"...work that Americans will not do..."

[kentuck]

I just turned on the Pretender in Chief and he said this about 3 or 4 times in the last couple of minutes? I guess if he says it enough, it will become a fact. Americans will not do that construction work. They don't want to build foundations or window framing or put roofs on homes? Why not? Watch how fast they will change their minds if the Mexicans ever start unionizing? Watch what happens when they demand medical coverage or unemployment compensation or a higher wage? There will be no "guest" workers.

[DanCa]

1. Why do I get t he feeling that thats a code for Laura

Chimp to Laura "Honey it's getting late do you want to come upstairs and do the work that Americans will not do."

[Riverman]

13. Jobs I've done as the grandson of an immigrant:

found/ sold golf balls to golfers .25 - .75 each
shined shoes $2 pair
golf caddy $5/ bag
ran errands to stores - small tips
shoveled snow - a few bucks
mowed lawns - a few bucks
cleaned apts/grounds .75/hr
assemled fire place screens $1/hr
worked in hospital $3.75/hr
busboy $1/hr
bartender $3/ hr + tips
delivered pizzas just tips
delivered newspapers $4/hr
hauled waste - cost per trip
research intern $8 hr
rehabed housing cost plus small profit
bought, lived-in, rehabed destroyed home, sold

Did all of this while in grade school, high school, college, or grad school, many tmes working 2-3 jobs at a time while attending school full time

There are likely some jobs I would not do, but most of those are done by crimminals! If workers unionized internationally, the employers would have a harder time paying minimum wages to people "willing to work for anything" and be forced to provide health care, 8 hr work days, lunch breaks, holidays and vacation pay, sick leave, family and maternity leave and a salary to afford to buy a home, and send kids to college. The dirty lie of the republicans and most democrats is that their corporate masters will resist such moral employments practices at all cost, even destroying the fabric of families, communities and the nation.

[DanCa]

16. I hear you

I am a disabled person. Try finding a job when your legs freeze for 6 months out of the year. I can't stand stand that phrase personally. Hell I'd clean toilets (and have) if someone one would just give hire me. Dear Mr President, I want to work.

[kineneb]

17. also

I would like to work, but then Hubby risks loosing his Medicaid coverage for all the meds he needs on dialysis. Damned if you do (no coverage), damned if you don't (no money). Also, I drive him to the clinic three days per week and then home afterwards- leave home at 10 am, get back around 4 pm.

Oh, and he can't take temperature extremes, either. We are going to get the doctor's certification so we don't go broke running the AC this summmer.

Good luck, friend.

[DanCa]

19. What i hate about disability is..

Even if I find a job they'll start reducing my benefits if I make over sixty dollars a month. How do they expect us to crawl out of this hole? And than they scare us on top of everything us by wanting to do away with social security. It's not the same world that I grew up in. Everyone is cya and screw the little guy.
:hug: Hang in there too. Were in this together.

[bdamomma]

2. I think if they ever

raise the minimum wage people would get out and do the work that has to be done. This regime must go.

[CottonBear]

3. Randi Rhodes said that there is no work Americans won't do

for decent pay.

Have you seen that cable show called Dity Work or Dirty Jobs where the host tries out different "dirty jobs" each week. The jobs include charcoal making (that one was the absolute dirtiest according to the host plus he got stuck in a hopper), septic tank cleaning, horse shoeing, pet grooming and crab processing among other jobs.

[DrGonzoLives]

4. And Americans doing all of them

Kinda blows a hole in the GOP theory.

[CottonBear]

5. Doesn't it though.

I love that show. The host narrates the Deadliest Catch (Discovery Channel) which is my favorite new show about crab fishing in the Bering Sea (the world's MOST dangerous job which can pay really well if you aren't maimed or killed before payday.)

[demosincebirth]

6. Oh yeah? Read this:

Drought of workers cultivates worries.


http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_3743885

Try and read the whole article

[tsuki]

25. But what has really made Repukes nervous is that

Lou Dobbs is saying the same thing. And he is anything but a liberal Democrat.

I said that on a recent biz trip where the majority of the atendees were Repubs. Saw a segment on the telly that Dobbs did about it. Pretty good.

I went on to say that I agreed with Lou Dobbs assessment (but of course I paraphrased it)that Republican elitists don't want to have anything to do with the invisible people.

They dismiss libr'uls because that is what they have been taught to do, but one of their own speaking out--very nervous.

