Would YOU pick peaches for $10 an hour? Babysit for $8 an hour?

[SoCalDem]

The little troll on Lou Dobbs' show today flatly stated AGAIN (for the umpteenth time) that "there are just some jobs that Americans just WON'T do".. He claimed that "the 18 yr old at Starbucks would NOT pick peaches at ANY pay rate"..

I disagree. there are always people who WILL do menial labor, stoop labor, and repetitive type labor. They cannot AFFORD to do it at $5 an hour though.

The dilemma we have is this..

IF we assume that fruit/vegetable pickers are at the bottom of the wage-ladder, and prices have escalated to the level of today, is it because the workers have started to get MORE in wages, or that the companies HIRING them have just taken a larger and larger cut of the money generated from the sale of that fruit?

Oil companies have presented us with the same issue. Last year when oil was $50 a barrel, and prices climbed to "near $2.00", they raked in PROFITS up 50-60% over previous year levels...and now that oil is considerably higher, they are making even MORE OBSCENE profits.

Higher prices seem to have little if ANY connection with supply and demand. The only demand, is that the CEOs DEMAND more money.

But I digress...

Are there jobs that Americans won't do??

We have had septic tanks cleaned before..by Americans..

We have had plumbers crawl into spidery-filthy crawl spaces..Americans again

We have had concrete work done in August..by Americans

We have had babysitters..Americans

In fact, I personally, have NEVER hired a non-American to do ANY job I have ever needed done.. and I have never had ANY trouble finding someone to do whatever job we needed done..

I just wish that more people would call these guys on their coded diatribes.. There are jobs to be done, and there are people who would do them..but they expect to be paid..

How many CEOs take NO compensation for their work??

[Kool Kitty]

1. I'm a cashier and I make

$6.75 an hour. I'd pick peaches for $10 an hour.

[SoCalDem]

5. College-bound kids used to always pick fruit in the summer

We used to live in Indiana, and lots of my friends' kids went to Michigan to pick peaches, apples & cherries.. It was not easy work, but they could make enough in a summer to help pay for school, and for car expenses.


Some of the boys went to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields..

All hard labor type jobs but they made a fair wage, and had no problem with the work..

[Blue Gardener]

75. In Iowa we detassel corn

It's a great summer job for high school kids. I did it for three years, and it didn't hurt me a bit.

[SoCalDem]

80. In the late 60's the "big thing" was to get a summer job in Hawaii

There were always jobs advertised in magazines, and a girl I knew took one of them. It was packing pineapple..She thought it would be a breeze, and on her days off..well.. she would be in hawaii..

It turned out to be in a TUNA processing place.. She and her friend lasted two weeks and had to reimburse the company for their airfare, because they did not stay the whole summer:)

Her Dad was the first in line to say "I told you so"...

[shadowknows69]

26. I'm self employed making NO money.

If some dumb driver hadn't destroyed my back in an accident I'd pick, peel and can peaches for $10 an hour.

[Upfront]

2. Same here.

Americans will do any work if payed a living wage.

[ima_sinnic]

3. I SO agree! this "jobs-Americans-just-won't-do" CRAP is just that:

CRAP

[rockymountaindem]

4. I picked peaches one time just for fun.

When I was little my parents and I went with another family to a farm near our city where you could spend all day picking your own fruit, get whatever you wanted fresh from the trees and bushes, then just buy it and drive off. It was pretty fun (well, for a 9 year old). I could see myself picking peaches for $10 as a summer job, considering that pays better than the indoor summer job I have lined up now. I know lots of my friends who would like to do it too, including friends of mine with no jobs or the one who hates her waitress job that doesn't pay as well as $10 per hour.

Hell, if you could get college kids like myself and my friends to pick fruit and veggies all summer it might help the obesity problem!

We will not, however, do said work for $5. Therein lies the problem, and I think your post is pretty accurate.

[Norquist Nemesis]

81. Exactly! And that was Lou's point as well!

The employers refuse to pay a decent wage in the first place. It's much better for the bottom line to pay illegal immigrants below wage cash on the barrel rates then claim they can't find any Americans or LEGAL immigrants who are willing to do the work.

The other argument that it keeps consumer prices low is pure BS, too. It puts a bigger profit margin in the hands of the business owners.

I'm really getting sick and tired of the way businesses find ways to rip people off (employees and the taxpayers), too. Specifically, some of the small business owners' practices are just down right greedy and it hurts us all.

