Posted on 01/04/2011 2:21:22 PM PST by SmithL
Negotiating his work fee in a small Huntington Beach home in the 1980s, Scott Powelson suspected he would one day be replaced by workers from south of the border.
"Well you know, I can get this guy to do this for way cheaper," the homeowner told him at the time.
The woman told Powelson his competition spoke Spanish but very little English. While she couldn't quite comprehend everything the other man said, she understood the price.
Powelson, who had just given the homeowner his best bid to install ceramic tile, passed on the job. He would have had to take a 20 percent cut to match the price.
"I couldn't compete," the 59-year-old from Costa Mesa recalled on a recent weekday at a local diner where the food is cheap and plentiful.
"I realized flat out that I couldn't compete with these guys in ceramic tile, eventually they'd move into my field of expertise," he said. "I saw it coming way back. ... I started realizing that I'm bidding against these guys who come in from Mexico ... illegally."
Powelson, who has labored in the hardwood flooring business for 30 years, said he is now feeling the full force of what he predicted decades ago.
Magnified by a crippling recession that's left home improvements as a second thought, he's resorted to taking odd jobs here and there. He's essentially unemployed, more than six months behind on rent and seriously considering a move out of state. Most of his time now is dedicated to political activism aimed at curbing illegal immigration.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
You hear this all the time, and it’s true. The sad-sack liberals just try to make you feeeeeel bad for the poor “immagrant” who is supporting his family, but could give a damn about the American worker who is losing out.
If there were no welfare state, these “jobs Americans won’t do” would be filled due to a desire to fill the belly, not a desire to watch Oprah and smoke weed.
A guy in Hudson County, New Jersey sent a job out for public bids.
The first bidder assured that he was fully insured, had been in business for the past 75 years and stood behind his work and that he didn’t use subcontractors, only union labor. OSHA compliance would be guaranteed. The job would take 3 monts to complete. The bid was $325,000.
The next bidder spoke broken English, but demonstrated a clear grasp of the work to be done. He had a long list of jobs where his company had performed similar work. There was no mention of insurance or OSHA. He promised to complete the job in 6 weeks for $200,000.
The next guy came in with a bid for $300,000 with a promise to comple the work in 6 weeks. He wispered in the ear of the GC, “50 for me, 50 for you and $200,000 for the Mexicans.”
Ping!
“The are no ‘Americans’ , just ‘Citizens of the World’.” (in my best Mr Casterati voice)
The NFL fanws over Obama as much as Oprah. ALL TV is sh*t.
59 year old Mr Powelson needs to go back to school - re-invent himself.
Maybe he can become a computer programmer. There're plenty of ads for them in the local newspaper.
/s
Americans can’t survive on low wages... unless they get money under the table or food stamps.
Americans can’t survive on low wages... unless they get money under the table or food stamps.
Americans can’t survive on low wages... unless they get money under the table or food stamps.
Tell yourself that when you’re priced out of your job by something willing to work for less than you do!
Of course my post was absurd. Look very closely at the bottom.
Somebody's hiring those illegals. Maybe they're the ones who don't give a damn about the American worker who is losing out.
But it's so much more satisfying to blame the "sad-sack liberals," isn't it?
Much less so with you always showing up to defend them.
Actually, I suspect a great many people would love to hire natives but for the fact the sad sack over regulating liberals in government have effectively priced ethical, law abiding contractors right out of the market.
The skilled American worker is caught in a squeeze play.
And they do crappy work. I’ve seen it and fixed it.
May as well substitute my name for the guy in this story. In the last five years, the business that my wife and I broke our backs for ten years to build has collapsed into a one man operation.
For many years we employed 4 to 8 skilled American tradesmen year-round, but the downward pressure on the price of labor from illegals has essentially destroyed our income, and put us in a position where we can’t even pay minimum wage for a helper.
I’m still out there, doing the best I can to get enough work to keep the family fed, but it’s nearly impossible, due to the unfair competition from illegals.
The whole reason that they allow illegal immigration is to drive down the price of low skilled, semi skilled and now skilled labor. You can be a lot of those laborers are being paid in cash..not reporting the income and may be getting food stamps etc for their families.
I hear this story all the time from local small contractors and friends.
Without enforcement of the laws against hiring them..without enforcement of our current laws..we will soon have millions more of them. There are two California’s ...those working legally by the laws and those working illegally and not observing the laws. We already have a banana republic here..plus the Gov. pardon’s the criminal son of his cronies...just like Mexico or Manila.
What an idiotic statement. You obviously have no comprehension of what's occurred in the building trades over the last 25-odd years.
Illegal labor has destroyed the industry by pushing the market price of labor to unreal lows.
You want to know why no contractor seems to be able to do a decent job any more? It's because they're paying people who've lived in tin shacks all their lives, and have never swung a hammer, to build housing developments. The contractors pay them crap wages, and they deliver crap products. All so you can save a buck on getting your house painted.
People (like me) who've invested the bulk of their working years into becoming first-rate professionals can hardly get work these days because of this situation. It's so bad now, that contractors can't find young American guys to even apprentice in the skilled trades. They don't see a future in it.
I'd be interested to know what other industries you're ok on illegals taking over.
Underground economy is why I am for a Fair Tax. If you buy something, you pay like the rest of us. Tired of subsidizing a bunch of mooches. No one is exempt period from the tax, not even the “poor.”
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