Is it offensive to legal Americans to be accused of being lazy or unwilling to do manual labor?

Question

We have heard from advocates of illegal amnesty that they are here because legal Americans are lazy.

I am not a lazy individual, nor are the people around me. Do you have opinions as to why this argument keeps surfacing over and over? Do you perceive that those citizens of our nation are indeed, lazy or unwilling to do manual labor?

Answer 1

I reckon it has not so much to do with being lazy, but having an education ... if you speak the language fluently ... if you have a good education .. then in all likelihood you'll be offered a better job ... and as someone said, it also depends on where you live in the U.S. I wouldn't call people who work 70-80 hours a week in offices all around the U.S. lazy ... they're doing a different kind of job, but lazy? Nahhhhh ....

Fruit and veggies have to be picked, they have ALWAYS been picked though, but not always by illegal aliens ... the only difference you would see if all the illegals were deported would be that wages for such jobs would go up ... and before someone screams You'll pay $10 for a head of lettuce ... not so!! It is a simple fact that the veggie producers want to SELL their stuff ... nobody would buy at those prices ... there have been plenty written about this, and most seem to be in agreement that there might be a SLIGHT increase in prices, and a dip in profits for the veggie producer ... but hey, the crops would still be harvested, the produce sold ... we don't NEED illegal immigrants!

Answer 2

I think it depends where you live here in the states. There are many places where spoiled kids get whatever they want and never have a job until after college.

I live in the midwest. Come here and call our farmers and factory workers lazy. People that sometimes work 18-20 hour days. Farm kids work out on the farm from the time they're old enough to do the work. Our department stores, Wal-Marts, restaurants, amusement parks and such are full of high school aged kids with after school/summer jobs. Here most people still teach their kids that if they want something they need to work for it.

I've seen many people that have been put out of work, go into volunteering because they don't know what else to do with their time (they don't just sit around and be lazy) There are still many hard working Americans and many that have lost jobs would be happy to do this "manual labor" if it paid more than $2/hr.

Answer 3

Not every single person is lazy but are those at the "labor" class lazy (legal citizens)? Yep. My bf is a contractor and he has a very hard time finding reliable, quality workers. Most are stoners, they are unreliable and don't care a bit about the quality of work.

He spent 5 months, post Katrina, in New Orleans. There are help wanted signs everywhere. The labor shortage is so bad that the fast food joints are offering as much as $12 hr PLUS bonuses. This is a municipality where a majority of the citizens lived near or below the poverty level. You would THINK these people would jump at these jobs, especially given the current higher wages. NOPE. They don't really want to work.

That's not a racist statement, its an economic one. So who is doing the labor down there? A lot of Mexicans are coming over the border eager and willing to work their butts off.

I've been in management in other skilled and educated industries as well. Not everyone is lazy, in fact in the tech industry, it is common for companies to completely overwork their people, some of whom are immigrants (remember in recent decades we've also had a huge influx of Asian and Eastern European immigrants). Not everyone at the bottom of the economic scale is lazy either, but laziness exists at all levels.

How many housewives have you met that don't, or rarely work, but don't have clean houses, don't volunteer their time, and rarely cook or clean their houses?

How many husbands have you met that are always out on worker's comp or look for easy excuses to call in sick?

How many young adults are not in college and still make little attempt to find a job or career that will let them stop milking off their parents?

It is a societal issue that is growing. We are getting lazier as a culture. That's part of why we are also getting fatter.

