How many of you would actually be willing to go and pick lettuce all day as a job?

peanuthead

Yes. McCain made that stupid statement about lettuce pickers and his office was flooded with applications from American citizens. Who do you think did these jobs before? American citizens. And yes.....sometimes temporary, seasonal workers from Mexico, who went back home after the season was over.

As with ANY job. Some people are cut out for it and some aren't. There are people who dread the thought of sitting all day in a cubical staring at a computer all day. Or standing and doing the same movements for 8 hr's a day. EVERY job has it's pittfalls. Even the good paying ones.

I do know one thing.....when people need to eat and have a roof over their head.....they will do anything for it. Excuse me for living in a 1st world country........but it USED to be if you worked....you got paid enough to survive. I'm not saying the lap of luxury.....but you could afford rent, utilities, food clothing etc. without government aid and many even put money away. Heck....I put myself through college doing minimum wage work. Something happened to where now you can't work for that and just pay rent. Basic slum lord rent without section 8 housing or utilities or food etc. All Americans want is fair wages to be able to survive. Greed and increasing profit margins has made even basic survival needs a luxury.

If I were 25 years younger I would pick lettuce in a heartbeat if it paid enough to live on. Right now I'm physically not able to do it anymore......even if they paid me a million bucks a year. I have done many crappy jobs to live and I will continue to do so as long as I can. Some people can pick and choose on what they'd rather do....others do what has to be done to live.

Many people chose carpentry as their business and wanted to do it. Illegals ran them out because of doing it for cheaper than a living wage allowed. Same with factory work and other jobs. The job isn't the issue.....it's the pay. You can't pay adult experienced people minimum wage in this society and survive. Minimum wage jobs were ment for kids to get date money and their feet wet in the work -a -day world. Not for families to live on. The part time back-up for family emergencies or the little extra for vacations and savings and something extra. We have 2 adults busting butt and barely surviving. In fact....going under. Costs rising quicker than wages could ever keep up with. Minimum atleast ment humane survival.......now it gets you a spot on the park bench.

region50

Picking lettuce isn't the problem (which I have done) its that other industries start using them to drive worker wages down then every body says there doing the jobs nobody wants which is incorrect its the jobs nobody wants to do for what the greedy business man wants to pay. In the construction industry which is now 35% illegals wages have gone from middle middle class to upper lower class. These are jobs they could find plenty of people to work at a decent wage but since illegals have come in many people can no longer make ends meet unless your an illegal.

ioerr

Let them pay a decent wage I and won't have a problem with it

catmaninmo

been there, done that and still will. All they have to do is get a work visa anyway. Many do, why cant illegals?

I hate Hussein Obama

If they paid me enough, sure.

TLB

There really is no need....stop believing the lies that proponents for illegal immigration are feeding us.

The technology is already in place to handle the $7 head of lettuce.

By investing in automation to reduce labour shortage issues El Dulze has benefitted in many areas. The work force required to produce the current production levels manually would need to be 500 people, and would be a major management problem with many nationalities and languages involvedâ€“ this has been reduced by 80% with 100 people producing this level of output.

JosÃ© explains further, â€œReducing the amount of people has made everything more hygienic and damage to the lettuces caused by handling is now minimal. The robots have reduced rejects from 20% to 5%.â€

El Dulze aims to increase its overseas sales and as it takes the business to a higher level the overall investment has had an important impact. Visitors to El Dulze from major retailers are now exposed to a high level of investment and quality throughout the business and this commitment has had a major impact on gaining new business.

jack spicer

if it was my only option as to getting money, yeah.

Mateo

it beats washing dishes and being on a reality tv show.

Joel W

17% of the folks harvesting the crops are illegal aliens. The rest are American Citizens.

But the vast majority of the idiots fighting this issue don't know that the illegal aliens are working almost exclusively in jobs like drywalling, running heavy equipment, electrical wiring, and dozens of other construction labor jobs. They are doing this with little or no education, and we don't have any idea at all if those buildings, or construction jobs are at code.
=====================

Massively.. Illegal aliens have taken American Jobs that paid X amount of money, and accepted a great deal less than X, and worked under the table. They don't pay taxes and support the community, the schools, hospitals, and all those things that we deal with daily.

Because they are under the table, no one accounts for them in the tax base. They then turn and get three really good identification from the Mexican Mafia and they file for welfare while they show, for example, SS Cards on babies just born. And they are getting away with it.
======================
http://www.fairus.org
http://www.cis.org
http://www.numbersusa.com

Picking lettuce, by the way, pays under the table and rather well.

