be on to something there...or maybe the spooks are fudging the numbers? We've been to the west coast, and the interior, of Mexico and I will tell you that we saw RICH, and we saw POOR. No middle class. In MexicoCity, I observed that the guys maintaining the right of ways, and the many parks there were all using hand tools - no power equipment at all. When I asked the guide why didn't somebody open an Echo dealership there, he told me that they wanted to keep as many as possible, busy as long as possible, and power tools would screw-up the plan.
Correct. My Spanish II teacher in so=cal was from Mexico City. And she made it clear from what she said, as well as didn't say, that there is a difference and it is kept that way. My Spanish I teacher was a whole different ballgame. She was from Spain. Spoke with the 'th' sound. What a doll--little old dried up prune of a woman, but a great one. I loved her dearly. My oldest brother had been in her class--and he wasn't the student I was. However, I often picked up his text book because I had two friends who were from Mexico. Anyways, when I took her class, she started off by speaking in Spanish, slowly, and with smiles, and I was able to understand enough of what she was saying. She then switched to English and translated what she had said. And then she called roll call and pronouned each person's name in English and again in Spanish. When she came to me, she asked in spanish, Tiene usted un hermano con llama Ramon (as I best recall my long lost Spanish language skills)? I relied, blushingly, 'Si, me hermano es Ramon'. She began to chatter about him, some of which I understand, and then she explained in English that he was a nice boy, but naughty--he didn't pay attention to Spanish, he paid attention to the girls! She explained the difference between Spain and Mexico and explained some about classes of people.
nice memories I remember we had to pick new spanish names and name cards. My first spanish teacher looked just like an Aztec. My favorite was from Texas, he taught 3 languages; they all came out texan. His spanish was better than french or german.
”We have room but for one flag... We have room but for one language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is the loyality to the American people.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Look at all the south american countries and central american countries who were able to see Castro get rid of many unwanteds thru the Mariel boatload business. Ship 'the scum' to the u.s.a. and let her deal with it. Does anyone really believe that Castro tries to keep those poor blokes who try to escape on innertube rafts, et al, from leaving? Cuba has more problems than it can deal with--so many lost mouths leave a little more for the rest. Same with all these other countries. You take a look at their population, and birth rate, and literacy rate, and income rates, poverty levels, etc., and you'll see that losing 5,000 in mudslides, which we consider terrible and the families mourn, if there are any left, mean that the government (many of which are corrupt) can spend more elsewhere--and generally not on the ordinary man and his family. Governments, and I daresay all, can't be bothered with the peons and their problems. Look at our own mess--the looming nightmare of the upcoming social insecurity and mediscare programs. Now with big battles over decreasing taxes, any taxes, and seeing that these funds are all spent already and there are pieces of paper there promising to pay X with interest, where's it gonna come from? Geeze, I hear talk of 'reducing' social security benefits, increasing the costs of mediscare---but never hear about congresscowards reducing their retirement benefits or other perks. That's here in a nation where news and their dealings can be followed 24/7 via several methods. What about nations that don't have phone service available to everyone? That was a factoid I saw regarding Mexico--I want to say they have something like 1.5 phones PER MILE. Well, if a guy is still sowing crops and harvesting crops by hand, exactly how does he afford a phone--or a computer--or electricity--or college? And much of the interior is still done by hand. I have a son=in=law from the interior, and when he came to visit our ranch up in Montana, he was like a kid with a new Christmas toy. He loved the tractor. We were baling hay and he was so excited that we had a truck and trailer to carry the hay out in BALES, that he was running from bale to bale to toss them on the trailer! His grandparents still use hand sycthes, pitchforks and wagons to cut grass hay for fodder for their handful of animals. They still do laundry at the town laundery well==my stepdaughter learned all about that on her first trip down there with a baby! They still use horses to get around the region where Fernando is from. He and Mary had a new van they went down in, but couldn't drive a lot of places. They walked a lot and did some horseback visiting.
