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I worked construction and then started my own little (2 man) remodeling company - made a decent living. But if you live in a trailer park in Kentucky there are probably not a lot of people getting their homes remodeled or building new house developments.
There are some construction jobs in big cities (Miami, NYC, etc.) but these people would have to move there and have no family support...and even most construction jobs don't pay enough for a person to survive in those cities.
Of course, since so many want The Wall, there is plenty of work in berry picking, meat packing, the hospitality industry, etc.
Some of this is in the rural areas...and, yes, in most cases neither white nor black folks want to do it. Neither do Asians. It seems only those South of the Border are willing to do this work year-in and year-out.
You can survive on a construction job in Florida if you live in a small rental with 2 or more other roommates. But, again, the level of physical activity is probably only something few can qualify for. For example, Miami can be 94 degrees and 95% humid at this time of year....working in the sun in such a climate will make most people sick.
If construction companies paid 40/hr and provided places to stay as part of their employment they would have all kinds of people lined up to work. 40/hr with no/little over head means they could go back home with a VERY substantial amount of money. But just to go down and work to live and go back home with nothing, no thanks.
The reason the wall is gaining traction is because people south of the boarder are starting to take high wage craft labor jobs. As an engineer I am less concerned with an actual wall as I am the Indians (from india) and Asian H1B's, they are starting to take air conditioned well paying office jobs from americans and as that proliferates we will get more and more extreme politicians because people don't want to compete against the whole world for those jobs, much easier to vote them out of here.
And I agree, I don't want to share intellectual property with these people or compete against them (other than militarily).
If construction companies paid 40/hr and provided places to stay as part of their employment they would have all kinds of people lined up to work. 40/hr with no/little over head means they could go back home with a VERY substantial amount of money. But just to go down and work to live and go back home with nothing, no thanks.
The reason the wall is gaining traction is because people south of the boarder are starting to take high wage craft labor jobs. As an engineer I am less concerned with an actual wall as I am the Indians (from india) and Asian H1B's, they are starting to take air conditioned well paying office jobs from americans and as that proliferates we will get more and more extreme politicians because people don't want to compete against the whole world for those jobs, much easier to vote them out of here.
And I agree, I don't want to share intellectual property with these people or compete against them (other than militarily).
Starting ? It has been going on for close to 20 years...maybe more.
But it does not change the fact that they are paying low/no taxes, these sorts of low wage jobs don't generate tax revenue of any substance. Only taxing the employers at increased rates will raise tax revenue to off set the corporate welfare they are getting by having employees on welfare.
You should fully expect that kind of attendance for low wage hard work jobs, especially people that DONT have families, they wont care. People that do have families will start listing homes and looking for real jobs nation or sometimes world wide. People shouldn't work unless its in their best interests to do so, ie they are making real money and the employer is creating incentive to be there. Most people DONT want to work these types of jobs they do so usually only because the money is really good for their skill sets.
Playing the work ethic card will never work for you unless there is something in it for the person that has to show up. Not just your slave wages your willing to pay, this creates a healthy economy because all the shabby buisnesess with shabby half baked business plans will dry up and only the real business will survive just as it should.
Related to another thread we have here on C-D (IIRC, something like "many in their 30s are now working FF), this does make sense why they hire adults vs. teens for these jobs. Teens are still living at home. They don't need the job. People here on C-D thinking that some "formula to success" is getting started in FF/MW, then never doing those again (as in once you're an adult), moving onto some career job when some folks skipped these jobs and are doing fine just now. The worked hard in college, trade school, their internship, whatever.
Me, I had a menial job after I graduated, as I couldn't find work yet. $8/hour. It paid for my shares of cable and phone bill, so it wasn't useless. However, when I had a chance to vacation out of the country (I could live with my parents, so I would NOT need to pay lodging, and airfare was affordable), it was quite the opportunity. They told me if work won't authorize it, just quit. In their opinion, it's not worth missing out on this. I'm pleased to hear that my thoughts on this aligned with theirs.
The flipside to describing this situation is someone who buys a $1 McBurger and is genuinely appalled at how awful it is. It's a one, dollar, burger! Yes, workers should show pride in their work, but it's often misplaced at MW, and they shouldn't show loyalty towards a company that won't return it. Likewise, consumers shouldn't expect a quality, well crafted burger at when they only paid $1 for it. It's not going to be "made with pride".
Related to another thread we have here on C-D (IIRC, something like "many in their 30s are now working FF), this does make sense why they hire adults vs. teens for these jobs. Teens are still living at home. They don't need the job. People here on C-D thinking that some "formula to success" is getting started in FF/MW, then never doing those again (as in once you're an adult), moving onto some career job when some folks skipped these jobs and are doing fine just now. The worked hard in college, trade school, their internship, whatever.
Me, I had a menial job after I graduated, as I couldn't find work yet. $8/hour. It paid for my shares of cable and phone bill, so it wasn't useless. However, when I had a chance to vacation out of the country (I could live with my parents, so I would NOT need to pay lodging, and airfare was affordable), it was quite the opportunity. They told me if work won't authorize it, just quit. In their opinion, it's not worth missing out on this. I'm pleased to hear that my thoughts on this aligned with theirs.
The flipside to describing this situation is someone who buys a $1 McBurger and is genuinely appalled at how awful it is. It's a one, dollar, burger! Yes, workers should show pride in their work, but it's often misplaced at MW, and they shouldn't show loyalty towards a company that won't return it. Likewise, consumers shouldn't expect a quality, well crafted burger at when they only paid $1 for it. It's not going to be "made with pride".
I would bet that there is nothing most employers hate more than someone who does not need the job, the amount of leverage an employer looses is tremendous if they have a significant number of staff that don't need the job. That means as soon as a manager has an adult tantrum or starts spouting off carefully crafted condescending crap the employees will fire right back and may just walk out ... because they don't NEED the money.
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