For example, until my son's car broke down recently, he was driving deliveries for a pizza place to at least have some cash coming in. It was a part time basis. He had to pay for his own gas and use his car. He was supposed to get 15 dollars a day; here's the catch...he had to be there 5 hours minimum. So, if they're not busy or slow down, they told him to go on home after 4 1/2 hours. THEN, if they had a delivery, they would call him in from home to make the delivery then send him home again. But, hey! They were nice people and providing jobs! :grr: Just to be clear...when he DID make his $15, it was cash from the drawer. Can you say Independant Contractor???

Same thing with what he's doing now (at a dry cleaning place) in terms of the cash payment. Except he had to sign an Employment Agreement to accept the job. The Agreement states that $100 of his first pay will be held and kept until such time as he is no longer employed. He must give two weeks notice or he forfeits the $100. He also agrees through this 'contract' that he is responsible for ALL taxes (which means he should be paying the whole boat on FICA, state, fed, etc. AND be doing the accounting). They neither report nor pay any withholding.

This is going on all over the place here with the small and home-based businesses. :grr: :grr:

[Bluzmann57]

6. Not only would I but...

I have. This "Americans won't take certain jobs" is bullshit. If Americans refuse to take these type of jobs, then we as a nation are indeed weak. Having said that, it is a damn shame that our higher paying Union jobs are being shipped out. It is exactly what the cheap conservative labor people want. Low paying, menial jobs. But a person has to survive and if he or she feels that they are "too good" to take a menial job, then the hell with 'em.

[adwon]

7. If I was currently allowed to work :P

[Straight Shooter]

8. They can blow themselves. Lots of people in my town work for $10/hour.

I'm talking about genuinely hard work. Menial labor. And many people work for less.

I was seriously considering going to work for a local nursery (the plant kind) for $10 an hour, just to be able to be outdoors and talk to people, tend to the plants, et cetera.

There's no shame in a low-paying job. But it seems to me lately that there's plenty of shame to go around in the super-high-paying jobs.

[blondeatlast]

14. Ain't it the damn truth.

Your last sentence outta be a bumper sticker.

[LizW]

9. I like menial labor

I've had high pressure, big responsibility jobs, and believe me, I prefer menial labor.

I've been a lawyer, a bookkeeper, and a teacher, and I vastly prefer cleaning houses, washing and folding laundry, babysitting, dog walking, yard work, window washing, picking fruits and vegetables.

My favorite thing to do is volunteer work. I love working for no money at all because people actually appreciate what you do. When you work for money, people act like they are doing you a favor to pay you and no matter how little you are making, they always want more work for the same money.

The problem is you have to have money to live, so volunteer work doesn't do it unless you are independently wealthy (I'm not) or someone else is willing to support you (they aren't).

[tabasco]

23. I think we're kindred spirits.

I'm a lawyer and I much prefer manual labor. I have a small military pension and do primarily pro bono law work. I am thinking about a career as a motorcycle mechanic. I love turning wrenches.

[conflictgirl]

42. Desk work is overrated.

My husband has a high-paying job in a call center now and he actually misses the days when he worked in a factory, making 40% less. In my own work experience, working in corporate offices was often just as miserable than working retail. Because I was lower-level in both the pay wasn't much different either.

[ObaMania]

52. It's not just miserable.. it's F#@KING miserable!

But I have to keep my IT desk job to keep my overpriced house and stay fed in the Northern VA suburbs of DC.

In my 43 years I've done practically everything you can imagine and I definitely long for the days that I could do it again. I just can't leave this job. I am getting a decent retirement and m making enough to just get by in one of the most expensive areas in VA.

Ah, to make art, do construction, landscape, and make decent money doing it.. I can dream can't I?

If pay was more equitable, I'd leave my job in a heartbeat, but $10.00/hr. would have me and my family living in the streets. Let's hear it for that 'Murican dream!

.. I guess I should be lucky that I have a job, albiet one that really sucks, but we're all pretty much one paycheck away from the streets, aren't we?

[Cleita]

10. Back in the fifties, I picked boysenberries and strawberries

for 35 cents a box. It took me two hours to pick a box. It was a summer job for me and my fellow teenagers in high school back then. Oranges and other fruit tree jobs paid more but my mother didn't want me climbing ladders. You bet we worked these farms. They were the only jobs around for us in the summer.

