Just conversed with my SIL. He is a contractor and insurance adjuster

[cachukis]

working in SW Florida after Ian.
Asked if the videos showing construction sites without workers were accurate. Says all the illegals are gone.
His team is trying to fill in but the current pay scale is not attracting workers.
Contractors are either going to raise the pay or their customers are going to wait.
We are in for some angst.

[sarcasmo]

1. The pudding effect.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Don't see how this is going to be converted to votes for De Santis.

[FoxNewsSucks]

8. He still has the magic "R" after his name.

MAGAt dumbasses were willing to spread a deadly disease, die from it, sacrifice others, and mock science. They live in poverty so that billionaires can get more tax cuts.

They'll still vote for him.

[Baitball Blogger]

9. I'll tell you what is going to happen.

There will be murmurs that this just isn't working out. In their private gatherings, they will begin to share their doubts. Once they realize that they can't own the libs, without harming themselves, the murmurings and doubts will begin.

[Maru Kitteh]

16. Showcase: Iowa. Nebraska. tfg shat all over farmers and yet

they simply cannot get enough of him. He hates who they hate, and that's enough.

[progressoid]

27. Yup. N/T

[TwilightZone]

17. I'm not that optimistic.

If nothing Trump has done was enough to turn people off, none of what DeSantis has done likely will, either.

I often wonder where the line is, and I'm not sure there is one anymore. When the only sources of "news" they are acquainted with find ways to blame everything the GOP does on Democrats, it's difficult for anything approaching reality to get through.

[MichMan]

3. So, they will have to raise the pay in order to hire people

Isn't that something that is universally championed here? Workers being paid higher wages?

[Marcus IM]

4. Yep. Same with some form of universal H/C & Ed.

Y'know, just like Cuba forces it on Cubans ... The Dems want to force it upon Americans. Tyranny.

[drmeow]

5. The idea is to raise the pay

and reduce the profits that go to the already wealthy class. What's going to happen is that even if they raise pay, they won't reduce their obscene pay and profits but will pass it on to consumers leading to inflation, etc.

Furthermore, I don't think anyone here is championing to pay people higher wages in order to drive out undocumented workers - if there are going to be undocumented workers in this country they should also be paid a living wage.

[MichMan]

20. Lots of posts here about companies who hire undocumented and pay them low wages

How they need to be fined or charged criminally for doing so.

First the wages need to be raised in order to pass them on, if indeed they do. The OP was about having to pay workers more in order to get applicants.

How many posts have we seen about people wanting to pay more for a burger if workers were paid a living wage? Now it seems to be bad. Weird

[drmeow]

33. I do not think

the OP was saying that it was bad or good that they were going to have to pay more. The OP was pointed out the problems which are resulting from DeSantis' draconian laws.

People who say that companies who hire undocumented and pay them low wages should be fined or charged instead of the undocumented workers being rounded up and deported - it is not about pay but about who should be punished.

There is a difference between talking about the ideal world or what we would be willing to do and what we can do given the social and political climate we live it. There is nothing weird about any seeming contradictions there - we can want both more fair wages and for people who exploit others to be punished, even if those things appear contradictory on the surface.

[MichMan]

34. Business having to pay more to workers instead of hiring the undocumented for low pay & no benefits

What makes that a problem? Because prices may go up as a result? Paying a little more for products or services due to higher wages for workers used to be something that was embraced here.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Isn't higher wages part of the republicans' improved economy?

[Cheezoholic]

23. Higher wages means more people likely to work

that lowers unemployment into the basement and the extra workers will spend more money invigorating the economy via a jump in demand causing more jobs to become available resulting in the Fed freaking out over inflation caused by greedy fucks jacking prices so they can get in on more people working forcing the Fed to hike interest rates so Wall St can get a piece of more people working for better pay because that used to be a good thing but now it's a bad thing because too many little guys have to much money so the Fed keeps jacking rates and the greedy fucks keep raising prices and on and on until we're back to square one and the only difference is more yachts.

The neo liberal economy of Greenspan. It's a George Jetson Treadmill I tell ya. It's insane.

[druidity33]

6. As someone who is currently dealing...

with an insurance adjuster. Don't believe a word he says. They're all fucking evil people. Hire a Public Adjuster. Period.

Also, anytime i hear anyone say there aren't workers, my first response is always are they paying enough? That's my question here? What's the payscale like?

[cachukis]

15. Agreed. Because I have known this guy for many years and learned

his perspective and he has learned mine, I'm passing on the results of my inquiry.
He's from Palatka, son of a Navy Welder and real estate speculator mom.
He's semi redneck and knows my world experience through yankee eyes. He's straight as he can be with me.
I know the insurance industry pretty well and my SIL knows how important his rep is in his business.

Florida is in mayhem. The insurance industry is trying to figure a way to make money and pay its bills.

The pay scale here, is of course, dictated by what the good subs will take. When there is a lot of work they do well. The less seasoned subs ride this wave until their incompetence is exposed.

The immigrant, like the Depression worker, is in the mix. They don't want to lose the cash flow. The contractor takes advantage.

The immigrant is now gone.

Adjusters here are stymied by the insurers. They have to play by rules.

Contractors, on the other hand are looking for deposits.

Sorry to hear you have an adjuster unable to solve your problem, but you are not alone.

