May 18, 2006
Yeah, Right. Pull the Other One.
The LA Times is really reaching today:
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Cyndi Smallwood is looking for a few strong men for her landscaping company. Guys with no fear of a hot sun, who can shovel dirt all day long. She'll pay as much as $34 an hour.$34 an hour is nearly three times the starting base rate for a Transportation Security Administration airport sceener, yet somehow, the government managed to fill all of the screener positions - with US citizens - even in southern California. Somehow Cyndi can't find gardeners for three times the pay?She can't find them.
Maybe potential employees don't know about her tiny Riverside firm. Maybe the problem is Southern California's solid economy and low unemployment rate. Or maybe manual labor is something that many Americans couldn't dream of doing.
It seems that writer David Streitfeld hasn't considered one explanation for this anomaly. It's called lying.
Cross-posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto, Stop the ACLU, and Vince Aut Morire.
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1
I'm off to get my shovels, rakes and implements of destruction.
Posted by: Howie at May 18, 2006 10:50 AM (D3+20)
2
That's insane. She can't find workers at $34, when walmart is hiring at 6,7,8,9? Even around SCal, I bet they are hiring at 12, tops.
What does 34 an hour annualize to?
I'm with you on this one, DPB.
Posted by: jd at May 18, 2006 10:58 AM (aqTJB)
3
funny how I was also able to find an American small business willing to mow my law bi-weekly for fifty dollars a month, of course his price is kept lower due to the fact he has to compete against scores of Mexican work teams other landscaping companies are paying cash to as 'day' laborers.
However if Americans were willing to pay the price for American labor, China wouldn't be exporting their cheap products in droves to the U.S now would they?
Posted by: davec at May 18, 2006 11:00 AM (CcXvt)
4
Yup, it's a lie. On the Laura Ingraham show one of her listeners tried applying for the job a couple of weeks ago, but he hasn't heard back from Ms. Smallwood yet.
Posted by: Jesusland Carlos at May 18, 2006 11:08 AM (8e/V4)
5
Dang accents, she was sayin' three-to-four dollars an hour, which was misinterpreted as thir-ty-four.
Posted by: Rodney Dill at May 18, 2006 11:49 AM (KXQxU)
6
That's somewhere around $70K annually. Liar Liar...
Posted by: Chris at May 18, 2006 12:05 PM (XCo9J)
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obviously a typo
Posted by: john Ryan at May 18, 2006 12:36 PM (TcoRJ)
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No, john ryan, not a typo. Read the story.
Posted by: The Dread Pundit Bluto at May 18, 2006 01:25 PM (RHG+K)
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Aside from the question whether all the purported facts in the article are true, if you don't think there are some jobs that Americans won't do, then you haven't lived in the Black community. As early as 1917, So Cal fruit growers went to the local Black communities to hire labor in the WWI labor shortage. They were told that Blacks were never going to do farm labor again. We have lived in the Black community a long time, and that attitude is still prevalent. Landscaping isn't farming, but its similar enough so that you won't get Blacks applying for those jobs. Now, how about Latinos. Here the answer is simple, I think. Latinos--citizens and noncitizens who can legally work--are fully employed. Those doing landscape work certainly are interested in owning their own company. Why should they take a job with intermittent employment, even for $34, when they want to have their own company. That is the route to the middle class. As for Anglos/whites, how many of them have you seen doing landscaping work; they aren't going to complete with Latinos for jobs--get real. They have great opportunities.
Posted by: shroudedindoubt at May 18, 2006 02:30 PM (s0ZRf)
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Look, there ARE jobs American citizens, regardless of color, won't do--at a particular price. But I've known white people who picked strawberries for less than 10 an hour (several years ago, and not anywhere NEAR SoCal, but still). At 34 bucks an hour, she could get people. This is a load of crap, Bluto nailed them. That reporter's gullibility is a firing offense in this case.
Shoot, there are Americans cleaning outdoor toilets for 10 bucks an hour, some parts of this country.
Posted by: jd at May 18, 2006 03:47 PM (aqTJB)
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OK, now that I've READ the piece, I wouldn't fire the reporter. The reporter all thru the piece tries to verify the woman's story. The reporter IS skeptical.
But I still don't believe the woman's story. I do believe that she has trouble getting inexperienced workers at $14 an hour in Orange County...but $34 for experienced? That seems pretty good.
