Dirty Work - What are the jobs Americans won't do?

[bridgit]

'The United States is a nation of hard workers. Compared with many other developed countries, the U.S. boasts high rates of labor-force participation and productivity and has a very low unemployment rate. Americans work longer hours than Europeans—1,804 hours per worker for the United States in 2005, compared to 1,434 in Germany and 1,535 in France, according to the OECD.

Yet it's increasingly common to hear politicians, CEOs, and immigration activists impugn American workers as a bunch of shiftless layabouts who regard many good jobs as beneath their dignity. That, they say, is why employers have to turn to immigrants—some of them legal, many of them illegal. To hear CEOs tell it, they'd much rather hire English-speaking, tax-paying U.S. citizens, people who won't disrupt operations by getting rounded up in Homeland Security sweeps. But they just can't find any Americans willing to do their jobs. As President Bush himself said last March, the United States needs a temporary guest-worker program that would "match willing foreign workers with willing American employers to fill jobs that Americans will not do."'

http://www.slate.com/id/2157483

[wakeme2008]

1. Well I have seen a couple on "Dirty Jobs" that I would not do

:rofl:

[Rosemary2205]

5. That broken water treatment pump one really got to me.

the sewers here backed up once and our toilet literally exploded (and I do mean pieces of toilet exploded through the drywall and into another room at a high velocity. The smell was insane.

My water utility and it's treatment facility(s) does not hire legal residents or illegals. One of the job requirements is to be a full US citizen. Meaning when the solid waste pump breaks down someone has to go in there and shovel it out and fix it.

Peeee uuuuuu

I can't see any job in the US being worse than that.

[Beartracks]

11. Exploded??

:nuke: How did that happen - why didn't it just overflow?

[Rosemary2205]

14. kaboom - we were told it was sewer gas exploding

on the sinks the u traps at the bottom split and the lid on the clean out trap in the yard ended up on our roof.

But anyways, the stench gave me a new appreciation for water treatment plant workers.

edit - dropped a "t".

[Porcupine]

26. Dead people smell worse.

Last summer we had a tenant die in one of our units during a heat wave. He had been ill and accidentally turned the AC to full heat. It was four days at 100+ degrees before they found him.

The smell in that apartment was so bad that I had to change my clothes after I had been in there for 15 minutes. I didn't touch anything; I was there to take pictures. My crews, all legal citizens, cleaned and rehabed that place for the same wages they did everything else.

Give me a sludge pond any day.

[lligrd]

2. And I Wouldn't Work For Bush, Cheney Or Any Neocon

but apparently there are Americans who will. What job could be dirtier than that? I guess that puts that theory to rest.

[nonconformist]

3. Americans won't work for slave wages

Americans expect to be paid fairly for their work. They might even, horrors, expect some health benefits too.

There isn't a type of job on Earth that Americans can't, won't, or aren't doing.

[Beartracks]

8. Hear! Hear!

I don't get it... The talking point is that illegals only work jobs that Amurcans don't want or won't do... And yet if they receive some kind of amnesty or other "legal" status, won't those employers suddenly find that they have to pay at least minimum wage? And then, simultaneously, those jobs become jobs that Amurcans indeed might be willing to do! :crazy:

[Wiley50]

4. Clean Up After Cheesy And Chimpy ( Unless They Are Gone For good) n/t

[bridgit]

16. eewwwww...

x(

[jody]

6. Go to any of the states bordering Mexico and visit the fields where migrant workers

sweat and toil doing backbreaking work.

I don't believe anyone can get a bus load of Los Angles people to go to the Imperial Valley and work in the fields.

[LostInAnomie]

9. I bet if they were paid the equivlent increase in wages that...

... Mexican workers get when they cross the border you would find quiet a few that are more than willing.

[jody]

13. Are you suggesting farm labor be subsidized? n/t

[LostInAnomie]

15. Farm labor already is subsidized.

We just don't call it that. By not enforcing labor laws and letting farmers to avoid paying citizens legal wages, we are keeping the farmers' labor cost artificially low (de facto subsidizing).

What I was saying is that if someone from California were given the 200 - 300% increase in wages that Mexican workers are paid (compared to what they would make in Mexico) you would find a lot of people willing to work in the fields.

[jody]

19. I understand your point but I was not aware that farmers avoid paying citizens legal wages. Please

clarify your assertion.

[LostInAnomie]

20. By turning their head when farmers...

... employ illegal immigrants for less that minimum wage, politicians allow farmers to avoid paying American citizens (who they are mandated by law to pay at least minimum wage) a legal wage.

I am not saying that all farmers seek out illegal laborers and avoid finding Americans, but the nature of capitalism forces competition. Farmers that do try to obey the law and employ legal workers are at a competitive disadvantage. After a while employing illegal laborers not only becomes the norm, it becomes a necessity.

[jody]

21. OK but if farmers hire migrant workers at minimum wage as my friends do, are you going

to claim that is subsidizing farmers?

[LostInAnomie]

23. First, I would say that your friend is a hell of a lot more generous...

... than the farmers around here ($1.25 - $2.15 an hour).

