Much of the myth of jobs that Americans won’t do is to provide a steady stream of illegal aliens for industries that can be underpaid, exploited as to work conditions, in short a peon class. When Democrats yelp about who will pick our crops, they are in the tradition of their party of being on the side of the exploiters of labor.
Amen, Donald. And when closed factories begin reopening, as is already happening, they will have five or ten applicants for every position, sometimes more.
American citizens have a somewhat higher reserve wage than various categories of alien and that increases production costs. George Borjas calculated in 1996 that the net welfare benefit to the extant population of the cross-border trade in labor taking place amounted to about 0.1% of gross domestic product per year. The notion promoted by libertarians like Bryan Caplan that immigration restriction is inimical to prosperity is rubbish. Leaving aside clowns like Caplan and a small corps of businessmen in industries like meatpacking, the people promoting mass immigration are doing so for social and political reasons. We have an incipient civil war going on in one occidental country after another over this and the best case scenarios are not so pleasant.
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Don:
A lot will depend on the attitudes parents engender in their high-school age kids. My Dad (soon to be 90) didn’t want us working until college, complaining that too much of the cash he earned in high school jobs in the ’50s went to his car, but he was a career mailman and set the example that physical work was good. Now while I would not want my teen working in any job without good adult mentors, it has always seemed to this retired teacher that a good job is better prep for life (and work ethic in college or career) than a “volunteer portfolio” too many kids were told by counselors in my high school teaching days (1984-2009) “looks better than work” to selective colleges.
With minors, as with us older folks, the willingness to work is often directly related for the availability of money.
Had cousins who gave their kids all the money they needed / wanted growing up. None held a summer or after school job.
Can’t and won’t give my kids all the money they need / want so they work their butts off and amaze the neighbors.
Like my dad used to say, “even if I were rich, I wouldn’t give you everything you want….”
This points out one of the major flaws with globalism. The globalist elites have more in common with each other than they have with people in the companies that they run. Management having little in common with the working classes. This is probably what is causing the problems at Boeing. It was the instinct of management to move the corporate HQ away from the factories where the manufacturing is done. Paper pushing over people. Why should people have any work ethic when they get treated like disposable production widgets? It makes me wonder if the workers paychecks should be recorded to some depreciation or depletion account. AI and robots as the ultimate achievement in slave labor.
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For most people their jobs and the wages that they earn are the way that they get the purchasing power to make a living and pay their bills. The lower the wages the less purchasing power is available to keep the economy afloat. The globalist slogan of people owning nothing and being happy looks more like a threat than an opportunity. Economic gridlock with people being too broke to sustain an economy. The ultimate in economic lockdowns.
I cared for my parents for nearly 20 yrs: Dad got AD, d. ’96 at 73 : mom lived to 94 ! I would do it again in a heartbeat. But now at 72 I’m working very hard, out of need/necessity: my father(lawyer) told me that you take a job because you need the money, but the only reason you stay is when you love your co- workers, which I do.
It is always interesting to watch the often slow enculturation take place: how long it takes the young people to realize one works hard and pitches in for the benefit of co-workers, not The Man.
I am the oldest there by about 40 yrs and I actually keep up physically very well, but it is a high tech place, and there are too many times when humbling moments become humiliating ones. It is a big technology place:
Anyway they have have my loyalty since no shot was required and we stayed open. I use my emotional and mental freedoms there to pray for customers and my co-workers ! And for myself, as The Public are really difficult.
GregB,
I would be cautious about difficulties at Boeing. When they had the machinists strike last year, the company’s first offer would have put them on par with the highest-paid machinists in the state. ..The union rejected the offer.
Such reminded me of a clip I saw some years ago of a lady union laborer for Boeing, howling about “only” earning $60K per year. ..More than double what my folks ever made together.
It’s true enough that management can become greedy. ..Unions aren’t immune.
John Flaherty:
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I was more thinking about loss of emphasis on good engineering, and quality control standards on the manufacturing line. Focusing on cost savings instead. Problems like the 737MAX, the door plug blowout, the trouble plagued Starliner, and the hugely expensive SLS. SpaceX was able to beat Boeing to the finish line in carrying crew to the ISS with a fix cost contract bid that was about half of what Boeing bid for Starliner. I fully agreed with NASA that we needed redundancy for crew access, but Boeing is currently in the red with cost overruns. We are still waiting for them to deliver an operational vehicle. The YouTube channel Mentour Pilot has covered the situation with Boeing. It’s looking like McDonnell Douglas pretty well took over Boeing. I wish they would get their act together.