Rephrasing the Problem

I contend that we don't have an unemployment problem in this country nearly as much as we have a don't want to work problem.

There has been much publicity recently about illegal farm workers and the fact that Americans won't do those jobs. The UFW launched a "Take Our Jobs Campaign," inviting peple to go online and apply. About 8,600 people filled out an application form, but only seven actually took the jobs. And I'm sure the other 8,593 took their little printout down to the welfare office to show they were really, really, really, looking for work. From January to June, California farmers posted ads for 1,160 farmworker positions, but only 233 people applied. Only 36 ended up in one of the jobs. A spokesman for a plant nursery said, ". . .when domestic workers were referred here, we saw absentee problems, and we had people asking for time off after they had just started. Some were actually planting the plants upside down."

My suggestion is that the welfare office have a list of those jobs. As soon as somebody comes in to apply for food stamps, they send them to work. If they don't want to work, no food stamps. We could solve both the illegal worker problem and the out of control welfare problem with just that one action.

"Farm jobs go unharvested by citizens." The Dallas Morning News; September 28, 2010; p. 8A.