If you were unemployed with no unemployment insurance would you take a job picking vegetables

[dkf]

Or working in a Chicken processing plant? Would you do yardwork or be a nanny?

How do we turn jobs that are available to jobs that Americans want?

[Warpy]

1. I've done a lot of strange and disgusting jobs in my life

and a few of them were money under the table jobs. It's what you do when the money runs out.

That's really the problem. I think most Americans would be glad to take jobs pulling the guts out of freshly slaughtered chickens if those jobs paid the bills. In fact, that was the case in Georgia after a raid by the INS took nearly all the employees. The owners raised wages a buck an hour and found plenty of local people who wanted the jobs.

Americans will do any jobs out there. They just won't do them for less than it takes to live on, and that's what employers seem to want them to do, following in the footsteps of the old Conquistadors who found it cheaper to go catch more Indians to enslave than feed the ones they had.

What we need is a truly subsistence wage floor, not a wage floor that is far below poverty level for a single person. We'll do whatever needs to be done and we'll do it well. We just require our labor to provide us enough to live on.

[dkf]

11. I think you are right.

We need to make disgusting or exhausting jobs pay even more than a comfy job. Then people can actually pick an education where they use their brain power or pick jobs that require stamina and physicality. Or you can do both if you are suited for it. This would give all Americans a chance to succeed.

[Cal Carpenter]

23. Strange and disgusting?

The OP brings up such jobs as harvesting the food we need to eat and care-giving - some of the most basic, fundamental tasks necessary for survival, and you imply that they are strange and disgusting?

I find your reaction strange and disgusting - as someone who has shoveled cow shit and harvested vegetables for a living as well as cared for adults needing diaper changes.

I understand that the point you are making is that all work should provide a livable wage and I agree wholeheartedly, I just couldn't bite my tongue regarding your initial reaction.

[Warpy]

24. Cleaning out apartments vacated by college students was

both strange and disgusting. Wiring intercom systems in 200 year old buildings was dirty and often disgusting since those buildings were the homes of some pretty nasty vermin.

The problem with trying to ride such a high horse is that you invariably get knocked off it.

[pipi_k]

29. One disgusting job I didn't get paid for...

Being caretaker for my mother in law after she broke her hip.

I was her daily caretaker for the six months she lived with us before she died.

You wanna know disgusting? Digging a baseball-sized hunk of shit out of an elderly person's asscheeks with your hands (albeit they're covered by rubber gloves) because the person can't do it herself. Wiping up vomit. Picking feces out of the shower or off the bathroom floor. Emptying and changing a catheter bag (which she had the last few weeks of her life). Looking for the adult diaper she took off in the middle of the night and put in a hiding place....finding it stuffed in the portable toilet. Cleaning up a puddle of urine because she didn't tell us she removed her adult diaper during the night and stood in front of the bathroom sink in her nightgown and peed a whole night's worth of pee all over the bathroom rug.

I did it for the family and I did it so she wouldn't have to languish in a nursing home.

That didn't make it less disgusting....

[Dr Morbius]

49. You're a hero.

And I'm not kidding, either. I define heroism as sacrifice, or the risk of sacrifice. And I know from personal experience the level of sacrifice involved in caring for a family member. Folks like you make America work; kudos.

[Brickbat]

2. You make sure the wages are decent and that the working conditions are safe.

Whenever you hear "jobs people don't want," what it really means is "jobs people don't want AT THAT WAGE and UNDER THOSE WORKING CONDITIONS."

[Wapsie B]

10. I can remember Paul Harvey spouting off about "jobs Americans don't want" in the 70's.

This is just part of the strategy by the Chamber of Commerce types to drive down wages even further in this country.

[Bigmack]

3. Never mind would I take such a job...

the real question is whether I could do such a job. For any length of time, that is.

Those jobs burn people out pretty damned fast. The lines move really fast, they're dangerous, the involve repetitive motion that eventually causes problems.

We've been spoiled by cheap food... raised in terrible, unsanitary conditions, and with cheap - really cheap - labor.

Those food factories and disassembly plants have terrible safety records. If we ensure that they have humane, safe conditions, and pay a living wage.... well, kiss those KFC treats and the dollar hamburger.... and the dollar head of lettuce.