[Warpy]

7. Boomers are fast disappearing

along with the undocumented workers, so pay is going to have to rise by a lot.

Employers just got too comfy having 10 applicants for every job that paid more than minimum wage, and some that only paid that.

[BOSSHOG]

11. I'm crushed

Don’t bury us just yet. We (boomers) got a coupla bucks in retirement funds laying around. Might come in handy. Here’s hoping Dark Brandon kicks kevs ass, raises the debt limit and allows our coupla bucks to continue the good job they are doing. We are still hanging in there in the work force as well. You can’t have my Roth IRAs until my hands are cold and dead then you can rip them away from my corpse easily. Some poor billionaire might need a bigger Christmas bonus. Wow, could that be the big dick kev will trip over?

[3Hotdogs]

10. It's only good if the Dems can convince Fl. rubes as to why it's the fault of Repukes.

[cachukis]

24. Working on it. The young people here are very open minded.

The problem is the angry old white man and his supportive spouse. They are here looking for Cleaverville. The state is filled with Cleavers and they find each other and reminisce.

[JohnnyRingo]

12. "You foreign workers, get the hell out of our state!"

"We have legions of senior citizens lined up and just waiting for those roofing jobs."

hahahaha

[gab13by13]

19. Brings back memories from back in the 60's

when I was taking jobs to pay for my college. Someone asked me if I wanted to do carpentry work, I quickly agreed. The job was at a gated community so I'm all excited. My job was carrying bundles of shingles up a 2 stage ladder to a large house. The carpenter told me to make it easier and cut the bundles in half, I told him no way I'm making double the climbs. They had pity on me in the afternoon and let me bang nails in the shingles for a break.

Wasn't as bad as another job I had building head walls for a pipe coming out of a huge mountain. The boss said I forgot to tell you to bring boots but I have a pair but they leak. So I took my socks off and wore the leaky boots in the water and it snowed that day.

We poured 1 head hall and the boss told me and my helper to tear down the forms and take the 20 foot long 10 inch corrugated pipe to the other side of the mountain. I told my buddy to tear the forms down and I will get the pipe to the other side of the mountain. I dragged it through the pipe to the other side rather than drag it up the mountain. There were a lot of cobwebs in that pipe under the mountain.

[DBoon]

14. sounds like the FL version of Brexit

with the same results

[AllaN01Bear]

18. also, who is going to pick their crops cheaply.?

[cachukis]

21. That's another issue on the horizon.

I'm a retired teacher and my former colleagues still have a few years to go and can't leave. The farm illegals and their legal families can't leave but will when they can.
The Pride people are making their choices.

We are in a state of tumult.

Global warming is intruding as are the comfortable pensioners from Schenectady. They are seeking a paradise that is falling off its wheels.

It will all boil down to insurance and who will pay and who won't.

[IronLionZion]

22. They're stealing our jobs but nobody wants to work anymore

[aeromanKC]

25. Red state voters are always voting against their interests

[mathematic]

26. "the illegals" and pushes a stealing-our-jobs narrative. nt

[roamer65]

28. I bet FL gets another Ian-level Hurricane this season, or maybe two.

That will be when the insurers call it quits.

[Xolodno]

30. They already have called it quits.

the Florida Citizens United Corporation (insurance company of last resort) is what other FAIR plans around the country use as an example of what not to do. They have over 90% market share of this risk. They recently had to jack up rates and find ways to pay less and transfer some of the costs to insurers (I'm sure that sat well with some). There were also a few state and regional insurance company insolvencies.

Farmers I think is the only larger carrier that has entered the market in Florida in recent years. But they also have severely limited their footprint and keep the risk they take on at a very minimal levels.

And of course, that's just windstorm risks, if you are on the coast, you have to get a separate Federal Flood Insurance policy in case of storm surge. But wait! There's More! Then you have to get a DIC (Difference in Conditions) policy to cover Liability, Theft, etc.

And I'm not sure if sink holes are covered either.

[PortTack]

29. Thx ..interesting post, and interesting comments. Something's going to have to give

Yes…keep passing it on to the consumer, but that has its limitations too. Dare I say we are reaching that point! If strawberries are $8 a pint, I can imagine a lot of ppl will go without. They’ll either rot in the field or they’ll rot on the grocery store shelves.

[Straw Man]

31. I saw the flip side of this ...

... in Japan in the '90s. When things were booming, there were tons of undocumented workers, from Iran, Pakistan, China, the Philippines, etc., mostly working in construction and manufacturing. When the economy started to tank, the roundups and deportations began.

Yeah, that's abusive and hypocritical, but at least they weren't dumb enough to be deporting the workers when they really needed them.

[Hortensis]

32. Reminds me of when Georgia "cracked down" on

undocumented farmworkers just over a decade ago. Big surprise, no one to fill the jobs, crops rotted in the fields.

Skilled pickers (most tend to specialize) were making around $14-$15 an hour, but less skilled made much less than that at hard work. So, of course, unskilled people weren’t taking the jobs.

And migrating farm workers who were available chose to bypass Georgia as they worked their way north with the summer.

[themaguffin]

35. People are not "illegal" - we should not use that dehumanizing RW term

[cachukis]

36. You're right. I had been talking to my SIL and used his terminology.

Good getting called out. Will remember next time.