A landscaper’s ‘hire American’ plan ended with bringing in Mexican workers to finish

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Abner, Oct 6, 2017.

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  1. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

  2. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    A Hispanic business owner exploits the laws in the country he runs his business in by importing cheap labor from another country? Great article, there's stuff in here for Dems and Repubs to be pissed about, if Dems or Repubs had any principles.


    I bet if he paid more (i.e. voluntarily raised his own minimum wage) he might get more "Americans" to take the jobs. But Repubs don't want to increase wages...


    Sounds like a real stand up guy. “Ready to work?” Medrano joked in Spanish — before the men had a chance to use the bathroom or eat breakfast. The 63-year-old grandfather, wearing a cowboy hat, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans and grinned." - I bet if there was no camera or reporter with him, you bet your ass they would be working. Bathroom breaks or not.


    Love the picture of Jesus in his office, religious people love to proselytize while turning a profit.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    This is the perfect argument against "college for everyone" because college credit in any form (certificate, diploma, degree) elevates our opinion of ourselves and generating some type of entitlement. Even if it's the idea of $10 per hour vs $13, it's there and very real. Respectfully, I'm not signing up to do that job either.
     
  4. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Post-secondary training should definitely not be made available to everyone because not everyone deserves the opportunity to raise their socioeconomic status. We need certain groups to stay in the working class to do our dirty work. When people receive a certificate of training to increase their knowledge and skills, they start demanding a living wage, and we can't have that.



    The unemployment rate is very low right now. Naturally, the least desirable jobs are going to go unfilled.
     
  5. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    For the love....enough already. Don't you get bored commenting on all my comments?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2017
  6. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Since when? I rarely say anything to you. I responded to you in two threads in the past week, and now I'm commenting on all your comments? That sounds like a personal, mental issue. Don't blame me for your paranoia and grandiose sense of self. Not to mention that I made general comments on Harvard Extension, and you felt the need to respond to me and tell me that I was wrong when I wasn't. Of course I'm going to respond back.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 8, 2017
  7. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    jobs that nobody wants

    In all my years, I have never seen a white or black man picking strawberries in the baking hot sun for 14 to 16 hours a day in the baking sun. I don't know what made me think of this, but I am just saying.This kind of kills the argument that the "Mescans" (slur)" are taking all the in demand jobs. I guess if employers had to pay these people a living prevailing wage, our tomatoes and strawberries would 4 or 5 times the amount of what we pay now.
     
  8. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    These jobs were done by slaves and indentured servants to a lesser extent. When slavery was abolished, sharecroppers did these jobs. They also utilized prisoners, but laws were passed limiting the use of prisoners because this gave the government and its contractors an unfair advantage.

    Legal immigrants also did a lot of these jobs, but once a group establishes itself in the U.S., they strive to do better. Today's legal immigrants tend to be more educated and aren't looking to pick fruits. If a law is passed only allowing legal immigrants with high skills to come here, then the worker shortage is only going to get worse. These were never meant to be high-paying jobs and have always been done for very low wages or for free.
     
  9. jhp

    jhp Member

    I have picked strawberries, cherries, peppers, even asparagus and I am not Hispanic. I must be just a figment of my imagination. Sort of like a recursive universe.
     
  10. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Just out of curiousity, are you a native born American, or are you a naturalized citizen? Unless I am mistaken (and I could be), I could swear you once posted about how you couldn't believe that us Americans spend so much money on our pets. This led me to believe that you are perhaps originally from elsewhere. If I am wrong, I will stand corrected.
     
  11. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    I don't think that higher education necessarily elevates one's sense of entitlement (personal opinion).

    I think it can play a part. But I also think that it is more of a symptom than the disease itself.

    For years guidance counselors and teachers basically sold the idea that college is the path to a future. Media played no small part in all of this, too.

    I remember one of the movies that really affected my views on education as a kid was Stand and Deliver. Edward James Olmos starts teaching a bunch of kids in an inner-city school higher level math, decides that he just needs to crack through this tough guy veneer and reach past all of their collective insecurities and allow them to reach their full potential. By the end of the year turns most of the kids into college bound math dynamos.

    Based on a real story, but not. The real Jaime Escalante spent years making marginal progress. He didn't walk into a classroom and dramatically and permanently change everything in the course of a year.

    That movie also showed, I realize it retrospect, some of the worst contempt for the working and middle class I could imagine. One student dreamed of being a doctor but we were led to fear that she would simply be forced to drop out of school and work full time in her family's restaurant. Because doctor = a good and noble aspiration and working in a restaurant (even one your family owns) = a shitty working class existence that could have been avoided if only college. We see a similar thread in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

    We have demonized the skilled trades. We, as a(n American) society have lumped every job where you get your clothes and hands dirty into one big "yuck" bucket that should be avoided at all costs. How do you avoid this terrible fate? College!

    I'm having a serious recruitment issue right now...

    It is hard as hell to find enough welders to fill slots. I have brought in welders from as far away as NYC and North NJ by bus to interview for jobs here. I literally cannot find enough qualified candidates to fill some $40k (starting) positions that require one year of training that, in many circumstances, is free to obtain.

    But if I post an ad for a $30k per year marketing associate? I have to beat back the candidates with a stick.

    When I ask new welders why they got into the business many of them have perfectly sensible reasons like "I want stable work" and "I want a job with a future without having to go to school forever."

    When I ask recently graduated marketing majors why they chose marketing I get a lot of "Uhh...I needed to choose a major and marketing sounded like it might be fun" or "Well, I needed to go to college and I needed a major so I just took a few courses and blah..."
     
  12. jhp

    jhp Member

    I forgot, picking grapes. Table grapes.

    You are correct in your assumption.
     

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