[mrcheerful]

4. I done everything from working the fields to going around doing yard work

in my youth, the pay is bad and the toll it takes on a persons back later in life really makes me wonder how I put myself into those types of jobs. Oh yeah thats right, they called it Raygunomics. So yes Americans will take those jobs because even the lousy pay those jobs gave it was still more then what welfare gave you.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. A lot of Americans would take those jobs if they paid a living wage.

I've done some of those jobs, and others, in the past because a little money coming in beats the hell out of no money coming in.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. I work for a landscaping company, I Do Yard Work Now !

and I have unemployment insurance


I would rather not work in a chicken processing plant but (as luck would have it) I spent about 20 years in the restaurant business and have a degree in Culinary Arts. I would work there if I needed to. Picking vegetables, hell yes. No problem at all with that one. A Nanny? I am not sure who would hire me as a nanny but if I needed the work there is no question I would take the job.


Your question is back asswards

How do we turn Americans into people willing to do the available jobs?

[ejpoeta]

19. well we are seeing how.... get rid of all the jobs and the safety net and make sure there

are plenty of mouths to feed thanks to anti choice laws and voila..... a ready crop of people willing to do almost anything to feed their family.

[Bluebear]

33. You must not be an American.

:silly:

[WeDidIt]

7. I've done REAL shit work before, I'm not above doing it again

By REAL shit work I mean cleaning cesspools.

[Catshrink]

8. The job you won't do: Try working a season in the lettuce fields of Yuma

The job you won't do: Try working a season in the lettuce fields of Yuma

In the lettuce fields of Yuma, my co-workers had two immediate concerns. Was I an undercover immigration agent? And did I have some sort of sweating problem?

In 2008, I spent two months cutting lettuce for Dole, the first job in what became a yearlong project of working alongside Latino immigrants for my new book, "Working in the Shadows: A Year of Doing the Jobs (Most) Americans Won't Do."

<snip>


That I sweat seemed only natural: even in February, temperatures hit 90 degrees. It's this warm weather that makes Yuma the winter lettuce capital of the country, where 12 million heads are harvested each day. Behind that astounding number is a lot of pain.

On long days, our crew harvested more than 40 tons of lettuce, with each cutter responsible for more than 3,000 heads. I'd come home with a red face, swollen hands and feet, and a throbbing back that was never quite aligned correctly. By 8 o'clock, without exception, I was asleep.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaking several years ago to a group of union members in Washington, D.C., told them, "I'll offer anybody here $50 an hour if you'll go pick lettuce in Yuma this season and pick for the whole season." Amid jeers, he didn't back down, telling the audience, "You can't do it, my friends."

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/viewpoints/articles/2010/03/14/20100314thompson14.html

[GoCubsGo]

53. That sounds about as bad as the job I am about to take

I get to spend another summer running transects in a mucky, cottonmouth-infested South Carolina swamp. In chest waders. Carrying a 25 lb. pack of equipment. I know all about the sore back and swolen feet. My toe nails finally grew back to normal from the damage they sustained from the ill-fitting waders boots. And, the sweat... Boy do I know about that. I'd pour at least a pint of the stuff out each leg of my waders at the end of the day. Can't wait for another summer of that.

:sarcasm:

Wish I had my old job back, but I'm grateful for this one. But, I would trade it for a $50/hr job picking lettuce in Yuma in a heartbeat.

[frazzled]

9. I would try to pick vegetables or be a nanny or hotel maid

Yes I would. Whether I'd be any good at it is another question. I've picked vegetables at a farm--but it was kind of elitist: the CSA to which we belonged. Twice a summer I'd take the kids out to do our duty, picking and washing and bundling vegetables and carting them back to the city.

I'm a maid in my own house. But I'd have a hard time picking up other peoples' messes or cleaning their toilets. But I guess I'd do it if I had to. I raised two kids, so I think I would do the nanny's job pretty well.

But I'd never, ever in a million years work in the chicken processing plant. I'd be barfing all over the place. I can barely eat the stuff when I think about it. My grandmother used to slaughter and clean her own chickens, though. We lose that gene over the years.