The better jobs, with an hourly minimum wage, like at the A & W Drive in and Thirty One Flavors Ice Cream were taken by the less ethnically challenged kids of Northern European ancestry. So the rest of us were grateful to work in the fields.

Although my check, less SS and other deducts, (yes, the farmers deducted SS)was between $5 and $10 a week, it was like a fortune to us. Yet, there were families of migrants, who also worked these fields, for a living. They were legally in here back then under the Bracero Act.

[stevedeshazer]

16. Yep

Picked strawberries. We got 50 cents a flat. I started at age 9.

I bought my school clothes with the money next fall.

You can bet the prissy white-glove Republicans who dreamed up this myth have never done anything to get their hands dirty.

[Generic Other]

56. 60 cents a flat and no stems

I'd like to chuck a few berries at some "prissy white-glove Republicans..."

:D

[stevedeshazer]

58. Yes, indeed

:)

Packed lunch, a sunburn, and three bucks on a good day.

[burn the bush]

11. my son makes 6 bucks an hour. He would make an excellent peach

picker, I might say. It would not be wise to have him babysit for 8 bucks an hour though he would jump at the opportunity.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

12. I picked blueberries

and I think it worked out I made about $2 an hour. As in most harvesting, you are paid by the bucket/basket, etc, not by the time you take.

In our neck of the woods, all the farm workers are Americans.

[NewHampshireDem]

13. I missed that ... my kid made me watch Teen Titans!

Did Lou slap him back with "Illegal immigrants keep the wages for those jobs low"?

That, right there, is the problem. Look at the floor crews Wal-Mart was using. The subcontractors were hiring illegals, thus allowing them to under-bid the jobs. If they had hired people legally allowed to work, they would have had to pay higher wages and therefore they would not have been able to come in so low on the bids.

Every job that goes to an illegal not only takes a job away from someone else who is legally allowed to work, but it keeps wages low for those who do take those jobs regardless of status.

[LifeDuringWartime]

15. i wash dishes at $6 an hour

which is now minimum wage in NY. it sucks. we dont get free or discounted meals.

theres a good chance im going to be getting a good welding job soon, though.

[tabasco]

21. You must work for real assholes ...

if they do not give you free chow. That sucks. I used to wash dishes and got free meals.

I hope you get that welding job. Good luck !

[conflictgirl]

43. Many restaurants say they can no longer afford to give employees free food

nt

[tabasco]

45. Many restaurants are run by assholes then.

The actual cost of the food on the plate is about $1.50. That is such an enormous expense, especially when you are paying exorbitant wages of $6.00/hr.

Even the grungiest little greasy spoon in Mexico feeds its employees.

Employers who show no loyalty to workers really don't know how to run a business. The majority of restaurants go under, not because of feeding the employees, but because of stupid, greedy management.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

59. Yes, that's as bogus as

the Olive Garden saying that it can't afford to give its employees health insurance. They made some ridiculous claim saying that each server generated only $900 of profit in a year and therefore, there wasn't enough left over for them to get health insurance.

The only proper response to that claim is :wtf:

[LifeDuringWartime]

67. heh

if you ate at this place and met the owner/cook, youd never know she was an asshole until you found out we didnt get free meals.

one time last year a friend of hers had stopped by, and said that hed help us dishwashers start a union. we all laughed, but i didnt realize at the time that it wasnt such a bad idea!

[sandnsea]

17. For the most part, you're right

Field labor is tough, cutting grapes, picking cotton. That would be the last job to be filled by US workers. We don't have immigrants in my town. Most of the people who own landscaping businesses actually...gasp...do the work themselves!!! High school and college kids are the maids, bussers, housekeepers, etc. Of course, we have a $7+ minimum wage too, even for wait staff.

[applegrove]

18. I would pick at $10.00 an hour. n/t

[norml]

19. My pizza delivering wages are pathetic. Gas is up. Tips are down.

I've done agricultural work before, and would be glad to do it now, for the wages you describe. Would I take $10 per hour for babysitting? Hell yes!

[LdyGuique]

20. It rarely gets mentioned that the subtext is one of condoning defacto

slavery. Why should we support any industry's desire to have unsafe working conditions, no benefits, and low wages? To support immigration (legal or otherwise) just because another ethnic group is willing to become a slave who is granted none of the rights of the regular citizenry, including OSHA protections, we are condoning mistreatment of an entire group of people who have little or no voice. Caesar Chavez was the voice of the migrant farm worker.

