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.