[LWolf]

12. I once applied for a job cleaning dog kennels for minimum wage.

Which was, at the time, $1.90ish.

I showed up at 7am to put in my application, and was the 93rd person in line to turn it in. 80s. Reagan recession. During that same recession, I filled out an application for a job opening in a turkey processing plant. While I didn't get that job, or the kennel-cleaning job, I did take care of several neighborhood children while their mom worked, and cleaned house, did laundry, and cooked meals for my elderly neighbor.

I grew up the single child of a working parent; no one in my family ever went to college before I did. We never turned down work. Ever.

In addition to babysitting and yard work, I was cleaning stalls, exercising horses, and cleaning people's houses for cash by the time I hit middle school.

[Uben]

13. Yes

You take what you can get until you can find something better. Been there, done that. When you have a family to support, a little is a whole lot better than none.

I've had shitty jobs.......real shitty. But they all were just a step to something bettter. Working in the elements is a pretty tough job when it's real cold or, in my case, very hot! But, I was young then. It would kill me now.

[Missy Vixen]

14. I'm a former nanny

Being a nanny isn't the hardest job in the world, but dealing with parents who expect a better standard of care then they can provide themselves (while paying below minimum wage,) is. It should also be mentioned that those who work with kids end up getting all the childhood illnesses, so the first year can be a bit rugged while your immune system gets used to the germs.

I might also mention that anyone taking a job as a nanny in the age of "nanny cams", background checks, etcetera, is crazy. I have no fear of a "nanny cam" or not passing a background check. What I am afraid of is working for someone who believes I'm too stupid or lazy to get a better job, and treats me accordingly.

[quickesst]

15. Try paying a fair fucking wage.

... One thing I have learned is that the ivory towers have no fucking windows. Bush thought he knew everything he needed to know about New Orleans and Katrina by looking out a window of an airplane. Another thing is that illegal immigrants are not limited to the stereotype skills so many in those towers embrace as fact. They are skilled in many other areas including mine. They do this work for an unfair wage which I will not do because it's far better than what they could achieve in their own country, but for me, taking a forty to fifty percent paycut would ruin what I have worked toward for over twenty years, so liberals tell me "Fuck you racist, move over, get out of the way, and stop being so petty." I wonder what the tone would be if those "immigrating" to the US were white collar/tech skilled people who were taking the ivory tower inabitants work at half their wages. Yeah, I thought so. Thanks.
quickesst

[blue97keet]

27. Legalized labor arbitrage

Those "immigrating" to the US ARE white collar/tech skilled people , they are H-1B so-called non-immigrant visa holders and they are taking U.S. jobs and the tone of the reaction to this is in complete agreement with your own. U.S. tech workers are NOT in an ivory tower. Only Wall Street is and is quite willing to arbitrage all workers into the sewer or the unemployment line.

[quickesst]

61. OK....agree with you... but,

..you have to agree that while a skilled blue collar worker is a "racist", the white-collar isn't. The argument is the same, but I see a great disparity in the treatment. Because a white-collar tech's entire life has been destroyed, or greatly diminished, I, a blue-collar worker in the same boat will not go off like a rocket with accusations of blatant racism because they're denying "brown" people the opportunity to make a better life for their families. That's the biggest difference I see. Thanks.
quickesst

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Ummmm......

I know Amerikkkans - lily white protestant Amerikkans - who choose to do those jobs. How fucking insulting.


Edit to add: Even though I am well educated I once applied for a job washing dogs. I've picked fruits and vegetables and dressed chickens. And I prefer to do my own yardwork.

[MikeW]

17. Yep ....

never worked in chicken.

But I did do some time pumping out septic systems.

and no ... you never really get used to the smell :puke:

[KG]

18. it's a myth people won't do certain jobs. it's the wage scale.

for example, pay a fair hourly wage instead of piece work for field work. wandering immigrants can get by on 50 bucks a day. the rest of us need to make something akin to a living.

[dkf]

20. So why aren't people picketing these places for a job that pays a living wage?

Why are we not upset that places would overlook hiring our unemployed? We allow only those who don't have to shoulder the burdens of the costs of the American life to afford to take these jobs.

