The Best of Reason: American Small Businesses Are Desperate for Foreign Workers

The number of job openings far exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. Seasonal businesses can't get the foreign labor they need.

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The Best of Reason: American Small Businesses Are Desperate for Foreign Workers

This week's featured article is "American Small Businesses Are Desperate for Foreign Workers" by Fiona Harrigan.

This audio was generated using AI trained on the voice of Katherine Mangu-Ward.

Music credits: "Deep in Thought" by CTRL and "Sunsettling" by Man with Roses

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[VULGAR MADMAN]

Mass immigration, the miracle cure for everything!

[The Mysterious Edwin Dunkel]

You're not really free until you have everything you never wanted.

[Nardz]

https://x.com/FischerKing64/status/1800689253783093324?t=xzlXSClsnHQ7aHISb_fNIw&s=19

Concentration of business and the economy has terrible downstream social impacts. Consider that in a town of small business owners, where people all rely on one another for goods and services, it’s necessary to get along with people and be nice to them. They won’t buy from you or sell to you unless you treat them well.

Now compare this to a world of cartels and oligarchs, which is largely what we have thanks to Chicago School economics and antitrust law. You don’t have people in communities trying to get along. You have CEOs fighting each other aggressively for mass market share, and legions of employees/bureaucrats fairly apathetic about the outcome (because they’re interchangeable, can go other places). It’s a lot of people on all levels who don’t care about one another at all.

And we say this is all wonderful because it’s ‘efficient.’ And people have more ‘goods and services’ in this space of mass inequality which does not correlate always with ability. But we hollow the society out spiritually, which you see on a basic level of no one saying hello or being polite.

And then we paper it over with mass immigration and welfare to keep the inflation and social unrest under control.

[Nardz]

Wrong.

[Mother's Lament (Banana Republic Day - May 30, 2024)]

She's actually right.

Small businesses are desperate for subsidized undocumented workers they can pay under the table and not have to worry a sky-high minimum wages, health plans, social security and a million labor codes. So are big businesses.

Cheap manufacturing in China got too risky, so they're bringing the cheap, unregulated labour stateside.

The Reasonistas as usual don't worry about the welfare, free housing and UBI the importees are getting because oPeN bOrdErS.

I swear they pick the dumbest writers.

[Nardz]

https://x.com/FrankDeScushin/status/1800637888280842355?t=iL_-7On1pLqgxyS9N-6O_A&s=19

This poll is grim for two reasons.

1. Biden supporters are twice as likely to say America's white population decline is very good than very bad.

2. Most people believe white decline makes no difference. It's neither good nor bad. Then why do non-whites migrate to white nations?

[Link]

[Vernon Depner]

Then why do non-whites migrate to white nations?

Because most other places are shitholes?

[Nardz]

Wonder why...

[Mother's Lament (Banana Republic Day - May 30, 2024)]

Then why do non-whites migrate to white nations?

1500 years of Christianity, 500 years of Protestant Reformation, 550 years of Renaissance, 390 years of Western Enlightenment, 300 of Scottish Enlightenment, 290 of the First Great Awakening, 260 years of Industrial Revolution.

That’s a hell of an intellectual edifice to hang a civilization on and no wonder everyone wants it.

The Islamic and Chinese had events like the Islamic Golden Age and Confucianism, but they stagnated and didn’t progress.

Of course the Marxists and postmodernists are trying to wreck everything and may succeeded.

[Nardz]

It's cultural for sure, but also genetic.

[Nobartium]

Slavery yesterday, slavery today, slavery forever!

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

The number of job openings far exceeds the number of unemployed Americans. Seasonal businesses can't get the foreign labor they need.

What's the hire rate on those openings?

The household survey is showing a decrease in full time jobs. Diverging from the BLS corporate statistics.

Right now I can see over 1k job openings for my business. I know for a fact we are in a hiring freeze as a hiring manager. We keep it open for solely the unicorns. This doesn't include unskilled labor. Many corporations are the same.

Some of the bug layoffs that continue to be announced this year:

https://intellizence.com/insights/layoff-downsizing/major-companies-that-announced-mass-layoffs/

[freedomwriter]

You hit the nail on the head. My ex applied for 50 jobs and heard from 2 or 3.

[Chumby]

1. End all forms of welfare.
2. Welcome the productive people that still want to emigrate.
3. Profit.

[Vernon Depner]

"Productive" is still too wide a net. Gangsters engaged in human trafficking are economically "productive".

[Chumby]

But human traffickers are the modern day underground railroad.

[sarcasmic]

There are several related but distinct subjects here.

The border and enforcement.
The immigration process itself.
The number of people allowed into the country.
Asylum seekers.
Work seekers.
Criminals.
Job openings.
And of course social programs.

Intelligent people break big problems into smaller problems.
Stupid people and liars refuse to do that because they lack the brainpower or because they dishonestly conflate separate but related issues to avoid honest discussion. The stupid ones don’t know they’re stupid. The dishonest ones know who they are.

[Chumby]

Agree. There have been some commenters on here that keep using “immigrants” instead identifying each group separately.

[sarcasmic]

Yes, dishonestly conflating asylum seekers who aren’t looking for work with people who are looking for work and dishonestly concluding that all immigrants aren’t looking for work is indeed dishonest.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

What about those given statistics on those granted work permits but still relying instead on government handouts who ignore the data and call it racist and xenophobic instead?

[Chumby]

I think only one commenter kept grouping them all together under the “immigrants” label. Poor commenter.

[sarcasmic]

That person used the word for people who are from away to describe people who are from away? How dare they!

[Chumby]

sarcular reasoning. Poor commenter.

[Mother's Lament (Banana Republic Day - May 30, 2024)]

Gosh that sounds familiar, but who would be retarded enough to conflate border jumpers with legal immigration?