Posted by: jd at May 18, 2006 04:01 PM (aqTJB)
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I love how John uses his mastery of haiku to simultaneously show how dishonest and stupid he is at the same time.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at May 18, 2006 04:37 PM (0yYS2)
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I cleaned toilets and mopped floors about two years ago as a side job for extra money for several months to earn enough to help pay a hefty bill for a lawyer for a family member. It was something I could do without stress or bother in the mornings before I had to be at my regular job. I got paid fairly and when I'd earned enough for what I needed I gave notice and parted amicably with the employer.
So yes, Americans WILL do the jobs they say we won't do.
If this lady is willing to pay me $34 an hour to get in shape and get a tan at the same time, I'll pack up right damn now and move there.
Posted by: Oyster at May 18, 2006 05:53 PM (YudAC)
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Flat out lie, without a doubt. I could drum up twenty people in twenty minutes willing to dig holes etc. for $34/hour. JOurnalism must be paying pretty well for this reporter not to know the value of $34/hour.
Posted by: Heroic Dreamer at May 18, 2006 06:57 PM (aH6Zf)
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Using the hiring of airport screener as an analogy to real workers doing a physically strenuous labor intensive job?
: : $34 an hour is nearly three times the starting base
: : rate for a Transportation Security Administration
: : airport screener, yet somehow, the government
: : managed to fill all of the screener positions - with
: : US citizens
With the current clowns in power in the federal government, when it comes to the TSA all I can say is you get what you pay for... A warm body, two eyes that can't see and three braincells that don't connect...
'Xcuse me ... take off your shoes... and while your at it, your skivvies too...
YoHo YoHo... a sailors life for me ...
Posted by: Adm Happy Horation Hornhonker at May 18, 2006 11:15 PM (dzYxp)
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It all depends on what she arbitrarily considers "experienced".
There's a term in the headhunting community for a candidate that gets the top dollar... a purple squirrel. Such a thing doesn't exist but allows a company to be perceived as actively seeking new employees.
Have her post the EXACT qualifications the $34/hr candidate must have and then see the qualified applications roll in.
"Supervisor must be available 25 hours a day, 8 days a week and be able to lift 200 lbs, be female, African-American, and have mother tongue fluency in Spanish and Korean and Finnish. Rethuglicans need not apply."
Posted by: Aaron's cc: at May 18, 2006 11:46 PM (ov6Vw)
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Woah, Hornhonker just opened a big can of worms! He doesn't know Bluto! Hold on ... let me grab my popcorn ...
Posted by: Oyster at May 19, 2006 05:54 AM (YudAC)
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Adm Happy:
Ignorance is bliss. The average screener works harder every day than you ever have in your life, and for less money than they'd make as a 'civilian'. I say 'civilian' because they are supervised in a para-military manner by political appointees who know little or nothing about their duties, and are subject to imprisonment in Leavenworth for security breaches.
When the original screener force was hired, 11 out of 12 applicants were rejected. The ones who remain must requalify in a week-long process every six months in every aspect of their jobs or face dismissal. Try putting your average American office worker through that and see what happens.
Many, if not most TSA folks are like me, they joined after 9/11...because of 9/11. I took an immediate $10,000 per year pay cut for the privilege, then spent months away from my family training screeners at airports across the country, working a seven-day per week schedule - and I did it gladly because I knew that what I was doing served my country.
You should know that once you bluster your way past the checkpoint the screeners laugh amongst themselves at the pompous assholes who think they deserve preferential treatment.
Posted by: The Dread Pundit Bluto at May 19, 2006 09:12 AM (RHG+K)
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Bluto--How come you don't blog more about screening? For ex: do you think privatizing is/was the way to go? How do you think it is going? Are they doing something useless that could be cut? Missing something simple they should be doing?
And how come liberals always got identified for cavity searches when you were doing the screening?
Posted by: jd at May 19, 2006 11:39 AM (aqTJB)
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Only the ones with boobies.
Posted by: Oyster at May 19, 2006 01:09 PM (QQzPp)
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Lessee, she says she has to certify the employee by Davis/Bacon Law, and she's asking for skilled Landscaping Emloyees. Actually the pay is about average for most of those job descriptions.
The work is physical, and on the average, after going through an Airport or two, my guess is 95% of the TSA people are only qualified to hoist Donuts. The other criteria for the type of work she is offering is "Showing up every day" . . something most of the 4.7% unemployed can't master.
Posted by: large at May 19, 2006 01:14 PM (fEUSs)
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large, if you'd read my comment above you wouldn't have just made such a giant ass of yourself. Next time you walk through an airport, try doing it with your eyes open.