[Maru Kitteh]

21. I detassled corn in the summers as a youth. Hard work is nothing new

to my family. My husband and I both did farm work for a number of years.

[blue97keet]

22. Mining coal is more dangerous than gutting chickens

and 29 Americans just got killed.

[DesertFlower]

25. i have a bad back and can't stand or

bend too much. i don't like kids and they don't like me. i don't know what i would do.

[Oregone]

26. No. Id traffic narcotics

Fuck their law and system if I end up a victim

[deaniac21]

28. I wouuld take a job wiping asses to support myself.

[pipi_k]

30. Me too

Once you've done it for free, getting paid is actually a step up....

[deaniac21]

54. You got that right.

[The Gunslinger]

31. a living wage and benefits. That's how.

[Bluebear]

32. Yes, no "Americans" process chicken, do yardwork, or babysit

:crazy:

[kestrel91316]

34. Yes.

[recoveringrepublican]

35. I grew up picking rocks out of fields, plucking chickens, cleaing cow shit

for free! Later in life I did a lot of retail and then became a CNA at an assisted living place. I would honestly do anything for a fair wage. I will not do relative slave labor.

[pitohui]

36. i wouldn't be a nanny but the other jobs are good jobs

the chicken processing job pays pretty damn good, i'd take that in a ny minute, you really think people fly across the world from the marshall islands to springdale arkansas because it's a shitty job?

i wouldn't be a nanny because all it takes is one kid, one time, telling a lie to fuck up your life forever but a dead chicken is not going to make up stories about how you molested him -- for the pay/benefits involved it's def a job worth doing

[quaker bill]

37. I did

and picking watermelons is very hard work. I have been a meatcutter, janitor, dishwasher, baker's assistant, optician, pizza baker, technician for hazardous waste site cleanups, all for something around or just a little better than minimum wage, and all to eventually pay my way through college to be an environmental scientist.

There is nothing about many jobs that anyone "wants". No one I worked with over my dozen years of minimum wage work "wanted" their job. They just liked them a bit better than being unemployed. I had a stint of attempting to live on unemployment insurance and food stamps during the 1970's, and the first job of any sort I could find was a massive improvement, even though the boss was a dimwitted abusive jerk and the paychecks occasionally bounced, it was still an improvement.

There is no magic. Many of these jobs are hot, nasty, physically challenging, dirty, some are dangerous, and most are bad smelling. Even if they paid better, people still would not "want" them, simply for the lack of respect they engender. They are however, far better than not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Therein lies the republican concept, get enough people in the position of no social support, where they truly do not know where their next meal is coming from, and they will take these jobs.

[aquart]

38. You want professors to be nannies? Physicists to pick grapes?

Why? To save yourself a buck on taxes? What a STUNNINGLY shortsighted use of national resources that would be.

And what nation could accept it without being a complete failure before the world?

[leeroysphitz]

39. Pay a living wage? n/t

[salin]

40. Here is the problem that we don't want to face:

we - as consumers - want prices to stay low. We as workers would like to be able to pay living expenses on wages. It is the unspoken incongruence. I think it is why nothing of substance has been legislated per immigration reform over the past quarter of a century.

It is an uncomfortable discussion that most try to avoid.

[OhioChick]

41. Yes n/t

[Old Troop]

42. When I was unemployed I did any job that presented itself

[tonysam]

43. The assumption in the OP is if you are unemployed, especially for a long time,

you are a lazy bum because you aren't taking anything that's out there.

Never mind the reality that the less skilled the job, the more competition there is for those jobs. That's regardless of the pay. That's why the jobs pay shit.

Jobs picking vegetables or working in slaughterhouses aren't there. There is NOTHING out there.

Somebody here doesn't have his or her head in reality.

I am somebody who is a 99er who will run out of UI in about ten weeks. I have done a regional search for jobs, and there is NOTHING out there remotely that I qualify for.

[Bluebear]

63. .

[Throd]

44. Yes

[akbacchus_BC]

45. Of course, I will, it is an honest job and it will help to pay the bills, rather

than being unemployed especially if UI has run out. A job is a job!

