$150,000 a year to lay carpet??

Yeah...sure...

Well guys, first of all, if you noticed, I said he worked with his wife, that makes 2 people earning $75,000 each, actually, though he said he figured 90 for him and 60 for his wife. If you took out there taxes, overhead, L & I and such that would be paid if they were employed they would be making closer to $60,000 each, with no retirement or health care (which costs me $1500 a month) And you are right, it probably is still too much, but there are guys out there who hustle and make it. If you don't believe manual labor guys can make it, talk to the line men at Seattle light. Call up a plumber and ask him to give you an hourly bid.
I have watched a crew of 2 frame a house in 10 days. At $3.50 a foot and a 2000 sq ft house thats $7,000.00 . If they don't work weekends thats $87,000 a year. Take off a couple of weeks and they are still making $70 + if they split it evenly. And for engineers only making $50,000 grand, so what. I can pick up my phone and call several people who made over a million last year in the construction business, none of who has more than a high school degree. In fact, only one guy I know with a degree made over a $1o0,000 last year. He was an engineer and he quit his job because he felt that he could make more doing other things. I know that there are lots of people with degrees that make lots of money, but in my circle the exact opposite is true. And if you still don't believe any of this, ask Stam what his hourly rate is.

Funny you would mention that. Someone just the other day was saying that there is a group of people that load up a van full of illegles and they take them up in the woods to pick Huckle berrys. I guess they can pick a hill side clean in a couple of days.

Another thing that we see on the news all the time. When ever they bust a big old patch of weed growing up in the hills, they always find it being tended by Illegals. The thought being if they get caught, the very worst that could happen to them is they get deported.

AuntyM,
Your example of the brush pickers goes much farther than you implicated. A few years back, it was all legal south Asian Immigrants doing it. Most of these people spoke little english and were not educated enough to find better jobs. I am sure that many of them moved on, but I am also sure that there would be others to take their place. The illegals will push the price down and make it harder for the lowest wage earners in our society to work. Eventually many of these brush pickers will move on to jobs like drywall, roofing, framing, auto repair, and such and a new group of illegals will take their place. Unless we stop it, the will be no jobs left for uneducated but hard working americans that pay a low but livable wage. With out transitional type jobs to prove they are willing to work, many Americans will find it hard to move into the work force. People like divorced mothers coming back into the work force, recovering alcoholics, ex-cons, new legal immigrants, high school drop outs getting their act together, and people with lower IQ's, will not be able to find work . In the end, we may make it easier for them to give up.