Answer 4

My husband is Mexican from MX. I am white, born and raised in the USA. We have this argument all the time. It is a total crock of crap that the Mexicans are doing the jobs that the lazy Americans won't do. As a 10 year old kid I changed pipe (it took 2 of us). I have done many other "manual labor" jobs in my 35 years. I think the US could adequately fill these jobs with the "legal" work force. #1- there wouldn't be such a gap between the rich and poor, because the rich would have to pay decent wages, and #2- quit handing out welfare checks and make them do these jobs if they want assistance (work for it)

Answer 5

This argument keeps surfacing because there is a true need for these jobs to be filled. Americans and Canadians alike know that these jobs can barely put food on the table let alone pay rent. The people filling these jobs know poverty and know how to make do. I too am not lazy, but know the bills would never get paid doing manual labor

Answer 6

It is overly offensive and just a lame excuse to support the idea of illegal immigrants. I pour concrete for a living. No one in this world can tell me that I have an easy job. I bust my butt in hot 90 degree weather while doing hard physical labor. I live up north so when winter comes around I have to find another job. Guess what I do? I work in a green house doing hard back breaking work pinching geraniums, and filling orders. I am so sick of people saying Americans are lazy! The one's that say this are really the ones who are lazy. I would love to take those people to work with me, they wouldn't last 10 minutes. I wheel barrow concrete, rake it, finish it in the hot sun when it is getting hard, and lift heavy material all day! Is that lazy? If you say yes, then you have no idea of hard work and need to be whipped. I don't disagree that there are lazy people around, but when they stereotype, and say all are lazy, then I get offended.
Think about this. Those who say,..."The illegals are doing jobs Americans won't do." Do you really think that those jobs that they do, just never got done before they entered the country? To think so, is ill conceived. If employers would make the pay equal to the work, then more Americans would do those jobs. Also, if the illegals didn't work for those petty wages. I can't blame a company for hiring someone who will work for less money, but that is why our Gov't needs to step in and punish the companies for doing this practice.

Yes, I have had hard times finding good help for my concrete crew, and I pay them good. But let me tell you this, I haven't found 1 illegal willing to do my line of work either. You do the math, you ignorant people, who think all Americans are lazy! Just because you are lazy and sit on your a$$ all day doesn't mean the rest of us do too!

Answer 7

I am a Mexican citizen and i am so concerned with this issue, that i will give my own opinion on this matter.

I don't think americans are lazy, i believe there are diferent kind of people, like in any other country and in any race in the world, there are honest and dishonest, lazy and hard working people, propositive and pasive.

I believe that shouldn't be the argument for the immigrants in the USA, mexican or whatever is their nacionality, and it's to preocupy they use that kind of assestment to inforce their permanence in there.

I will tell you what are the arguments, wich i believe are valid and important for both of our nations, for the immigration of mexican to the USA.

In the USA, there is the reality of the average age of the citizen, you have a big amount of people who will be in the age for retirement in the next ten to twenty years, on the contrary in Mexico our population is mostly young, so there is the need for the american economy for the people who will do the labor that those american citizen use to do.

There is of course this kind of job that have been taken by immigrants, because most of the american people have get to better oportunities, because of the education, because of what you persue from the beginning, so, that kind of labor that many of the american people are not willing to do, have been taken for the people who has gone to the USA looking for the oportunities they don't have in their own country.

Answer 8

There are certain jobs in this country such as picking fruit, vegatables, mellons etc, that some people find below their status as employees. We all have become so adjusted to air conditioned work places we refuse to even think of going out in the heat and working for a living. Society claims "there are certain peoples who are more accustomed to working out in the heat." This is why we are being labeled as lazy and unwilling to do manual labor.

Answer 9

Not all Americans are lazy. I find it offensive to me and the Americans who do work those jobs. I come from a farm family. I have worked those jobs. I am where I am because I worked my a^^ off. SO I do take offensive. Don't confuse the hard working Americans with the lazy welfare receiving Americans.

Answer 10

Americans are neither. I know of many Americans who do manual labor. And even if it were true it still doesn't justify people illegally coming into our country and breaking our laws and stealing our benefits and resources. And if anyone is lazy, it's those who come here illegally and steal from us because they are too lazy to make a change, or even attempt to make a change, in their own country. Before calling us names and making accusations they should get off their own fat lazy butts and go back to their own country and do something to make life better there.

DEPORT ILLEGAL ALIENS