LogFAQs > #910301707

Esrac posted...

I don't know what to tell you, man. Yeah, I've referenced my work history with tough manual labor jobs and how they're filled by Americans. Maybe that does color my perspective on this, because it does convince me that there are plenty of Americans who will do hard, dirty work for the right price. I don't see any reason why that would apply to jobs like offshore oil industry work, but not farming and other types of field work.

There are lots of reasons if you think about it, though. I've already outlined some of the reasons why they're different, instead of just shrugging your shoulders and talking about your experiences maybe you should actually research the issue and inform yourself.

Esrac posted...

If farmers can't get Americans to work their fields for $16 an hour, that just means $16 an hour isn't enough to draw them in. Especially in a state as expensive as California. Particularly if the work is seasonal instead of year round. I don't believe Americans won't do it because it's too hard or too dirty. I'm not really thinking about the average American worker here. I'm thinking of lower working class manual laborers.

Again, this is all begging the question. You can make this argument at any wage level (in fact, you all have already moved the goal posts from $10 to $16 not being enough, just in this topic)

And again, I've already outlined several reasons why they won't and alluded to the larger problem, which has to do with expectations and work history. To be concise in restating my point, it's seen as a dead end job for younger workers and as too low-paid for older workers who are out of work due to the collapse of their industry (I mentioned coal miners specifically but any kind of factory work also works)

I'd also like to point out that I've never said the reason Americans won't do it is because it's dirty or hard.

Esrac posted...

Why do you suppose Americans wouldn't want to do that kind of work if not due to a lack of sufficient compensation?

It's impossible to talk about this issue if you insist on talking about it in such overly simplistic terms.

There's no such thing as a job someone won't do if they're 'sufficiently compensated' because the idea of sufficient compensation literally implies that, you know, it's sufficient to get one to do it.

However, most crops aren't analogous snowcrabs with respect to the return you get on your investment, fishing is harder to automate, and there's no international OPEC-like organization protecting the value of crops from falling below a certain level to ensure farmer profitability.

But we've already outlined a lot of reasons in this topic outside wages why the work is undesirable even if you don't consider things like profitability and competition.

So why are you asking it that way?
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