Americans: too proud to do grunt work?

[RedGlitter]

This piece is strictly commentary. It has made me angry because it's an excuse IMO, for not paying people what their work is worth. How about instead of saying Americans are too entitled, that we say illegals are very desperate? How about if we raise the wage so that whoever picks strawberries or lettuce, can afford to do so. I am SO tired of hearing this rhetoric! There's a reason Americans won't take these jobs- it doesn't pay our bills! How about we fault the employers for being cheap?:mad: Your comments??



Commentary: U.S. workers will pick that lettuce -- for $1,000 a week



Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Special to CNN







Fresno, CALIFORNIA (CNN) -- There is nothing like coming home, and I got the chance to do that today thanks to an invitation to join in a lunch forum hosted by the Kenneth L. Maddy Institute at California State University, Fresno, which sets out to train new leaders.



I like the sound of that. We need new leaders. Just look at the recent shoving match over immigration reform, which happens to be the topic that we'll be discussing over lunch. I'm told that many in the audience will have some connection to agriculture.

Big surprise. Everyone in Fresno is connected to agriculture, whether they realize it or not. That's the whole point. While many Americans tell themselves that they don't benefit in the least from illegal immigration, my friends in the San Joaquin Valley don't have that luxury. They're up to their necks in benefit. Oh, there are costs, too -- to schools, hospitals, jails, etc. But, after it's all said and done, Fresno and other agri-cities come out way ahead.

How do I know? Because they're not exactly asking illegal immigrants to leave. In fact, farm groups were part of the chorus calling for comprehensive immigration reform, including a call for new shipments of guest workers. That's because they know that without immigrant labor -- legal if can be, illegal if must be -- my beloved hometown would shrivel up like a raisin in the sun.

While you're just as likely to find illegal immigrants working on construction sites, or making beds in hotels, or cooking up breakfast in the local diner, many of them still gravitate to farms and ranches. And it's a good thing they do, farmers and ranchers say, because these are not jobs that Americans want.



Consider the strawberry farmer in Oxnard, California, who told CNN that not once in 25 years of planting and harvesting had an American citizen ever asked for a job picking strawberries.

Immigration restrictionists claim that Americans would line up for even the dirtiest and most distasteful jobs if only wages were higher. How much higher? A reader told me that he'd gladly go pick lettuce around Salinas, California -- for $1,000 a week.

I can't wait to share that story with the farmers. I hope they don't cough up their Caesar salads. It's not just that, at those wages, lettuce pickers would earn more than many cops and firefighters, nurses and teachers. Or that salads would cost as much as caviar.

What I find interesting is that the reader -- as a proud American worker -- didn't hesitate to make the demand and, in fact, he felt that earning any less would be beneath him. And we're surprised that many farmers and ranchers -- and countless other employers -- prefer to hire immigrants and rarely give those of us born in the country a second look.

It's not just the money. It's our sense of entitlement. And for what -- all the effort we put into being born on this side of the border?

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the editorial board of The San Diego Union-Tribune and a nationally syndicated columnist. You can read his column here.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

[nvalleyvee]

I've said that forever. Give a fair living wage to adults who have children to support. The problem has been to pay teenager wages to people who have to support a family. It seems that paying this living wage drives up the cost of consumer goods and the middle class gets angry. There are plenty of high school educated people in this country - with no marketable skills - who think they deserve to live middle class. That is bull.

[KB.]

Most Americans won't do the work, regardless of pay. This isn't our grandparent's depression era America, and if it ever happens again this country won't survive it.

[guppy]

yea i was gonna say i run a roofing business and pay really well..way above other wages in this area...do i have white guys>??????????? huh....not a one....white men dont jump and apparently white men dont sweat either...:-3

and i agree with you kb..next depression alot of people are gonna suffer...esp the welfare...and the mentally ill...and the trust babies....the working class will make it...who exactly that is anymore is in question ....:rolleyes:

[Patsy Warnick]

KB

your so right

As I grew up in a family of 6 kids, with a Father who went thru the depression, I hated summers, we worked all summer. I berry picked - bean picked, (means you caught a old old delapitated school bus that carted you out to a field to harvest whatever.) I was very short @ 8yrs old so my sisters held me up to meet height requirements. To be paid by the flat or bushel, you had a punch card which didn't equate to much. We worked all summer pulled our money together as a family, which would be applied to school clothes - dental work - eye glasses etc..

So, would I do that sort of work today - NO - do familys pull together like that now - NO

did I have a choice then - NO, but all those summers of working and my friends were playing - well lets just say, I'm a better person for it.. Thanks DAD..

I think everyone should experience a down to earth labor job.

Farmers can't pay much due to all the high costs to them - we're already paying @ $1.00 for a head of lettuce.. I don't know what the remedy would be..

Patsy

[weeder]

Physical labor jobs are great for building character, and good for health as well. We really were meant to work outdoors for most of the day, not chained to a desk.

Completing an assigned task that requires physical labor, teaches patience, and feelings of accomplishment. Physical labor makes a person hungry, and tired at the end of the day. I think its great. I do however have a very difficult time finding workers who feel the way I do, despite the fact that I also pay very well. I guess I really over pay, because if truth be told, I party do it as an incentive to get someone to do the work. If we ever do have a depression again, many people who never would have worked physically will be forced to do so.

[Accountable]

I agree with Weeder. When I was out looking for work, I got a temp gig with a cabinet installing company (5 guys). It helped me keep my sanity while I found a "real" job. The work was hard and physical, and the beer tasted better at the end of the day.



Now that I have a desk job, I still work most Saturdays installing cabinets. The guys call me Perfesser and don't understand when I tell them I don't need the money. I work there for the exercise, commaraderie, and the chance to work with my hands.

[Indian Princess]

We all put our pants on one leg at a time, etc, you get the meaning

[Sweet Tooth]

I don't think that people should get paid more if they have more kids! It is NOT the employer's job to provide for families! If you can't afford to provide for your family, maybe you should think twice before having kids! Physical labor is what you get when you don't go to college or get some sort of training- you aren't entitled to a desk job just because you are a legal citizen! I think you should get paid only for the labor you do- illegal or citizen.

[RedGlitter]

I think labor jobs ought to have more respect than they do. There's a reason YOU don't want to have one- because it's damned hard work! This idea that only morons take these jobs and don't "deserve" anything better is making me angry. Let's see some of these high faluting desk types bent over all day in the sun in the fields or on ladders picking fruit off trees. Sure a monkey could do it but have some respect for the back breaking work it is. Not all of it is done by machinery.

[minks]

RedGlitter;663416 wrote: I think labor jobs ought to have more respect than they do. There's a reason YOU don't want to have one- because it's damned hard work! This idea that only morons take these jobs and don't "deserve" anything better is making me angry. Let's see some of these high faluting desk types bent over all day in the sun in the fields or on ladders picking fruit off trees. Sure a monkey could do it but have some respect for the back breaking work it is. Not all of it is done by machinery.


Bravo Glitter Bravo.

Where would we be without our blue collar workers????

[RedGlitter]

minks;663423 wrote: Bravo Glitter Bravo.

Where would we be without our blue collar workers????


Thank you for sure Minks. The work has to be done and how do you expect people to take pride in the work they do when it's constantly crapped upon by white collars and such?

Who's more inmportant- the surgeon or the guy who forges the steel for all his machinery? (my poor example but still) I think it's the spiderweb theory all over again- every thread makes the web. None is more important than the other.

[minks]

RedGlitter;663435 wrote: Thank you for sure Minks. The work has to be done and how do you expect people to take pride in the work they do when it's constantly crapped upon by white collars and such?

Who's more inmportant- the surgeon or the guy who forges the steel for all his machinery? (my poor example but still) I think it's the spiderweb theory all over again- every thread makes the web. None is more important than the other.


you got it girl, the chain affect.

Another example of a profession that is constantly crapped upon, is our truckers. Colorful people, hard workers and if they stopped just imangine all the industries they would cripple which in term would almost kill us all.

[RedGlitter]

minks;663437 wrote: you got it girl, the chain affect.

Another example of a profession that is constantly crapped upon, is our truckers. Colorful people, hard workers and if they stopped just imangine all the industries they would cripple which in term would almost kill us all.


Absolutely!! We could probably name a whole list of necessary "menial" (ha!) jobs that would undo the world as we know it if everyone suddenly went on strike.

I used to be a cosmetologist. I soon found out that a profession I was proud of and had to pass exams for was classed by others as the same as waitress. Well hey, what's wrong with being a waitress?! It was explained to me that most hairdressers and waitresses never went to college and you know, we're all kinda cheap. Dime a dozen. Ooo! Was I hot! Fine. Cut your own hair, serve your own food then.

Where did we get this idea that college is the be-all end-all of it all?!

I think of my dad who dropped out of high school and how he got his job as a welder/machinist at the coal plant. How much crazy math was involved in it and stuff down to minute fractions. He's not the best reader but he's a whiz at numbers so I'd help him read the books and we'd study this stuff at the kitchen table every night. He had that job for 20-some years and I am proud of him for having done it. My family has taught me a lot of respect for blue collar work and I feel my backbone getting all twitchy over it. :wah:

[minks]

RedGlitter;663441 wrote: Absolutely!! We could probably name a whole list of necessary "menial" (ha!) jobs that would undo the world as we know it if everyone suddenly went on strike.

I used to be a cosmetologist. I soon found out that a profession I was proud of and had to pass exams for was classed by others as the same as waitress. Well hey, what's wrong with being a waitress?! It was explained to me that most hairdressers and waitresses never went to college and you know, we're all kinda cheap. Dime a dozen. Ooo! Was I hot! Fine. Cut your own hair, serve your own food then.

Where did we get this idea that college is the be-all end-all of it all?!

I think of my dad who dropped out of high school and how he got his job as a welder/machinist at the coal plant. How much crazy math was involved in it and stuff down to minute fractions. He's not the best reader but he's a whiz at numbers so I'd help him read the books and we'd study this stuff at the kitchen table every night. He had that job for 20-some years and I am proud of him for having done it. My family has taught me a lot of respect for blue collar work and I feel my backbone getting all twitchy over it. :wah:


Anybody who works is a brilliant contribution to society!