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It's called technology and economics ... The agriculture industry is no different.. There just hasn't been a massive crackdown on those who use illegal labor and thus the economics still work to pay them slave wages.. when there is a crackdown you will see just how much technology can be utilized to do the labor.
Challenge it. I have no problem with that. However, it still shows how illegal aliens, read again: ILLEGAL ALIENS, are costing the rest of us money.
Nobody denies that, but making up numbers (the news story, not you) to support a sentiment serves no purpose. Exaggerations just make the writer look like they are a bigot.
Nobody denies that, but making up numbers (the news story, not you) to support a sentiment serves no purpose. Exaggerations just make the writer look like they are a bigot.
You mean like the made up claims that illegal aliens are an asset to most Americans and that they are only doing jobs that an American won't do?
Just thinking aloud - what is draining off the American Wealth?
The Corporations who decided to outsource? Failed corporations that get bailed out? Hefty payouts of the executives who succeed or failed? The War where WMD was never found? The illegal Immigrants?
I don't buy the excuse Americans won't do these jobs. While it is true most Americans aren't too keen on doing farm labor, the employment of illegal aliens goes beyond the agricultural sector and into the restaurant business, hotels, warehousing, and everything else where employers have replaced American workers with illegal aliens because they pay them less, find it easier to take advantage of illegal aliens when they want to break labor laws, like paying minimum wage, overtime and occupational safety.
The agricultural sector needs to do more mechanization. The reason they aren't doing it is because it is cheaper to hire illegal aliens, and illegal aliens don't require periodic maintenance when they break down in the middle of a job. Employers just don't hire them and the taxpayers pay the medical costs. Meanwhile, another illegal alien dies from heatstroke in the fields of Kern County.
But back to who will do what jobs, I couldn't find any statistics on it, but the ag sector throughout the country has been screaming about a "labor shortage" for the last decade. Only a small percentage of illegal aliens who are looking for work head to the fields. It is much easier to find a job in an air-conditioned restaurant or hotel, and that is where most of them are getting jobs. Not the ag sector. And I will not believe for a minute that employers can't find Americans to vacuum the carpet at Motel 6 or flip burgers at McDonald's.
I don't buy the excuse Americans won't do these jobs. While it is true most Americans aren't too keen on doing farm labor, the employment of illegal aliens goes beyond the agricultural sector and into the restaurant business, hotels, warehousing, and everything else where employers have replaced American workers with illegal aliens because they pay them less, find it easier to take advantage of illegal aliens when they want to break labor laws, like paying minimum wage, overtime and occupational safety.
The agricultural sector needs to do more mechanization. The reason they aren't doing it is because it is cheaper to hire illegal aliens, and illegal aliens don't require periodic maintenance when they break down in the middle of a job. Employers just don't hire them and the taxpayers pay the medical costs. Meanwhile, another illegal alien dies from heatstroke in the fields of Kern County.
But back to who will do what jobs, I couldn't find any statistics on it, but the ag sector throughout the country has been screaming about a "labor shortage" for the last decade. Only a small percentage of illegal aliens who are looking for work head to the fields. It is much easier to find a job in an air-conditioned restaurant or hotel, and that is where most of them are getting jobs. Not the ag sector. And I will not believe for a minute that employers can't find Americans to vacuum the carpet at Motel 6 or flip burgers at McDonald's.
And I will not believe for a minute that employers can't find Americans to vacuum the carpet at Motel 6 or flip burgers at McDonald's.
It's the strangest thing. I feel like I'm on another planet after so many years in California. Here we have large lots, big gardens, lot of landscaping. Most of us care for our own but there are certainly those whose age or occupation makes doing it and keeping it up difficult.
Therefore we have plenty of gardeners and handymen throughout the area. You see them all the time. There are also the usual basic load of fast food restaurants, convenience stores, etc. After two years here I've yet to see anyone but Caucasians doing all those jobs - you know, those jobs the illegal-loving apologists say white people won't do. Of course, many of the naysayers are likely employers of illegals and want to keep their own interests well insulated and protected. They care more about the dollar than they do either the workers or their state/country.
Last edited by Curmudgeon; 07-04-2011 at 06:39 PM..
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