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I hear many people say that we need illegals, as they are the only ones that will engage in manual farm labor, and are thus "essential" for our society.
1. When I was a kid (I am white), I picked strawberries, detassled corn, and cleaned dairy barns (you were covered in liquid cow crap). I did it because I needed money for college any my parents were poor.
2. Why does the citizenship make any difference whether someone will work manual labor jobs or not? Does it mean that it is easier to go on welfare, do nothing, recieve money, and sit at home rather than to pick crops?
3. Do illegals pick crops better than citizens?
4. Do illegal Hispanics pick crops better than citizen Hispanic, whites, or blacks?
In my experience, you do what work you need to do to achieve your goals, If the feds were giving me money, when I was a kids, to sit on my ass and do nothing, I would not have worked. However, this option was not available, so I did hard labor.
Now I am a physician and am fairly wealthy. So is my brother{ (physician and wealthy)- my father (who was a laborer, takes pride in relating this)}.
Perhaps it is circumstance and policies created by the federal government which provide disincentives to work that have resulted in this "shortage" in farm labor?
The vast majority of people that are out of work are lazy. You won't find many that will do those jobs, they are too much work. BTW, I picked fruit at local farms from about 12-15, then spend a couple summers tossing hay bails. My nephew's son started bailing around here-he was making $10-$14 per hour, at 15 years old. He, and the rest of the crew eventually quit..."it was too hard".
I was a mason's laborer, apprentice and then a bricklayer from HS till age 23. Hard work? Hell, yes.
Would I do it over again? Not if I could afford to walk into a fully funded 4 year college education. If not, of course.
I have no idea why Americans don't do manual labor. In the 50's whites thought work below them was for blacks.
Funny how that work was done by more whites than blacks. Jobs are jobs, especially when you need one.
Now that menial work is left to illegals. How many white or black Americans are doing the jobs now?
I hired on with contract wheat cutters starting in Texas and finished in Alberta. Brutal gruelling work. I started in the back of a dump truck levelling wheat as the combine dumped out all the while moving. Graduated to driving the truck and finally operated the wheat cutters taking care the header didn't pick up any critters especially a skunk. Drop the header too low to the ground and you choke up the discharge with straw, too high and you miss the lower stalks of wheat. Non-stop, day and night no sleep and food delivered to you; the work never stopped.
Like to see the average person try that work. My boss went through 25 people who couldn't hack it.
The vast majority of people that are out of work are lazy. You won't find many that will do those jobs, they are too much work. BTW, I picked fruit at local farms from about 12-15, then spend a couple summers tossing hay bails. My nephew's son started bailing around here-he was making $10-$14 per hour, at 15 years old. He, and the rest of the crew eventually quit..."it was too hard".
I agree-
Your experience and mine are similar.
When I was young, I would do terrible jobs, as I needed the money. If the Feds were giving me money to sit on my butt in air conditioning and do nothing instead, the choice would have been obvious.
We have MANY potential farm laborers in the US. The problem is that the US government gives these potential farm laborers money to do nothing.
The result is obvious. What happens when we give the illegals money to do nothing? Import more illegals?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Some of the farmers in our state were paying $25/hour due to a shortage of workers. Eventually their usual people get old, and their children spend more time texting than picking. It's illegal to pay by the bushel if it comes out less than minimum so they just get fired. The problem is that the potential "poor" workers are in the populated areas, and can't afford to move during harvest season and then back again but are not anxious to work that hard anyway.
bek tax payers and politicians will pay you $3000 a month in benefits and cash to sit on your posterior.
you think i make this stuff up dont you?
This is all anyone here needs to know. Our government has made it too easy for poor Americans with no ambition to just sit back on their lazy asses and collect their checks. It gets better for them once they have babies because the checks get bigger. The system is so broken but no one wants to fix it.
bek tax payers and politicians will pay you $3000 a month in benefits and cash to sit on your posterior.
you think i make this stuff up dont you?
where do i sign up ? i only make 2000 a month building rockets ... yes rocket science ...
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