Remember the crippling "short handled" hoe of the lettuce fields. If Americans had been working in those fields, it would not have taken so long to get that debilitating tool replaced with a proper one.

I grew up in Northern California. It was commonplace for high schoolers and college students to pick fruit and work in the canneries during the summer. It made the difference on whether they could attend college.

We also had migrant workers. I still remember a particular friend who always showed up in my class every winter and was gone by spring. One of the shyest and gentlest people I've ever known.

My neighbor/best friend with kids aged similar to mine -- she remembered working the fields with her family as a kid.

As an aside -- we've had Mexicans coming into the U.S. for generations, many of whom worked the fields as "Braceros." Many were granted permanent green cards on the last amnesty. Why are they no longer working in the fields? Could it be that the conditions are so abysmal that no one does it longer than one absolutely has to? Perhaps, the real issue is to bring up the working conditions from the slave-mentality that governs these huge corporate farms to something that is in keeping with American labor laws!

[Cleita]

25. One of the points of making these jobs more attractive to

Americans is to pay a living wage and improve working conditions. It's believed that this would curtail a lot of the immigration because the need for the undocumented workers would be lessened. Also, if a modified bracero program could be reinstated, the workers from across the border could be brought in as needed for the same money. I guess the farmworkers need to extend their union membership to all to work these problems out.

[SoCalDem]

32. They probably no longer do that work

because after a time, they have made "connections", and had easier work now, even if for low pay.. There is a steady stream of "disposable" workers, so there will never be a shortage of people to fill those low wages jobs..

I worked for 50 CENTS an hour (and had SS & taxes withheld) in my Aunt's shop. I was "obligated" to work there, even though I would have preferred to work elsewhere, because it was a family business, and she had no children. She always helped my family financially, so I was the "designated worker" for her shop.. It was not a "slave job", but it was 6 days a week, and clean up on Sunday. "Migrant" workers, often pool their resources, and open their own family businesses..

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

22. One of my concerns would be pesticides

I believe I read recently that some of these big agrifarms use tons of pesticides on their crops, leading these migrant farmworkers to complain of all sorts of medical problems.

I grew up in an agricultural community, and I even worked on my grandfather's farm sometimes, so I don't mind doing such manual work - it's just the pay. I need to make a living. As others have pointed out, the money just isn't there. The only people who will work for subsistence wages are illegal immigrants.

Republicans and Democrats both benefit politically from guaranteeing cheap labor for the Walmarts and McDonald's campaign donors, so don't look for leadership on this issue from either of them.

[Disturbed]

28. "Republicans and Democrats both benefit politically "

Corporate greed and both dominant parties are the root of the situation.

Outsourcing, insourcing, re-location of mfg. and under the table pay are the agenda of U.S. corps and are bolstered by the majority of Repubs. and Dems.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

29. Absolutely.

No question about it. And it sucks. :mad:

[LdyGuique]

31. Illegal Immigration and jobs isn't just about the agricultural

industry -- it's also about cleaning/housekeeping jobs in commercial buildings, motels, etc. It's also about kitchen workers in many restaurants throughout the U.S. It's also about construction jobs -- jobs that were union-held jobs. These jobs are dropping their wage below minimum and hiring illegal immigrants who not only don't get benefits, but are carried off the books many times. They are granted none of the rights that we have fought for since FDR, which means that employers no longer have to abide by a myriad selection of labor laws. It is defact slavery by any criteria -- and if they mess up? It's time for the INS to be called in for a clean sweep.

[K-W]

24. If our market were truely free the worst jobs would command the most money

Supply and demand right?

But why bother with that when you can constantly flood the labor market with immigration and depress low skill wages.

[philosophie_en_rose]

27. I'd pick peaches for $10 an hour.

If I needed a job, picking peaches for $10 an hour would be a nice option. Especially as a summer job.

[Blue Diadem]

30. I would pick peaches for $10.00 considering that is more than

I've made per hour since I left a commission job back in the mid 80's.

I'm currently not working because I babysit my granddaughter. My last job in the late 90's was at a factory, working for a whole whopping $5.50 an hr.
Raises were .25 annually if you were lucky. We were a supplier for a major company. I opened a machine door every 30 seconds to retrieve a part, trim it, inspect it, drop it in a box and turn back to repeat the process. I had to wear double jersey gloves to protect my hands from hot plastic. The plastic would burn holes through the top glove and begin on the under glove before the shift was over. That wouldn't have bothered me..except I had to buy those gloves. The owner of the factory refused to provide them for us.

