TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on May 26, 2020 22:50:24 GMT -5
Mmmm... what is going on here?
I was watching CNN and they were doing a piece on the labor shortage due to corona and closing of borders and this farmer said: people have been telling me how with this high unemployment I should be getting people wanting to work all the time. He said since this started he has not had 1 person from his community come up to him and say: I need a job.
Really? Americans do not want to do the job the folks from Mexico or Peru are coming here to do? You are kidding me? Color me confused!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2020 23:17:20 GMT -5
How is it confusing. People are making more on unemployment than the average working income. Why would they work a really physical low-paying job instead?
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TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on May 27, 2020 0:48:07 GMT -5
How is it confusing. People are making more on unemployment than the average working income. Why would they work a really physical low-paying job instead? *SARCASM* Even before they were making more on unemployment, how many lined up to work the fields? Yet people bitch about Mexican taking their jobs. Really? The jobs they are not doing right now? |
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on May 27, 2020 1:08:08 GMT -5
In my parts, the covid-19 only made the labor shortages worse. I had to google when the ICE crackdowns started...that was in 2017.
The problem of US workers not taking farm jobs has been around for a long while now....
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countrygirl2
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Post by countrygirl2 on May 27, 2020 2:10:45 GMT -5
It's been around longer then that. Hubs worked in the melon fields, putting up hay, and other jobs. Kids haven't done that in forever.
Here now the equipment is so sophisticated you don't just run it. They now have a lot of the farmers kids taking classes on how to do this stuff, technician type classes. Like hubs said once their kids or others take this training, they aren't going to work for peanuts like kids or young men used to. Farmers can make a ton of money at times but they sure don't want to pay anything.
We always here about the poor farmers, around here most of them have beautiful homes, swimming pools, and live well. There aren't small little farmers anymore, they are all big.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 27, 2020 6:56:08 GMT -5
They can’t get the workers they want at the salaries they want to pay. I wonder how you solve that problem? Maybe they should re-take freshmen economics, I’m sure they have an answer in there somewhere
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2020 7:01:15 GMT -5
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TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on May 27, 2020 7:12:43 GMT -5
Wasn’t brexit about keeping those damn Pesky immigrants out! How is that working out now? |
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NoNamePerson
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Post by NoNamePerson on May 27, 2020 7:20:39 GMT -5
Mmmm... what is going on here? I was watching CNN and they were doing a piece on the labor shortage due to corona and closing of borders and this farmer said: people have been telling me how with this high unemployment I should be getting people wanting to work all the time. He said since this started he has not had 1 person from his community come up to him and say: I need a job. Really? Americans do not want to do the job the folks from Mexico or Peru are coming here to do? You are kidding me? Color me confused! Why are you confused? What confuses me is that CNN acts like this is a new phenom! I've heard this statement about Americans not wanting to do jobs in fields since the 1970's. This is news to who?? Nothing new about it at all.
Why does this farmer need workers? Did he lay off his workers? Why aren't they coming back to their jobs? Color me confused! 
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TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on May 27, 2020 7:30:49 GMT -5
Mmmm... what is going on here? I was watching CNN and they were doing a piece on the labor shortage due to corona and closing of borders and this farmer said: people have been telling me how with this high unemployment I should be getting people wanting to work all the time. He said since this started he has not had 1 person from his community come up to him and say: I need a job. Really? Americans do not want to do the job the folks from Mexico or Peru are coming here to do? You are kidding me? Color me confused! Why are you confused? What confuses me is that CNN acts like this is a new phenom! I've heard this statement about Americans not wanting to do jobs in fields since the 1970's. This is news to who?? Nothing new about it at all.
Why does this farmer need workers? Did he lay off his workers? Why aren't they coming back to their jobs? Color me confused!
It was a JOKE Because we keep clamoring how we don’t want immigrants but refuse to a acknowledge how much of our economy is carried on the shoulders of immigrants, from the fields to the slaughter house to the nanny taking care of your kids to that CNA wiping your grandmother ass at the nursing home. But hey BUILD THAT DAMN WALL already! |
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on May 27, 2020 8:39:13 GMT -5
Why are you confused? What confuses me is that CNN acts like this is a new phenom! I've heard this statement about Americans not wanting to do jobs in fields since the 1970's. This is news to who?? Nothing new about it at all.
Why does this farmer need workers? Did he lay off his workers? Why aren't they coming back to their jobs? Color me confused!
It was a JOKE Because we keep clamoring how we don’t want immigrants but refuse to a acknowledge how much of our economy is carried on the shoulders of immigrants, from the fields to the slaughter house to the nanny taking care of your kids to that CNA wiping your grandmother ass at the nursing home. But hey BUILD THAT DAMN WALL already! I saw this coming long before the pandemic. Expelling from the country those who would work on farms to bring in the crops was a disaster just waiting to happen. And because farms are usually not in the middle of our cities, the availability of the unemployed to work on farms for low pay is pretty minimal. |
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on May 27, 2020 8:49:21 GMT -5
Sometimes the farmers don't want to hire the local kids, they've got their group of workers from xyz country that come up every year to pick the apples, for example.