Second, I would ask: Are these migrant workers here under a work visa, illegally, or are they American citizens? If they are American citizens, then you friend has found good cheap labor. If they are here under a work visa or illegally though, you friend is benefiting from de facto subsidizing. The migrant workers that he is hiring are an institutionalized method to avoid paying the prevailing wage thereby lessing the cost of production.

[jody]

31. They are her under a work visa and I believe their wages are legal. n/t

[madeline_con]

7. "But they just can't find any Americans ...

willing to do their jobs"

I call BULLSHIT right here. I live in FL, and I do see a lot of immigrants picking fruit.

However, I also see a lot of illegals working in roofing, stucco and other work that is or used to be union jobs. Americans WILL take a lot of jobs, if employers have to pay them a decent wage.

It's really not about racism or nasty labor, it's about being paid above slave wages.

[Warpy]

10. I don't think there are any jobs Americans won't do

but there are jobs that Americans won't accept starvation wages to do.

That's the difference.

I was a nurse, and that's one of the dirtiest jobs out there.

[bridgit]

12. i hear'ya, Hon, my hubby was a journeyman plumber for some 20+ years...

[catnhatnh]

17. There are NO jobs Americans won't do...

...only jobs that pay too little to attract Americans.Cut out exploited workers who cannot complain about wages because of immigration problems and this would become clear....construction workers are more highly paid for physically demanding jobs but here also are upwardly mobile illegals appearing.A more honest question would be, what would Mr. Nardelli, given $210 million dollars NOT to run Home Depot next year ask to perform 8 months a year doing stoop work while following the harvest???

[ReadTomPaine]

27. Exactly. Pay a decent wage and there will always be plenty of able workers.

Simple as that. This is just a cheap labor argument at it's heart. "How low are you willing to be paid ?" is the real question.

[Porcupine]

28. Including some they SHOULDN'T do......

One of my biggest problems in the last few years when I was supervising maintenance crews was getting workers to take safety precautions. Many american workers expect to work without health or safety considerations and think that it is normal.

One of the problems of illegal immigrant labor is that safety goes out the window in favor of profits right away. Illegals are far less likely to report safety violations or delay work to ensure their own safety. The result is that ALL employees have to compete with a labor class that does not obey safety rules. Then we ALL suffer when we have injured workers out of work that we must then support and rehab.

[LostInAnomie]

18. I know it sounds facile but...

... watch the show "Dirty Jobs" on the Discovery Channel and you will see that there are no jobs that Americans won't do as long as they are being paid a living wage.

[ReadTomPaine]

29. That's a good example, actually.

When a person is valued for a service and respected by an employer with a good wage and reasonable resources to accomplish their task the work ethic of Americans is among the strongest one will find anywhere in the world. They often portray this quality on the show when those elements are in place.

[Mnemosyne]

22. And maybe if the corporations paid living wages

to the people working at the US outsourced jobs in Mexico, there would not be such a need to run for the border. jmo

[bridgit]

30. i heard it put quite strangely in the last couple years; corporations...

being evermore global, have arrived at what they consider the mean average wage that will sustain the illusion of democracy...and the mean, worldwide average is: $8.75 per hour +/-, thereabouts

their thinking is that too much less and dissatisfaction sets in and creates an environment within which revolt against a system providing so little is likely (everyone is essentially happy so long as they still have decent tennis shoes and broadband access, corporations figure that's all you deserve anyway), too much 'unplanned' chaos in that we all know that chaotic scarcity is a prime engine for the futures & commodities markets...global oligarchic entities are willing to play, willing to ride out & survive what they consider acceptable, proper levels of chaos like the strings on a fiddle witness Iraq, the ME as proof...

but too much more than that $8.75 per hour and the oligarchs themselves begin to chafe, and their bottom line is effected and that pisses them off to no end...

they have nearly reached their mean average worldwide wage, as again they are global thinkers; some countries making literally pennies on the dollar, while western countries make higher wages 15, 18, maybe $20 per hour but on average it is really nearer to that $8.75 worldwide and make no mistake about it...

if they could get americans into a box where they are paid $.50Ct's per hour they would do it in a heartbeat but for the fact that we are spoiled in their eyes, that and democracy is only an illusion

[alfredo]

24. Popping zits on

Karl Rove's ass.

[Rebellious Republican]

25. I see many driving heavy equipment, working....

construction jobs, fast food servers, working for cleaning services, many are climbing up into management positions. They are working many jobs that Americans would love to do, however we can not afford to work for the pennies to the dollar that they can. Look around, they are everywhere, how is this possible. Easy, they work in the states for several months, sharing housing while they are here, then they return to there respective countries and live for next to nothing on american dollars earned while here. Unfortunately, we have to live here year round, on our inflated economy and survive. It is not possible to compete for the same pay they get. It is a big lie they keep promoting, while we watch our middle class disappear. I ask, where is the patriotism from corporate America! Support middle class Americans, would it actually hurt for CEO's and stock holders to take a few million less in bonus pay outs.

Fuck Corporate America they do not give a rats ass about us!