[liberal N proud]

7. And the morons will believe it.

That line pisses me off!
It is work that Americans will not do for the wage they get paid.
In 1980, an American could work in the meat packing industry for $12 to $15/hour. When Ronnie Reagan took office, he proceeded to bust the labor unions.
The meat processing plant where I was working for summer employment closed in 1981. Laying off 600 people. It opened up 3 months later, all illegals working at $5.00/hr.
The former employees were not even offered positions.

[KurtNYC]

9. "not even offered positions" ! Ding!

You nailed it. This lie about legal residents won't do certain jobs, ignores facts like that. These jobs are never offered to legal residents. Most of the talk about illegal immigration focuses exclusively on supply (immigrants) and NOT on demand (employers).

[Aviation Pro]

8. True to form, Asshole doesn't complete the sentence.....

......"work that Americans won't do for $3.15 per hour."

What a fucking asshole.

[Fierce]

10. Exactly.

I know some roofers. But they work for $20 an hour, plus bennies and a pension.

[Aviation Pro]

14. Actually being a roofer is a growth industry.....

...what with hurricanes galore in the red, red south.

[Fierce]

15. Well, I'll tell you right now...

They won't be making $20/hour down there. Or they might, but it'll be in cash.

[Riverman]

23. No even lowedr paid workers from Brazil by Contract Labor

Firms, hired by the big corporations that got the FEMA no-bid contracts. Per a report on National Public Radio (NPR) on April 14th, US corps hire Labor Contractors who bring in the lowest paid workers from Brazil, put them in the worse housing conditions, work them to death, pay them the absolute below minimum wages with not benefits to clean up New Orleans and the Gulf Caost from Katrina wreckage. The Corp deny any knowledge of the the contract laborers - typical republican ammorality!

A lovely system!

[Arkansas Granny]

11. This is such a load. What that really means is that it isn't possible

to exploit American workers the way they do undocumented workers. Do you think that an undocumented worker will complain if they receive less than minimum wage and no benefits? Do you think that there's a benefit to the employer if these same workers will accept cash payments which won't be reported, therefore no taxes will be paid on these wages by employee or employer?

Americans have always done these jobs and would still do these jobs if they paid a living wage. I don't know what the average fine is for an employer that hires undocumented workers, but so many of them do it that it must be quite profitable.

[zbdent]

12. A few years back, when Dems were trying to raise the minimum wage,

Rush Limbaugh was screaming about how nobody works at that wage . . . and, of course, one of the "tax cuts we need to make permanent" is geared toward those very same "non-existing" workers that Rush tried to say never existed . . . people earning minimum wage . . .

so, of course, these people don't exist . . .

And, I think that John McCain should be dogged every time he goes out . . . mention about his statement to a bunch of people that he would offer $50 an hour to pick lettuce . . . and when a taker took him up on the "offer", he claimed that the person wouldn't do it . . . if I were the guy who said he'd take the job, I would have hit back with "Well, you lied first!" . . .

[MsTryska]

18. I was having a conversation with coworkers about work

Americans jsut won't do today.


there were 4 of us.

I kept saying I had a tough time believing that there is such a thing.

The rest were telling me Americans are too lazy to do minwage jobs and do them well.

Except for the 3 out of 4 of us who have worked thos minwage jobs, and did them well. (but we were raised differently, apparently)

i still maintain that it's all propaganda.

[Disturbed]

20. Shrub's Guest Worker Program is a Scam.

It is more RW Bullshit!

[Breeze54]

22. Of course it's propaganda!!!

Mary Matlin *bitch*; keeps saying that about minimum wage workers who have the audacity to complain!

She says, in that grating voice of hers; "Well, you're not SUPPOSED to raise a family on minimum wage!"

Yet, with Nafta, Cafta, Outsourcing etc. that's exactly what American citizens have been forced to do!

It's all a bunch of hogwash, bullshit, crapola propaganda!! Pardon my cheney! ;)

Just stick your fingers in your ears like the neo-con freepers do, so you don't have to hear it!

Protect yourself!!

[Jose Diablo]

21. I'm holding out for that $50/hour job McCain was talking about in AZ.n/t

[justice1]

24. I take it none of these people have lived in small towns.

Minimum wage was common here, when WalMart moved in about 13 miles away, it forced employers to raise wages. Most still don't pay as well as WalMart though.