We are in farm country. DS5 was trying to find local work back in HS. I remember one farm stand he went to, to ask if they were hiring. The woman in charge was rude/nasty, "Oh, no, I never hire around here, I've got my regulars that come every year from xyz (don't recall anymore), they're professional...". It was like she was offended that DS4 even presumed he could possibly get hired (at a farm stand with U-pick), and told him off for it. Really didn't help his attitude towards finding a job.
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ken a.k.a OMK
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Post by ken a.k.a OMK on May 27, 2020 8:52:01 GMT -5
Even before COVID-19 we had labor shortages in Md due to limited H-2B visa's and locals not wanting to pick crabs.
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pulmonarymd
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Post by pulmonarymd on May 27, 2020 12:15:45 GMT -5
2 of my kids worked at a local farm. Farmer hired all local high school and college kids. Paid them minimum wage to start, but by The last year they worked there, he paid them over$10/hr. Treated them pretty well, but they worked hard. If we want to keep our illegals, then we should be willing to pay what it takes to get Americans to do the job, and enforce safety procedures. If not, then we need a guest worker program. Or we can just continue with our nonsensical approach of hiring illegals, hating it, and spending a crap ton of time and money dealing with the problem. But our government would rather argue about the solution to rile up their bases instead of finding solutions
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 27, 2020 12:28:14 GMT -5
Why are you confused? What confuses me is that CNN acts like this is a new phenom! I've heard this statement about Americans not wanting to do jobs in fields since the 1970's. This is news to who?? Nothing new about it at all.
Why does this farmer need workers? Did he lay off his workers? Why aren't they coming back to their jobs? Color me confused!
It was a JOKE Because we keep clamoring how we don’t want immigrants but refuse to a acknowledge how much of our economy is carried on the shoulders of immigrants, from the fields to the slaughter house to the nanny taking care of your kids to that CNA wiping your grandmother ass at the nursing home. But hey BUILD THAT DAMN WALL already! In reality, this has been how the US has worked from the beginning. If you go back 150 or more years, there was always an immigrant that came to the US to do these jobs, not necessarily from the south. Irish, Polish, Italians, Chinese, etc. ALL arrived in the US and did the backbreaking manual labor like this. The second or third generation assimilated into culture, and immigrants from another country took their place. |
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on May 27, 2020 12:53:27 GMT -5
They can’t get the workers they want at the salaries they want to pay. I wonder how you solve that problem? Maybe they should re-take freshmen economics, I’m sure they have an answer in there somewhere  we keep talking about how much certain work is worth to justify our pitiful minimum wage laws, using the free market as justification. Well, if we can't get people to do the work for a certain wage, that means that people are saying my time is worth more than what you are willing to pay. Find someone else to do it. We can listen to that and raise wages (with the resulting price increases) or we can complain about how others (always others, never "I") are not willing to to work themselves to the bone to live in poverty and be looked down upon. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2020 13:00:31 GMT -5
It isn't just the wages. The working conditions and the benefits are typically pretty bad on farms.
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NastyWoman
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Post by NastyWoman on May 27, 2020 13:45:57 GMT -5
It isn't just the wages. The working conditions and the benefits are typically pretty bad on farms. Bad working conditions and benefits should translate into wages that are adjusted for those problems. They should not be lower than average. Seems to me like the average American worker agrees with that since they are not flocking to the fields at the wages offered. |
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skubikky
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Post by skubikky on May 27, 2020 15:44:14 GMT -5
Mmmm... what is going on here? I was watching CNN and they were doing a piece on the labor shortage due to corona and closing of borders and this farmer said: people have been telling me how with this high unemployment I should be getting people wanting to work all the time. He said since this started he has not had 1 person from his community come up to him and say: I need a job. Really? Americans do not want to do the job the folks from Mexico or Peru are coming here to do? You are kidding me? Color me confused! Why are you confused? What confuses me is that CNN acts like this is a new phenom! I've heard this statement about Americans not wanting to do jobs in fields since the 1970's. This is news to who?? Nothing new about it at all.
Why does this farmer need workers? Did he lay off his workers? Why aren't they coming back to their jobs? Color me confused!
The season for turning the fields over and preparing for planting has been about 6-8 weeks now. These type of farm workers are seasonal. They're most needed for planting, weeding, crop maintenance and the harvest. They probably weren't on the job yet. |
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 27, 2020 20:21:02 GMT -5
I would think "living conditions" would enter into as well. I assume field help is seasonal. Which most likely means the workers don't live in the area. Which means if Americans were gonna do the work - they'd need to FOLLOW the work.
Maybe we just need to 'indenture' HS and college aged kids - and ship them around the country were ever they are needed? Maybe make doing manual labor "prestigious" and required for college entry? Maybe kinda like how some other countries require military service? You don't get a waiver you serve (doesn't matter if you have bone spurs or a rich daddy). Our home grown seasonal workers can live out of a backpack for 3 or 4 or 5 months a year... and probably would be more than happy to live in "barracks" or the other types of low end housing seasonal workers live in. I'm sure the rich kids will get a brand new Dually and a Tiny House to life in...
Think of all the "positive" life experiences the kids will be getting. <-- some sarcasm there.
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