So yeah, I'd be happy to pick peaches for $10.00 an hr.

[Nikia]

33. I would if I were making less than that

I wonder about places where they say that they can't find enough fast food workers, store clerks, or hotel maids but yet pay them minimum wage. Places that up their wage a couple dollars per hour, usually get enough workers.

[Malva Zebrina]

34. I have had plumbers crawl into spidery places in my 200 year old

foundation dirt cellar, to repair pipes that were frozen and broken during a hard and extremely cold winter.

They, however, were unionized plumbers and received a wage that was justified for their work crawlig around in this dank cellar. I was satisfied with their work.

This year, because of the advice they gave, we did not have any frozen pipes.I would hire them again.

[Ezlivin]

35. I'd babysit peaches for $8/hr

And I'd turn 'em into jam for free!

[Abelman]

36. Hell yes

That wouldn't be such a bad job after awhile. Sure, it would suck at first, but after a while, I don't think I'd mind it much. It reminds me of "On the Road" when Sal Paradise is with his girl Terry and he's picking cotton or whatever it was.

Ten bucks and hour? That's not bad at all.

[Zenlitened]

37. Yeah, I've never bought the "jobs Americans won't do" line, either

But here's where you get icy silence from the people who spout it: Suggest that we open the borders wide so that the people who DO want to do these jobs can enter the country in safety and dignity.

Hmmmm...

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

51. That's a good point.

The underlying agenda is to somehow bypass worker protections and benefits. A worker with illegal status belongs to a "threatened" class, and can - in theory - be sent back to their countries. So as an employer, you get your cake and eat it, too - illegal immigration directly/indirectly lessens the need to pay your employees a decent wage while at the same time providing access to labor even cheaper than those employees you have now.

[SoCalDem]

62. They are unlikely to report an "on the job" injury

or try to collect unemployment or worker's comp.. They go inconspicuously to an ER, get patched up, and by the time they are healed, they have been replaced by another "disposable" worker.:(

[Catchawave]

38. Isn't going on welfare better paying?

Think about it....:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

39. It's more difficult these days..but yes it is..

If you have kids and go on welfare, at least you get medical insurance..

That's the dichotemy..Really poor people get care, and really rich people get care.. It's the middle bunch that can't afford it and don;t qualify to get it free:shrug:

[KittyWampus]

40. Can't Agree With You This Time. My Father Couldn't Find Enough Lifeguards

I had to fill in and even my Mom did. He worked for the Town of East Hampton for many, many years.

Towards the end of his tenure as "head lifeguard" he found it hard to find enough kids.

"College Bound" kids these days get cars for graduation and don't give a shit about working cause they don't have to & parents don't make them.


They'd NEVER stoop to picking berries.

[Nikia]

44. Not just anyone can be a life guard

Being a life guard requires training: first aid certification and a life guard class. Passing the life guard class also requires that you be a skilled swimmer and physically fit. Around here, most pools require that their life guards have hepetitis shots. All this training and vaccinations cost money.
Did your father's employer pay for these things? Did they pay more than the $6/hour which they pay around here?
I don't know about your area, but not everyone is rich.

[KittyWampus]

47. They Paid Well. And Still Water Certification Wasn't An ABSOLUTE.

If you showed up to the training and kept TRYING to pass the test you could get a job on the bay (ie, you were in shape and knew all necessary information and maneuvers).

But same kids wouldn't do and don't do anything during the summer cause they aren't forced to. No matter how much it paid.

Which was my point.

Now when I was growing up, I hustled all kinds of work for not too much money. And did same when moved out on my own and lived hand to mouth.

[Carni]

49. We don't all have houses in F'ing East Hampton

Why BTW did they need a lifeguard? No public service commission? (LOL)

[KittyWampus]

50. ??? You Don't Have Lifeguards In Your Area? Pools, Public Beaches?

You don't have parents giving kids cars upon graduation in any of the neighborhoods in your area?

And just so you know... most of the people who live here year round are working/middle class trying to deal with huge property taxes or outrageous rent.

And yet the LOCAL kids don't work during the summer and get dirt bikes and, when they graduate, a car.

How do parents afford it?

Credit, I suppose.