For three looooooooooooooong years, I suffered through with Eleanita (who, behind her back, was known as Mamacita, the fat senorita.) Poor thing, I guess she did the best she could with what she had. I will say that Spanish is a much easier language to learn than is English - they keep the sounds consistent and it's not that tough to learn the rules.
LOLOLOLOL. On that note, I gotta get off here and git into my bible study time. I seem to need it today more than usual. Later......
Ack! Another brutal farm chore that I'd blocked from my memory...at a penny a bale, my brother and cousins thought that we were rich by the time all the hay had been put up into the barns and lofts.
I always laughed at our daughters who would complain (except when guys were around) about being stick hot and tossing hay bales! "Why do we have to do it when it's so hot, Mom?" We, duh! You don't bale hay in the wintertime in northern climes! Course when guys were around, they could move mountains and never complain...actually, that was my youngest. The oldest was smarter than that! She knew haying meant hard work, regardless of boys, and she preferred cracking the school books.
They will when it gets to the point that we track them down and kill them where they live. The French did it, the Russians did it, the Chinese did it, the Cubans did it - it's happened in country after country. We may yet get to that point too, if we're driven to it. That's what the elites underestimate - the anger of a desperate people living in injustice.
"I woke up in the CRAZY HOUSE."
DO NOT MISS The End Game post of Horse.
JOBS REAL AMERICANS WON'T DO
#2. To: christine (#0)
One amusing aspect of the fruit picking fiction is that millions of people in our country engage in this activity as a form of recreation. Why, there are folks who embark upon autumn ventures to the hinterlands to pick apples and consider it a fun family outing. But I digress.
#3. To: rowdee (#2)
Each of these jobs taught people things like showing up to work, doing a days labor, getting paid for it. Basic, basic skills needed for the world of work.
#4. To: lodwick (#3)
It showed me the value of paying attention in class, doing the best that I could, so that hopefully, one day, I'd have something of worth to offer prospective employers, and not have to pick that danged cotton.
#5. To: rowdee (#4)
I think having done this kind of work gave our parents the determination that they wanted better for us.....and it wasn't just our own parents. There were lots of people doing hard or backbreaking work that wanted better for their families.
#6. To: christine (#0)
#7. To: rowdee (#2)
#8. To: mehitable (#6)
#9. To: lodwick (#5)
#10. To: lodwick (#8)
Mexico keeps them uneducated,
#11. To: rowdee (#10)
I think this illegal stuff is merely a way for mexico to get rid of much of her poor--that saves tons on the budget, whether it is for medical treatment or keeping them in some sort of prison.
#12. To: mehitable (#7)
#13. To: rowdee (#10)
I think this illegal stuff is merely a way for mexico to get rid of much of her poor--that saves tons on the budget, whether it is for medical treatment or keeping them in some sort of prison.
#14. To: robin (#11)
There is virtually no middle-class in Mexico, never has been.
#15. To: rowdee (#14)
#16. To: lodwick (#13)
#17. To: rowdee (#14)
I wish that I'd had your teacher.
#18. To: robin (#15)
My favorite was from Texas, he taught 3 languages; they all came out texan.
#19. To: rowdee (#16)
We were baling hay and he was so excited that we had a truck and trailer to carry the hay out in BALES, that he was running from bale to bale to toss them on the trailer!
#20. To: lodwick (#19)
#21. To: rowdee (#12)
Too bad internationalists can't see what the non- rocket scientist can see--but then, they don't give a damn about the peons, nor their overseers....this only the elites theye are concerned with.
#22. To: mehitable. rowdee. everyone here (#21)
They will when it gets to the point that we track them down and kill them where they live. The French did it, the Russians did it, the Chinese did it, the Cubans did it - it's happened in country after country. We may yet get to that point too, if we're driven to it. That's what the elites underestimate - the anger of a desperate people living in injustice.
#23. To: christine (#0)
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest