Thread: Cheapness of Americans part of debate

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/10011.php

Published: 04.21.2006
Cheapness of Americans part of debate

Sen. John McCain has a sensible plan for immigration reform - but he's not going to sell it to the American people by suggesting they're soft and lazy.

Earlier this month, during a speech in Michigan, the Arizona Republican told the union crowd that illegal immigrants do the jobs nobody else wants, and he offered anybody there $50 an hour to cut lettuce in Arizona.

When some in the crowd shouted they'd take it, McCain responded that none of them would do it for an entire season.

"You can't do it, my friends," he said.
Ouch!

That exchange has put the straight-shooting Republican in the line of fire himself, unleashing a barrage of hostility from the conservative media, border-control advocates and those who frequent the Web forums of such organizations.

They are saying McCain's words were insulting and show he's out of touch with the average American, most of whom would do just about anything legal for $50 an hour.

ProjectUSA, an immigration-restriction group in Washington, D.C., is accepting mock applications online for the jobs offered by McCain. More than 3,000 applications have come in, said Craig Nelsen, ProjectUSA's director.

The responses have been angry, poignant and, in some cases, hilarious. Applicants have offered to trade $7-an-hour toilet-cleaning jobs and $25-an-hour engineering jobs for a lettuce-cutting career.
They've called McCain ignorant and defended the character of Americans

"At 59, I replace my own brakes and change the oil in my SUV. I mow my own lawn, shovel my own snow and never found the need for an illegal nanny. . . . To even hint that an American is too lazy to work in the fields is more than insulting," wrote Janice Janes of Danville, N.H.

Nelsen said many of the responses reflect a feeling that politicians care more about the downtrodden from other countries than they do for downtrodden Americans.

I wonder why they can't care about both.

But, really, all this talk about nonexistent $50-an-hour lettuce-cutting jobs is just a distraction from a rational discussion of the role illegal immigration plays in the economy.

The question is not whether American people won't do some jobs at any price. They will.

It's not a question of whether employers are willing to pay higher wages.
They do when they have to.

The issue is whether Americans are willing to accept the cost of eliminating illegal immigrant labor and to pay more for all goods and services to absorb the cost of higher wages for fellow Americans.

Are we willing to spend $10 or $20 more per night to stay in a hotel? Are we willing to pay more for construction of a new home? Are we prepared to pay $3 for a head of lettuce?

Steve Alameda, owner-operator of Top Flavor Farms in Yuma, doesn't think so.

If American produce were more expensive, consumers would buy imported produce picked by laborers earning a pittance in Mexico, China and other countries, he said. American farms couldn't compete, he said.

Like most people, I don't believe Americans are lazy. But we are - I'll say it because I'm not looking to be president in 2008 - kind of cheap.
That's where an honest discussion of the economics of illegal immigration starts.

I contacted McCain's office to ask if he wanted to clarify his comments, but his press secretary didn't return my calls.

Hmm. Maybe she quit to go cut lettuce for $50 an hour.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

The issue isn't cheapness either. The issue will be pay raises for all those Illegals you give amnesty to. They will demand more pay or leave the fields as well. The issue is the profit margins American employers expect to make. Out of control inflation in all areas with or without Illegal's doing the work. $3 for a head of lettuce you say? I pay over $1.60 a head right now. I will gladly pay an additional $1.50 a head if it means these disloyal and ungrateful invaders are removed!

When our group spoke with the spokeswoman from the Center for Immigration Studies at a rally at the State House in Boston, she stated that the price would rise very little if we got rid of all the illegal aliens picking lettuce, period. She stated that the wages were a small portion of the cost we pay at the market.

Labor costs only amount to about 15% of the price. The rest is added after it leaves the field. It is a bogus argument! $10-20 a night more for a motel...NO...I've cleaned these rooms. A cleaner can do x number of rooms per hour, so, say, if one can do 5 an hour, than a 5 dollar wage increase would only add $1.00 per room. They throw out generalities hoping we will buy them, but it's just NOT TRUE! Add to that, no true American would mine paying more. We already pay a WHOLE LOT more for what these illegals are sucking out of us.

Are we willing to spend $10 or $20 more per night to stay in a hotel? Are we willing to pay more for construction of a new home? Are we prepared to pay $3 for a head of lettuce?

This is the same argument used to keep slavery. As some will say, "that dog wont hunt."

I have lettus fgrowing on my porch. The organic seeds cost me $1.25. I have spent about $30.00 on seeds and it will reap me hundreds of dollars worht of veggies. I dont ahve to pay that much for lettus and I can freeze and can enough veggies to get me through the winter. Give me a break.

That high priced lettuce story is the crap they are trying to hand us, but we know that is not the case. I did apply for the $50/hour lettuce picking job though, LOL

I don't mind paying more for a cup of coffee when I know for whatever reason the price of coffee is high. I do mind paying more and more when the price of coffee has gone back down and it's just extra profits because they discovered people will pay it, especially when my wages have stayed the same. Maybe I'm too old to get it, but I learned about supply and demand and all that. I've seen businesses literally take one of those huge rolling machines and destroy TV's, furniture etc. take clothes and pay us to take scissors to cut them up so they could write them off instead of marking them down more or donating them. Or better yet, having a low wage employee take an already written off half dead plant out of the dumpster that they threw away and be charged with theft. Now I know they have to consider the employee theft part.....but some is simply inexcusable. I've seen people offer to pay for stuff in the dumpster because they have a nak of fixing things and were told no.

I find it hard to beleive it should cost me 3.00 for a loaf of bread. Even back in the depression there were ways to get by. Used to be make your own clothes, grow your own food, can your own vegetables etc. were a way to save. Now it costs more to do that. No I don't mind paying more as long as it's not continuing to pad the pockets of the rich.

Let supply and demand have some say and not the stock market. Like I said, maybe I'm old and just don't "get it", but alot just doesn't make sense. Why have 21 registers when only, at the most 5 are used? Grow as the business grows. Or sell them before declaring bankrupsy and putting more out of work. They would rather throw stuff away than mark them down. Bleach putrid food for top dollar than mark it down.

Ranted enough........sorry

The 'prices will go up' argument is not only a cheap argument it's also got holes worn in it from overuse. But they don't really have a good argument for having our nation invaded, our streets running with seditionists, our kids crowded out of our schools...etc etc...but then those FACTS are really hard to deal with.

MJ

No crazy you are not old and just don't get it, we are being scammed and have been for years. I liked the comment that was made on Lou Dobbs tonite "the american citizen is finally getting what is going on and is not going to take it anymore" I also like the fact that Lou Dobbs now calls his nightly segment "the attack in the middle class of america".

Bleach putrid food for top dollar than mark it down.

Crazybird,

Are you talking about meats? I remember those reports on 20/20 or one of those programs.

YEECH!!