This is a little off the wall but...?

Question

Is anyone old enough to remember when middle class/upper middle class neighborhoods didn't hire companies to do their lawn work? Bear with me, I promise this is related to politics. I remember when people did their own yard work, unless they were filthy rich, and the neighborhood kids earned extra money by cutting grass, etc. I was just reading a question about immigration that addressed picking lettuce for $1,000/week and it made me think of all the illegal immigrants that line up to work the jobs I've heard no natural American wants.

Who used to pick the lettuce before we had an immigration problem? Do you think that we just encourage illegal immigration by the simple things like being too lazy or too busy to do our own lawns and instead hire companies that we don't look at too closely or we might have to acknowledge the illegal immigrants getting off the truck?

Your thoughts please, thanks.

dumdum:

I'm not "blaming" anyone. The question was posed as a "what do you think," are we or aren't we question. Thanks for your thoughts.

Venom:

It will happen from time to time ;-).

Answer 1

Yes I am old enough to remember. When I was a kid my brother, my cousin and I pool our money to buy an old lawn mower to mow lawns in the summer. There weren't any lawn care companies around here then. People would haggle with us about charging seven dollars to mow a double lot.

The 1950's I think was when the whole migrant worker thing really got big. Agricultural jobs were not great jobs and Americans were migrating to cities to work the industrial jobs that sprang up in the 1940's.
A great number of those jobs disappeared in the 60's and 70's due to improved farm equipment. Today there are not that many crops that have to be hand picked and those that do have to be will earn you a lot of money as a picker. These are not the main jobs that the illegals do though. Today they flood the service industries and construction/landscaping.
The construction jobs they are taking used to provide good wages and were sought after jobs. With the tidal wave of cheap workers they now pay less than they did twenty years ago while the builders pocket the difference American workers are forced out of the trade.

Yesterday on the way to work I saw something that sums it up,,, Two trucks belonging to a construction company. On the side of the trucks the company name " Progressive Solutions" inside ten Mexican workers.

Answer 2

As a public school teacher in Florida, I don't make a $1000 a week. Some teachers who have over 22 years experience do.

I guess I might want to look into lettuce picking on the side maybe....
I value teaching too much to quit.

I do know that there was a time when families put their kids to work on farms, and the kids quit school far earlier than 12th grade or 8th grade...In my grandfather's case it was 3rd grade, and then he was on the farm. In my grandmother's case, she got an 8th grade education.

I do know they did not get paid $1000/week to do it, or the equivalent, just a roof over their head and food enough to get by.

I know folks are saying immigrants have always done this kind of work...and frankly, I don't know, but maybe this is where the saying, "I didn't just fall off the turnip truck," comes from....

Answer 3

If you look back in the history, you'll see that,ever since we had a signifigant agricultural industry in that part of the country, Mexican laborers have been the primary workers of the labor-intensive tasks--like picking lettuce.

The difference is that until the last few decades, we had an immigration and work visa program that worked--it wasn't perfect, but it allowed (among other things) workers to come temporarily, to work on aseasonal basis, etc.

The current mess is the result of "reforms" perpetrated by the right-wing. And note--they controlled Congress for 12 years, made alot of nasty speeches about illegals-but did nOTHING to reform the system. And when Bush did offer an immigration reform bill (not a good one, but at least something) it was the right-wing that blocked it.

Now, of course, I suppose the many businesses making illegal profits off this mess and give large bribes, er, I mean "campaign contributions"--to those same right-wing politicians is all just a coincidence?

Answer 4

You sound like a man who thinks like I do. I am a senior citizen and until recently I mowed my own grass and I still do my own shopping and fill my own gas tank (although I can remember when gas stations had attendants who did that). I'd still pick lettuce for $1000 a week if someone will tell me where to apply for the job. I never made that much in a week in my life. I know that immigrants are necessary to get the job done, but darn it, make them come in on work permits, and punish the employers who hire illegals.

Answer 5

i think illegal immigration was promoted to reduce the cost of agricultural labor.
I don't know if you have to be "old enough" to remember kids doing that, because i used to run my own business as a kid doing that and other yard labor.
While at the same time, I remember illegal immigrants living ranch-style, on melon farms picking water melon.
I think illegal immigation became so bad because of the potential for cheap labor, that everyone started taking advanateg of it, in their own way to save money and be lazy.
The laziness being the product of cheaper labor.

Realistically speaking, if their is a mexican standing there offering to mow you lawn for $5, a neighbor kid offering to do it for $15, and an extra day of fishing only costing you $5 more lingering just around the corner, which is any sensible person going to choose?

Answer 6

I did all my own yard work till a couple years ago. Now I pay a Legal Immigrant to do it.
In the 1800's we paid Legal Immigrants to lay the Railroads.
Up till the 50's families worked their own farms with hired workers.
We have become a wealthy and/or lazy country. Those who make money, and those who don't and don't want to work for it.
The Illegal Immigrant has replaced the menial labor force, as welfare pays more.

Answer 7

Alot of seasonal work was done by youth during the summer.

I used to shovel snow in the winter and mow a few lawns in the summer when I was a kid.

Then of course we had someone come up with that brilliant year around school.
I wonder if there is a relationship with that to immigration... never thought about it but hmmmm....

Answer 8

Don't blame us for being too "lazy," you're just playing into the corporate "divide and conquer" game where everyone gets the blame but the agribusinesses and factories that hire them en mass to maximize profits by minimizing expenses.

Because of illegals we are making less than ever with fewer benefits than ever. This is why many Americans are busier at work than ever and have little time or motivation to wash their own car or do their own lawn mowing and may go to Jose and have him cut it for $40 a month.

Answer 9

Maybe it's just too early in the morning for me, but I'm having a hard time following your thought.

\What I wonder, though, as I read this, is who the heck was Cesar Chavez leading when he was head of United Farmworkers? Immigration rates during the 50s and 60s was less than 100K per year, as I recall reading somewhere (er, somewhere other than Y!A) - that implies that UF were all legal, I would think... come to think of it, the legal status was pretty important to the rise of the Chicano power movement, as "Chicano" was a word invented to describe Americans (citizens) of Mexican decent.

I can't find an illustration for your model, I guess.

Answer 10

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