Visa woes have summer businesses looking to Puerto Ricans

PHIPPSBURG, Maine (AP) — Frustrated by red tape and visa limits on foreign workers, tourism businesses from Maine to Missouri are turning to Puerto Ricans who are fleeing a shattered economy and devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

Bob Smith, owner of Sebasco Harbor Resort in Phippsburg, hired a half-dozen Puerto Ricans last summer for housekeeping, landscaping and kitchen work, providing relief to his overworked staff. This summer he is doubling the number, and he would like to hire even more.

Louis Morales, 50, of Comerio, Puerto Rico, is happy to be here because he makes double the salary he would back home, where jobs are scarce....

We are having that exact problem in Lake Saint Louis/St. Louis area. Lawn companies don’t have enough workers to keep up with their contracts - American teens keep the job for a day maybe a week then quit. I get why congress tried to “fix” this problem, but they are putting small businesses, who voted for them, out of business in the process. Lastly, I bet that there is no shortage of grass cutters for all the congress-critters homes, so therefore is not a problem elsewhere attitude.

Louis Morales, 50, of Comerio, Puerto Rico, is happy to be here because he makes double the salary he would back home...

The answer is simple. To get Americans to take - and keep any job, pay them more than they can make in government benefits. There are plenty of US citizens and legal residents who are quite able to work but simply choose not too because they can get by, well enough, on the dole.

Reducing benefits has never worked. The Romans tried it and got riots. So they raised taxes on the provinces. People from the provinces moved to the city, the cost of the dole went up. Eventually the whole of Western civilization collapsed. The French have tried it and got riots. They raised taxes on the productive segment of their population, productivity of the French workforce went down so they brought in immigrants and made them eligible for the dole. Now they are being swamped by waves of immigrants. The history of Argentina, once a wealthy nation, is a succession of crises, increased welfare benefits, inflation and collapse. Venezuela, formerly a fairly wealthy country is in the end stages of this process now. Whenever you make a segment of your population dependent on government largess history shows they tend to stay dependent until wages adjust to make being on the dole very unprofitable or until the system collapses. Usually the latter.

OK with me; PR is part of the US and they are US citizens. Their Island is in bad shape from the Hurricane last year. Win-win.

Only problem is the voting patterns of PR citizens. AS long as they stay in the 'blue' areas and continue to elect 'Rats, fine. Just stay out of the 'red' areas ...

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