"Kim W5TIT" wrote:
"Dwight Stewart" wrote:
(snip) I suppose you're now going to say immigrant
adults have more personally, better etiquette, and a
greater work ethic, than non-immigrant adults in this
country, which is why immigrant adults, not non-immigrant
adults, work in the restaurants you go to.

Yep, that's exactly what I'm saying. And, just for you and
Jim I'll say this: some.


Your bigotry towards American workers (non-immigrants) is noted. However,
we're straying off the subject with way too many personal anecdotes, so lets
get back to the core of this issue.

Again, I firmly believe the ONLY reason some people won't do some jobs is
because of the wages paid. There are people in this country (non-immigrants)
willing to walk into the containment chamber of a nuclear reactor if the pay
is good enough. There are people (non-immigrants) willing to walk 500 ft
high steel girders of a building construction site if the pay is good
enough. There are people (non-immigrants) willing to place their lives on
the line to protect you from crime if the pay is good enough. There are
people (non-immigrants) willing to lay their lives on the line to defend
this country if the pay is good enough. In other words, there are people
(non-immigrants) willing to do any job, no matter how bad or how dangerous,
if the pay is good enough. For you to now say otherwise, and instead insist
Americans just won't work because they're too lazy or too uppish (immigrants
workers are needed instead), is a slap in the face of every hard working
American.

If some of your friends and associates are different and won't work if the
pay is good (which I highly doubt), that says more about the people you hang
out with than it does about the American worker. The Americans I see all
around me are willing to work. However, the key issue for all of them is the
wages paid. It costs a lot of money to even be poor in this country today,
Kim. Average rent prices are approaching $700 per month. Average utility
prices are approaching $200 per month. Average car and insurance payments,
even for an older used car, are approaching $250 per month. Average food
prices, even for a young couple, are approaching $250 per month. That
doesn't include cloths, medical expenses, gas for the car to get to work,
car repairs, hair cuts, school costs for those who want to better their
lives, and so on. And that certainly doesn't include luxuries or children
(mentioned because some don't think the poor should even have children).

The average minimum wage worker is lucky to bring home $600 per month
after taxes. With that, even a two income family will have to give up some
of the basics of life (a car, a home, food, or something). Needless to say,
even common sense suggests few people want to work in those low paying jobs
and would rather hold out as long as possible for better paying jobs. You
seem to interpret that as they're simply too lazy or too uppish to work.

Bringing in immigrants to fill those jobs is not the answer. That still
leaves the people described above out of work and looking for jobs. Indeed,
filling those lower paying jobs with immigrants only increases the glut of
workers seeking slightly better paying jobs, driving wages down for those
jobs too. And the cycle repeats for the next higher paying jobs as workers
already in those slightly better paying jobs seek higher paying work to
escape the glut in workers seeking their jobs. The ripple effect of this
practice is undermining the entire American labor force. In the end, the
inevitable result of all this is a much lower standard of living for all
working class Americans. And those people are not going to be happy campers,
even less so as they hear some describe them as too lazy or too uppish to
work.

Increasing wages is the only answer. And if that drives some less
efficient companies out of business, well too bad. There are no guarantees
in this country (as Charles says) and, if the business is at all worthwhile,
plenty of other, hopefully better managed, companies will quickly spring up
to take their place.


Dwight Stewart (W5NET)

http://www.qsl.net/w5net/