I wasn’t prepared for the level of rage that washed over my body as I watched this video of a roofing business owner in Florida blubbering over the detention of his illegally employed workforce.
I also wasn’t ready for the flashbacks to my childhood it gave me, and my reaction was not kind...
 | Competitors blew past my parents like they were standing still, thanks to the stream of cheap, illegal labor my parents refused to tap into. thefederalist.com |
While we’re on that, let’s settle the nonsense narrative that Americans “won’t do this work.” Americans did this work for generations, and though they’re barely hanging on, many are still doing it now. We must encourage young Americans to see the value and personal benefit of doing these types of jobs again. Deporting our illegal workforce is an important part of making that happen, but since that alone won’t end the stigma people have against manual labor, maybe common sense will.
I have friends doing physical therapy and paying for ludicrously expensive special camps for their kids this summer to cure their iPad neck humps and strengthen their frail hands, but what they should really do is send their kid to work on a farm for a few months. They’ll find they not only get back a stronger, healthier child, they’ll probably start saying “yes ma’am” to boot.