[conflictgirl]

41. What a joke

The area I live in is pretty economically depressed. While he's doing better now, just two years ago my husband held a job that required a bachelors degree in accounting and paid $11 an hour. So I say, hell yeah, Americans would pick peaches for $10 an hour. I realize part of this has to do with regional cost of living differences, but most babysitters in this area - Americans - make far less than $8/hour. My sister's been a pharmacy technician for 5 years and is still making $7-something an hour. There just aren't that many better-paying jobs around here.

[dcfirefighter]

46. We have to raise prices

and lower the cost of living. A Paradox? Maybe, but it doesn't have to be.

Agriculture is not typically that lucrative, unless you can wrangle a special deal with the government. This is why Monsato, ConAgra, et al do so well, they have plenty of lobbyists. If prices for agricultural products were not artificially depressed by subsidies, the regular farmer might be able to make a go at it.

The other problem is that in most places, agricultural land is worth more as a potential suburb than it is as a farm -- farmers hang in there long enough to retire on the fat payment they get for selling out to developers.

If we encouraged 'infill' development in urban areas, as well as more intensive development in urban areas, we can relieve the expansion pressure on rural areas. We also have to stop building roads, highways, etc. out into the hinterlands.

So how do we raise prices without raising the cost of living? Well, we let those produced goods, those goods that employ labor, to rise in price, while we cause those goods that we pay for, but are not the product of anyone's labor, to fall in price.

How do we do that? We eliminate the speculative value of non-labor produced goods, like land. We zone areas as agriculutrual, in perpetuitiy. We reduce taxes on wages - the payroll tax, and on income below $100,000. We charge for pollution. We charge for using the highways. We charge for the corporate liability shield. We weaken patent laws. We end corporate welfare (including about $200B in military spending each year.)

[Carni]

48. Perfect example...fledgling vineyard owners or goat cheese makers

None of these people that are legitimately small make any money at first...they bust their ass HOPING the will make money.

[spindoctor]

53. Totally off-topic but TOO COOL!

My 3-yr old looks at my screen as I am reading your post. He points at the pictures of Bush and asks:

"Papa, who i' da' guy?"
"That is the President of the United States."
He starts laughing.
"He look FUNNY!"


Priceless!

[The Gunslinger]

54. That whole "Americans wont do it "thing is horrible.

I bet saying that makes latin Americans who are taking those jobs feel like equals in our society. It's slavery once again at $5.00 an hour and lower if big business had thier way.

[BiggJawn]

55. Why not? I design, Spec, build, install AND maintain Video Systems...

For less than $19 an hour...

Guess I'm supposed to just be tickled shitless that they don't import temporary Indians to do it for $4 an hour and cut me loose....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

57. When Michael Moore visited Portland with a pre-release copy

of his film The Big One, he commented on the scene with Phil Knight, where he asks Knight to open a Nike factory in Flint, Michigan.

Knight says, "Americans don't want to make shoes."

Moore's comment was, "Not for ten cents a day they don't."

He actually got a bunch of people in Flint to sign a statement saying that they would make shoes for minimum wage.

No Nike factory was ever built there, of course.

[Sherwood]

60. This is the worst argument for illegal immigration

I would love to have the option to pick fruit this summer. I'm going into college and need money badly. With illigal immigrants taking under-the-table paychecks that don't meet minimum wage, American citizens have no chance to compete. This, if anything, is an impeachable offense of Bush.

[SoCalDem]

61. You could always stand outside any Home Depot

someone might pick you up and offer you some "day labor".. Check to make sure the vehicle has door handles before you shut the door :evilgrin:..

[kineneb]

63. Shucks, I am making $10/hr- in an office

With no benefits, vacation, or sick days, and I have almost an MA. The only trouble with ag work in California is that it is seasonal, and since I am the sole worker in the family, I need regular work.

And yes, ag workers should be paid more. The money we pay for food goes to the middle man, not the workers.

[expatriate]

64. Good God, if I could have made $10/hour when I was picking

peaches, I would have shat on myself in shock! The only time in my entire LIFE that I made $10 per hour when I was living in America was when I was an "office manager" for a well to do doctor, doing all insurance billing, report writing, report writing for litigation cases, patient scheduling, telephoning and collections. When I left that job, the doctor had to hire FOUR people to take my place.