True Red White & Blue

What the heck is wrong with your question? How many illegals do you think are here to pick lettuce? There are estimated 30 million illegals here in the U.S. I dont see them picking crops here where I live. I have traveled the U.S. and have not seen to many of them doing anythig but picking crops, You and a lot of other people need to open our eyes and see that we only need less than 1/5 of the illegals to pick crops!
To be able to answer your question better, maybe you should ask How many of you would pick lettuce all day for what a lawbreaker would do it for. Illegals are driving down wages for all honest, law abiding taxpayers. They are taking benifits that belong to Americans, they are stealing our childrens education.
I was in Yuma and was watching these illegals picking lettuce and saw that the owner of the feild was driving a new shiney Hummer! I think he could raise the wages he pays and hire AMERICANS, and drive a Chevy or Ford.

mike

I'm with region 50 on this one.W e are being duped to beleive that Americans won't do these jobs. what do you think is going to happen if we give these illeagals amnesty,then they will want wage increases,cause now they have rights.
If these places paid a competative wage we would have many Americans lining up to do the work.

Mike...

pal_013168

Do you realize how many family farms there are in America? They do not hire illegals to help with the work either,they do the work themselves.Now I have a question for you,If the government paid all of your bills,wouldnt you work for a cheap wage too? Most illegals have anchor babies,that qualifies them for free medical,schooling,housing ect,citizens taxes pay for that,Or you might consider that 30% of illegals are in our prisons for multiple crimes,Our taxes at work again.I see no positive reason for illegals.

mamag

I grow vegetables every year and worked in our 2 acre garden every summer growing up. There will always be Americans willing to work in the fields if the pay is right.

atexx2

If I could undercut them, I would, I have to pay for health insurance,gas, food, and all other expenses so I really don't think I could.

I use to build houses, but they undercut our prices that we could no longer pay the workers comp and gas and food. So we had to get out of that line of work.

I have done manual labor before, and they undercut the prices.

Kiari

hmm 7 bucks an hour?

in northern California the grape pickers and pear pickers etc. make well over 12 bucks an hour from my understanding....

you may not want to do.. I may not want to do it. But the homeless guy on the street who lost everything would have done anything for a job.. any job, to keep his family, his house.. his life.

Ida Slapter

As a matter of fact when John McCain had this on his website - who would pick lettuce for 50 dollars an hour, I applied.

But since 70% of our fruits and vegetables come from other countries I don't know why we need a continuous supply of cheap farm labor. It sure explains all the e coli in our food.

mnwomen

They are not all field workers. They are in every aspect of the work force. I work in a factory and they work there thru a temp agency. The temp agency does not check their status. Or at least they didnt for awhile. It is changing as the temp agency has been caught hiring them and fined twice. This is a good thing as there are 80 less illegals working here. Also another temp agency was raided and finally shut down.

gasolinepoetry

I live in an economically depressed area in West Virginia, and though I have been well-educated and am comfortably employed, I know dozens and dozens of American citizens who would be more than willing to pick lettuce for $7 an hour. Sometimes people forget that there are areas in this country where American citizens don't have the option of working $12+ an hour jobs. Vast numbers of people in depressed areas of the U.S. perform far worse jobs for far less money (ever worked at a raw sewage or rendering plant?), so I'd bet money on the fact that U.S. citizens would be alright with picking lettuce or fruit.

momoffour

Yes, if there were no other jobs available and I needed to feed my family, of course I would do whatever I possibly could to earn a living. Even pick lettuce. But the difference is, that if I was doing it, it would be legal.

Anne

People all over the world would pay to come here and pick lettuce, so why do you have to muddy the waters about who here will pick the lettuce. Once again it is about who has the right to set our immigration laws for our wants and needs, us the tax payers who have to bare the cost of the care and feeding of the illegals and their families, or the illegals no matter how cheap they work, or well intended, and then use their children both ilegally and llegally here to play the poor
me card

PS Have you heard of the cotton gin, when and if farmers really run out of this so called cheap labor, they will find technology to do the job,

mikau l

Uhmmm are you telling me all 12 m of them pick lettuce?

Greg P

none of you are willing. u may do it for a day or so. you wont last. it is an extremly hard job. the people who pick the crops get a decent pay its not great but not bad. i mad about 10 an hour while i did in the summer when school was out...well i didn't pick lettuce. i picked tomatoes and cut tobacco.

bobette

interesting. and i don't think i or anyone would want to pick lettuce in a hot field all day, unless it was my only way of survival. even then...

Your #1 fan

Yes, everyone wants big money for simple work. I would if I needed a job and food. Most people don't realize that if you bought a new house at some point in the last 5-6 years it was probably built by illegals. People are just scared of competition. Actually, legal immigrants will work cheaper too because they want to work for the American dream. So how come those of us born here don't want to work hard?

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