[sarcasmic]

Who looks at a tiny cherry-picked subset of immigrants and their dearth of a desire for a job and dishonesty declares all illegals aren’t looking for work? I wonder who that could be. Such a puzzler. Couldn’t be someone you defend daily could it? Nah. You’re not a piece of shit liar. Are you?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

What tiny cherry picked subset? You've been given statistics on immigrants, illegal immigrants, refugees but continue to claim they all want to work while calling the actual data racist.

[Rick James]

Seasonal businesses can't get the foreign labor they need.

Why do seasonal businesses need foreign labor?

[Chumby]

Johnny is too busy getting HRT to work at a the island convenience store, pick blueberries, or wash dishes at the vacation hotel.

[Rick James]

It’s an honest question for which I’m finding it difficult to extract an answer. There may be a legitimate answer, but I can’t seem to get one.

I just spent the last 10 minutes googling the question from both directions: Why do seasonal businesses want to hire Americans/Why don’t Americans want to work for Seasonal businesses, and the few answers I’m getting are very thin and tautological: Americans don’t want to work for seasonal businesses because they don’t want to work for seasonal businesses. Seasonal businesses don’t hire foreign workers because they can’t find Americans to work for seasonal businesses.

The closest I came to an answer was: Americans don’t like to work seasonally.

That may be true, so a question might be: Why not? How are all the people who joined the Great American Quit Out paying their bills? What happens when the Van LIfe Youtube channel doesn’t work out? What happens if the EDM career doesn’t work out? Seasonal work seems like the exact way many Americans who are walking away from their *checks notes* high intensity jobs could earn a little scratch without becoming a cubicle wage slave.

No one seems to have a clear answer.

[sarcasmic]

Around here seasonal work is hard and full time. Anything from picking fruit to washing dishes at a restaurant to doing laundry at a hotel. It’s work. And if you already have your bills paid, why take it on?

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

But this doesn't apply to illegal immigrants also getting handouts for what reason?

Youre so fucking retarded lol.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Seasonal employment shifts from BLS are well known and show Americans do that work all the time. Target holiday time is a clear example.

But democrats like to lie. It is even called seasonal adjustments on the data.

[Chumby]

It tends to be menial labor that doesn’t pay $50/hour. Ten minute TikTok breaks every five minutes is frowned upon.

Aa a youngin, worked at an apple orchard that would bring in the same five Mexican laborers each year for about six months. While the pay wasn’t good by American expectation standards, they earned enough to live comfortably the other half of the year back at home. The orchard had a store and sold related products (pie, other baked goods, cider, farm tourism gifts stuff, and pumpkins for Halloween). The store was also staffed by a lot of the same locals that were part-time, seasonal. Mostly women. I think these days the part-of-the-year second household income doesn’t cut it for many’s lifestyle.

Have seen a few preppers that are mostly self-sufficient that take on part-time, known temporary jobs to pay their minimal property taxes and have some coin for if say their 400W PV panel craps out. Cutting firewood. Construction. Farm help. Dunno if all of that falls under “seasonal” per se.

The economy changed and so did American lifestyles (I call it the buying into the Madison Ave boomer groomer narrative).

[sarcasmic]

No one wants to take a risk and hire Johnny for minimum wage on the vain hope that his parents instilled him with a work ethic instead of raising an entitled little shit with absurd expectations.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Do you have one argument backed by actual data?

[sarcasmic]

Around here business that used to hire teenagers for summer help hire adults now for a variety of reasons. Problem is the local adults who do that work already have jobs. So businesses need immigrants.

[Rick James]

Around here business that used to hire teenagers for summer help hire adults now for a variety of reasons.

Ok, that's interesting... why?

[sarcasmic]

Minimum wage, lack of work ethic, entitlement mentality, etc.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

So says the town drunk.

[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Can you back that with data instead of bald assertions?

[MasterThief]

Kids are way less reliable now. Combine that with minimum wage and wage standards and the kids are pretty unemployable even to just have a body fill a space. At least the adult is somewhat more likely to show up because they have to pay rent

[sarcasmic]

In the past latchkey kids were fairly common, and somewhat responsible.
Today parents risk criminal charges for raising latchkey kids.

[Gaear Grimsrud]

Best of Reason huh. One can only imagine what's under the cream on top.

[Chumby]

A burnt steak.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Until Fiona puts alk her income in to paying for the illegals she is a shit sub human.

Fiona kill you non libritarian self

[Stuck in California]

The Best of Reason.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

No sadly they are correct

[TJJ2000]

"The number of job openings far exceeds the number of unemployed Americans"

The Best of Reason - A blatant LIE.

Are you seriously going to pretend there are more than..
((100-62.5% workforce participation) * 330M pop) = 124-Million
... job openings right now?

Looks like about 11-Million openings so it's only an exaggeration of 113 Million yeah?

[BrianMcDaniel]

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[JesseAz (5-30 Banana Republic Day)]

Bots. Paying for accounts readers won't pay for.

[freedomwriter]

Isn't it funny how supply and demand only works one way? Wages should be through the roof according to economic theory. IT is absolute bullshit that there are more jobs than people in this country. Big corps just want cheap labor. So they make it look like there are not enough employees to import cheap labor.

[Wygent03]

Of course they are. They really, really like foreign workers who will do manual labor for peanuts in unsafe environments with minimal benefits. What foreign workers have done to the construction trades is nothing short of disastrous. In the mid-90s, framers, sheet rockers, brick layers, roofers, etc. were making $18 to $20 per hour on both coasts. Now, with ONLY foreign-born workers, they are making $12 to $15 per hour and the cost of living has more than doubled. That took food from the mouths of middle class blue collar workers, many of whom are black and brown; but who cares ? The small contractors raised their prices and made twice the profits.

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