Quote:Bingo that's the reality the whole Americans won't do the work is a weak argument. Americans have and to this day do all kinds of horrible labor but it's when the pay equals the work.


Rj talks about the farmer who pays $10 an hour to bundle hay well that's fine teenagers might be interested in a wage that low but if you asked me as a grown adult id decline as well I can make $10 an hour doing way less physical work.
It's cheaper for that farmer to purchase equipment that bundles the hay then to pay what someone going to want for that type of temporary physical labor.


I've dug ditches, laid sod, changed tires, and done countless other labor jobs for low wages to get where I'm at I don't believe the nonsense Americans won't do those jobs I've seen it with my own eyes. I've sat in labor hall lines at 3am with 100 other laborers (legal Americans you had to have papers) to hope for a day job making $8 an hour we where doing the same work you'd see people pick up illegals for.

Demographics also play a part in wages...Where I live now, the majority of work available is retail...We all know that retail is a very low paying industry...The community and surrounding communities are very old...The median income of the area is only somewhere around $26,000 per year...In my area, if you make $10 an hour or more, you are considered to be doing very well...

 

There are only a handful of companies around that pay $10 an hour or more...I am situated almost in the center of Pa about 26 miles south of Penn State which is on the other side of "Seven Mountains"... Once you get over the mountian into the State College area, the wages increase dramatically, as do they if you go 60 miles to the capitol Harrisburg...

 

Most of towns here in Pa are townships / villages located inside Boroughs ( not talking about the big cities such as Philly or Pittsburgh) where the wages once again are very low...

 

The point to this post is to show that demographics help shape the local economy and workforce infrastructure, so where you said teenagers might be willing to work for $10 an hour, here that is a wage that most grown men would jump to have...

 

I work for a company HQ in another state, so my pay is close to what you would expect in Jacksonville, but to the locals here, it's HUGE money...$10 an hour is considered very good, $teens is excellant, and $20 + is HUGE...

 

Housing is CHEAP, groceries are expensive

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