There is nothing wrong with manual labor, and there is no job that is "beneath" anyone - but there are wages that are an insult. There are wages that it is not possible to live on with any degree of decency or dignity. It degrades the person who does a dirty/disagreeable/physically difficult or otherwise "undesirable" job to be given a slave wage.

Dirtiest and most disagreeable job I've ever done? Cleaning guesthouses - but I received $18 per hour. Not in America though - in a country where people are paid a living wage, no matter what kind of work they do.

[NickB79]

65. I worked on my dad's farm for $4/hr

And when I say work, I mean WORK! Shovelling pigshit for hours on end, unloading and piling up a few hayracks a day full of 50-lb haybales in 80-90F weather (there are about 120 bales per rack, so in a good day I'd do ~500 bales by myself). Driving a tractor in circles around a field all day cultivating it or picking rocks off of it, then throwing all those rocks onto a rock pile in the woods fighting mosquitos from the nearby swamp.

And this wasn't back in the 50's or 60's; I'm 25 yrs old! This was what I did for money through the 90's in highschool.

I would have riden a cow down the road to get one of those $10/hr peach-picking jobs (if peaches grew in MN, that is).

[recoveringrepublican]

66. I've done every "crap" customer service job possible

usually for just a little above minimum wage. I've been a manager at Taco bell, cashier at TJ Maxx, Kmart, Just for Feet, etc. I've also worked as a CNA a job I found rewarding, heart-breaking, exhausting, and unpleasent all at the same time, for just a little above minimum wage.

Pay enough to pay most of my bills, see a doctor once in a while, and maybe sock a few away and I'll do anything.

[DulceDecorum]

68. MA minimum agricultural wage is $1.60 per hour

In Texas it is $3.35.
Florida has NO minimum wage limit for agricultural workers.

[SoCalDem]

69. Truly pathetic.. and yet our "govt" expects these poor people

to:

take personal responsibility
save for their old age
educate their kids
find a place to live
and spend spend spend

:puke:

[BuyingThyme]

70. Done it before and would do it again.

Americans will, by definition, do the work at market rates.

This nonsense has to stop, and the Democratic Party would be a good place to start.

[kittykitty]

71. I worked with Migrant Labor families. They made good money during

the apple picking season. They got paid by the bin. They wear canb=vas bags, climb ladders into the trees of necessary, fill the canvas bag, empty it into the bin and continue until the bin is full, at which point they get a chit. A really motivated husband and wife team could make
$800 a week.

It's hot dirty work, getting scratched by branches, spiders and bugs, but its honest work.

[earth mom]

72. Yes-Been There, Done That! And Great Thread BTW! eom

[SoCalDem]

84. Thanks !

I only picked peaches once..with a friend..at a U-pick-em ..We had NO IDEA just how many peaches were in a bushel.. We OD'ed on peaches:)

Ended up giving them away to any who dared ask :)

[Heidi]

73. Would YOU kill and disembowel cattle for $6.25 an hour? (nt)

[Blue Gardener]

76. No

I would not do that for any price. I couldn't kill an animal and still be able to live with myself.

[Heidi]

77. Me, neither.

I lived for many years in a state bordering Iowa, in a town whose livelihood depended on meatpacking. The work environment is brutal not only for the animals, but for the workers (mostly immigrants) as well.

[Dob Bole]

79. Are you a peach's rights activist?

:)

That's what your post looked like, in a sarcastic kind of way. Made me chuckle.

[Heidi]

83. Nope.

I eat both peaches and meat.

[NMMNG]

74. The troll is a moron

I have worked as a babysitter. I have worked in fast food restaurants, convenience stores clothing stores, department stores, book stores, and a laundry. Most of those jobs were at minimum wage or near it.

For the past 18 years I have also worked in human services where I don't make a real living wage, hence my need to work two full-time jobs. In fact, most of my life I've needed to work two full-time jobs or at least one full-time and one part-time job.

And I am a blue-eyed, blonde pure-blooded American.

[LostinVA]

78. I picked blueberries for two summers during high school

For hardly any $5 would have been a lot! I've also worked as a cashier for two years at $5.75, and worked on my uncle's crab boats for $100 cash a week. And, just because it was my uncle's boat didn't mean I didn't work my ass off. It all makes me appreciate my desk job now, that has an okay salary.

This is bull. People will work ANY job, if it meets their needs. Or, unfortunately, even if it doesn't,a nd they need the money.

[Mrs_Beastman]

82. of course