Posted by: The Dread Pundit Bluto at May 19, 2006 01:53 PM (RHG+K)
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Does "skilled landscaping employees" constitute being able to pick which of these tools is a shovel? Or is it someone with a dregree in landscaping design and horticulture?
Posted by: Oyster at May 19, 2006 03:22 PM (QQzPp)
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jd: I have blogged about the TSA. The tragedy of the TSA is that grossly incompetent managers have squandered a workforce of uniformed TSA personnel who are, without question, the most dedicated and professional people with whom I have ever worked.
Unfortunately, the TSA Executive Service is rotten with incompetent bureaucrats and failed military officers who are busily destroying the organization while building their little fiefs.
Incidentally, people like large and Adm Whoosiboober are a small percentage of airline passengers. Most passengers are cooperative and realize the need for security. The few arrogant loudmouths are dealt with with courtesy and concealed amusement.
Posted by: The Dread Pundit Bluto at May 19, 2006 03:48 PM (RHG+K)
25
What does she look like? Perhaps Cyndi Smallwood should consider some bigwood.
I just hired 4 mexicans to do fence work for less than half that money. Took me one morning to find them. They are happy. I am happy. They work hard. I give them a decent place to stay and buy the beer after work.
As every one knows there are supposed to be tens of thousands of black people out of work. Try finding one.
I have been out of the country for 6 weeks and was shocked to come back and find all the roofers, construction laborers and clean up crews to be White or Mexican. Remember, as the idiot mayor Nagin says. This is the Chocolate city where 67% is black. Strange how you find very few working when the claim 200,000 out of work. How can a Mexican who has never been here before find work when a black native can't. Yea, Yea. I know. I'm a racist.
Posted by: greyrooster at May 19, 2006 08:31 PM (AWtJU)
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greyroastduck = amnesty = enabler ... unless of course the fence is at the border ...
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at May 19, 2006 08:49 PM (FCC6c)
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I hear ya Rooster. I'll hire anyone who can work unsupervised, but with Bush's horrible economy, with soaring unemployment at 4.7%, I've given up. White kids are mostly stupid liberals with no sort of work ethic and who want fifteen dollars an hour, the few black guys who have asked for a job are multiple felons and I won't take them to someone's house, and there aren't enough legal Mexicans to go around, so I've been working seven days a week for months now, and keeping all the money for myself. Meanwhile, leftards like Larry et al are crying for the government to steal more of what I earn by my effort, though they can't manage any effort of their own. It will be fun killing them WTSHTF.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at May 20, 2006 07:50 PM (0yYS2)
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That's real funny IM. You would not send these people to the houses but you would go there yourself! LOL HaHaHa!
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at May 20, 2006 08:47 PM (FCC6c)
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IM: Yesterday there was approximately 30 mexicans at the entrance to Home Depot in Gulfport, Ms. Come on and get a truckload. That is if you can work illegals.
Last gasp Larry: Idiot! What he meant was the felons would probably steal from his customers. And guess what? They would. Friggin moonbat.
Posted by: greyrooster at May 22, 2006 06:44 AM (J4a4p)
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Oh! I'm glad someone understands IM, greydickroost! Thanks for the interpretation. All the same, I would rather be stolen from than end up hanging from an overpass! You and your unholy alliance with illegals can go to hell!
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at May 22, 2006 12:28 PM (FCC6c)
31
I don't employ illegals now Rooster, but pretty soon I won't have much choice, because it's hard as hell to find anyone who will show up, much less do the work. Anyone who wants a job has one, and most people are unwilling to do physical labor for the wages I can pay. The few Americans who have expressed interest in working for me either want outrageous wages, or are crackheads, or both. Mexicans show up on time, dress and groom themselves well, generally do damn fine work, and don't cause trouble on the job. I started on construction doing cleanup when I was 13, but most kids today are too lazy, stupid, and cellphone-obsessed to work. I have little choice if I want to keep expanding my business, and it makes me sick.
Larry, my customers don't have anything to fear from me, because I don't work for liberals. For all I care, their houses can collapse on them.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at May 22, 2006 06:16 PM (0yYS2)
32
So you have your customers fill out a questionaire, denoting political affiliation, IM?
I know the Mexicans are good people, it is just the bending and undermining of the law that sticks in my craw. It is just typical of American hypocrisy to bend the laws for the sake of the dollar.
Posted by: Last gasp Larry at May 23, 2006 12:36 AM (FCC6c)
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