In the market for a job?
You're not the only one.
Millions of Americans have been laid-off over the past year and can't find work (including moi). Out of frustration, many Americans blame immigrants (illegal and legal) for "stealing" jobs from "hard-working Americans."
So in a tongue-in-cheek campaign, Stephen Colbert is teaming up with farmers and doing something hilarious ...
Colbert has teamed up with the United Farm Workers to start a campaign called TAKE OUR JOBS.
They are tired of unemployed Americans complaining that immigrants are stealing jobs. So, farm workers are offering up a day of work in the field. Experienced field workers will train legal Americans to harvest seasonal goods in states like Florida and California.
But before you get your hands dirty, the Associated Press wants you to know "workers get enslaved, poisoned by pesticides, and die from heat stroke. The job has no health benefits, paid vacation, or even a living wage. Federal overtime provisions don't apply to farmworkers, nor do minimum-wage laws."
In a society where people complain about not getting their $100,000 bonus check, I don't think Americans could get back to their roots on which this country was born.
Personally, I'm not sure many Americans could hack it in the fields. I couldn't and wouldn't unless I was on the brink of homelessness. I would, however, go back to a service job like waitressing or retail.
Can Americans today put their money where their mouth is or are they too lazy?
Image via Colbert Nation
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Comments 10
i've never understood when people say that immigrants are taking our jobs, and this is proof!
kuods to stephen colbert once again!
I was born and raised on dairy farms and worked on several farms aside from my parents, Alot of times I look at the fat lazy americans complaining about the immigrants taking their jobs and I want to laugh and say "have at 'em!!" (When I was a teenager I was paid 4$ per hour, was required to be at work at 3:30 am)
TOO lazy!
If Americans did all the jobs they complain about other people having, they might actually learn to be grateful. Either that, or it'd cost $30 for a small bag of grapes after you considered everything that they'd demand their employer gave them just to pick grapes all day.
Colbert's efforts here are bogus because the target of his humor has nothing to do with the real issue, i.e., illegal aliens taking NONAGRICULTURAL jobs that belong to Americans. According to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., 7 million of the 8 million illegals in our workforce are holding jobs in the construction, manufacturing, transportation and service and hospitality industries.
The comments posted here display a complete ignorance of the facts, including the silliness about paying $30 for a bag of grapes! Labor costs in agriculture average about 6 percent of what you pay for produce at the supermarket, so even if you doubled a migrant's wages, how much more would it cost for that bag of grapes? Let's say, for the sake of argument, that labor is 10 percent of that $1 you pay for a head of lettuce. Double the wages so that they represent 20 percent of the purchase price and the lettuce ends up costing another dime? Who can't afford that?
Before people start sounding off about a subject they obiviously know nothing about, it would be wise to remember the warning from the late Sen. Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."
Hey Dave, even when you take the other industries that Immigrants work into consideration, they're still (mostly) doing jobs that most legal Americans won't do. Think about it, do you really want to clean hotel rooms, wash dishes, landscaping or any of the other jobs that immigrants do? No, you don't. So get off the immigrant's ass for it.
I used to have a dandy job working for an investment firm located in a very toney area of San Diego county. On my way to work, I drove through streets of carefully manicured acre estates. Guess what I saw at 5:30 am before the rest of the world was up? All the illegal Mexican immigrant workers leaving their makeshift shacks in the hills, walking or bicycling to their "illegal" jobs in these homes. The superwealthy have become so accustomed to getting everything for next to nothing, that they would rather not have to pay even minimum wage to legal American workers. These same people vote Republican, and cry all the way to the bank about how Mexicans are ruining the country!
This is not about how hard the jobs are to perform nor lazy Americans. Who was doing it before illegal immigrants? (1) No one should be here illegally and not paying taxes on wages earned. Most illegal immigrants are double - even triple dipping. They are paid under the table, receive free healthcare and some receive social services. The children attend public schools without question. We have issues with overcrowding in schools, but whose paying the taxes that support public school programs? It is certainly not illegal immigrants. (2) When the Take Our Jobs campaign includes jobs that were once starter jobs for our children, then maybe it will be a more meaningful challenge. Start with cleaning staff in hotels and Federal agencies. Then let's move to Popeye's and McDonald's or any fast food restaurant.
Continued... (3) No employer should be allowed to pay less than minimum wage to anyone and have conditions so hazardous with no healthcare coverage provided. Politicians are turning a blind eye to this major issue. I thought slavery was no longer legal regardless of the race of people enslaved. This entire issue needs a good wash and America needs to do the "right" thing. First, ensure people are here legally and then take it from there. And (4) $30 bags of fruit? Whoever started this ridiculous ranting should be ashamed of themselves.Thisis highly unlikely, but. I'm sure people would grow their own fruit and vegetables. I was raised in MS and we planted our own vegetables and most of our fruits. We had chickens and pigs as well. Do not lump all Americans in one category. There are lazy people of all races and nationalities. Let's not be so closed-minded and misleading.
Most Americans want a job that is going to pay them more then minimum wage. All I hear is how some don't get a job b/c unemployment pays them more or they wouldn't be making the same as they were. Most of these people are the ones b*tching about immigrants taking their jobs away. Some are to lazy to go look for another job, they would rather sit on their a$$ and collect unemployment.