[Roon]

46. I cleaned houses when I was a kid

my wife and I both did. I enjoyed it, it wasn't bad. I guess we did it for about a year.

[Taitertots]

47. For $20 per hour I'll quit my job and do it today

We turn them into the jobs people want by paying the wages the market demands.

Strange how there isn't a shortage of garbage haulers or Asphalt workers. Seems Americans have no problem doing shitty jobs, they just expect market wages.

[boppers]

48. BTDT.

The "jobs Americans don't want" comes from a mindset where people feel entitled to far more than what they're worth, and figure they shouldn't have to work below a certain level.

[Luminous Animal]

50. You are an idiot.

There are already millions of U.S citizens doing those jobs.

The reason why companies hire undocumented workers is not that there is a lack of U.S. citizens willing to do those jobs. The reason why is that there are millions of undocumented workers willing to do those jobs for less that minimum wage and they won't complain when they are treated like shit.

[Meldread]

51. Yes to some, no to others.

Growing up my family had several huge gardens that we'd plant every year. I've done it, for free, and I hated it so much I wouldn't even do it for pay unless it was a huge ridiculous amount. I'm not sure about the chicken processing plant, I'd give it a whirl at least.

A nanny? Yes, I love kids. Especially rather young kids - they're amusing to be around. I have two young nephews, and earlier this month the oldest one had a birthday party (he turned 7 years old). Seventeen kids showed up, and only a couple of parents stayed, both of them were close friends with my sister. So while she entertained the adult guests, I volunteered to watch the kids. Easy as pie. Had to deal with a couple of the older ones who were playing rough with some of the younger ones, but other than that no trouble what-so-ever. (The age's of the kids ranged from 10 to 2 years old.)

My only concern about being a Nanny would be the parents finding out that I'm gay, and then having a total freak out and claiming that I wanted to molest their kid or something. I'd be more inclined to be a Nanny for people who knew I was gay, and was accepting of that fact.

My issue with some of the jobs, such as picking vegetables, is the repetitive labor. It's just not something I'm good at, and frankly I'd probably be fired for being so shitty at it. It's also mentally exhausting to me, because in a job I need to be mentally challenged. Any job where I don't feel like I'm solving problems, is a job that I can find some measure of love in - a job where I'm stuck doing something repetitively, over and over, with no mental challenge at all... it would drive me insane. It would have to pay a crazy amount for me to do it, and even then it'd just be temporary for the money.

When I was younger, the gardens were physically taxing, but it was always the repetitiveness that I hated the most.

[pipoman]

52. I dumped water out of tires for 9 hrs/day for 6 months waiting for something better n/t

[NNN0LHI]

55. I have had people tell me that working in automobile manufacturing was beneath them

That was one of the reasons I have gotten for their not purchasing American cars and protecting those jobs. Because they didn't want to do that kind of work. So why worry about protecting those jobs they asked?

If a job doesn't exactly fit their college degree many people are not interested in that job. I have been told by some that they only wanted a job which involved "meeting interesting people", or they were not going to do it. Think about that. Like going to work is supposed to be some kind of social extravaganza?

So I think working in the fields from sun up to sun down is going to be a little out of the questions for a lot of people. For any amount of money.

Don

[spanone]

56. i'll do anything to feed my family...you betcha

[NaturalHigh]

57. Absolutely.

[Cleita]

58. I worked as a housekeeper once for four months when I was out of work for

some rich freeper types in Malibu. They actually had been invited to Ronald Reagan's inaugural and were big mucky mucks in the Republican Party. It was the worst job I ever had and I did work in the fields in the summer when I was in high school. At least in the fields there was sunshine and fresh air and the people, mostly Hispanics that we worked along side were pleasant to be around.

[Justitia]

59. Nerd alert: As a cost accountant, I actually find factories kind of fascinating

We don't have a lot of them left.

I just recently toured an ice cream plant and I was mesmerized by all the factors of production and engineering, etc.

But, being an accountant would be torture to many, so maybe I'm not the best person to ask.

Yes, I could work in an ice cream factory :)

Chickens, not so much.

[Name removed]

60. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[earth mom]

62. Yes I would. I picked veggies on a farm for money when I was a teenager. nt