What do you do to support yourself and your family?

I am so tired of hearing myself and my fellow Americans being called lazy.Tired of hearing that Americans won't do the dirty work in this country.Tired of the illegal supporters using this excuse for their cause. I think it's time we put them in their place. Lets tell them what kind of dirty work we do! If you feel comfy sharing your personal stuff, lets tell them who flips the bill for our medical and dental expenses. As for me.....until recently this native/irish girl stocked shelves at a grocery store owned by Chaldeans, (a hard, dirty, back breaking job) min. wage, no benefits. Currently I work the front desk at a hotel for min. wage, no benefits, walk to work, pay all my own medical/dental bills, get no food stamps/welfare/medicare. I live just north of the border in Cal./ have resigned this job/ more than half the housekeeping staff at this hotel are illegals. Soon I'll be unemployed, beat out by illegals again. I'll go pick lettuce if the illegals would get out of the fields.

What do you do to support yourself and your family?
As a kid I worked in chicken houses (picking up eggs in baskets of flats, picking up dead chickens, grading the eggs), worked in the hay fields, helped in our gardens, cared for the animals,hunted like a man with my Dad and brothers. Later after I finished High School I worked on a sewing machine (making jeans, blouses, baby clothes, shirts, upholstery)for $1.25/hr min. wage, that was all that was available at the time,(telling my age) secretary in a Mobile Home sales center, cleaned houses and offices for about 6 months in between jobs, nursing assistant in a nursing home, secretary in the Civil Department of Magistrates Court, sales associate at Rich's, shipping department in manufacturing, got my CDL (w/haz-mat) drove an 18 wheeler for about a year, then got a truck driving job that was local (no overnight)had to load and unload my own truck, car parts mfg.(intermediate steering sub-assemblies and super chargers). Then I went back to school and got my associates degree and moved into Quality Assurance. Then my job was outsourced(to Brazil) and I got laid off, permanently. I now work for half what I was making when I got laid off. When I first started in manufacturing car parts: they started me off at $11/hr in 1980, the same job now starts off at $8/hr. That's 26 years and the wages went DOWN!! That lowering of wages is a direct result of illegal immigrants being hired into manufacturing. I still grow some vegetables even though I no longer live on our family farm. I have a small yard but it still accomodates a few tomato plants, some bell peppers, pole beans and squash. My brother raises some chickens(domestic) and I buy from him, I still mow my own lawn, clean my own toilets, do my own housework, cooking, repairs, even some of my own car maintenence. I was raised to do for myself, not to rely solely on commercial services. If I had to do everything on my own, I know I could survive, and I certainly wouldn't go running to another country looking for a handout.





We grow collards here and I pick that, not lettuce.
Reply:i agree with you i work hard and am sick of these lies ! i also work at a motel guess what i am a housekeeper i also have done factory work , fast food , any many more kinds of jobs i mow my own lawn ,clean my own house , my brothers used to be in the roofing field but its to over ran with illegals and the pay is not as good and that's all the companies want to hire anymore in my town a company got in big trouble for housing some illegals right in their shop they said they wanted to go out at night so they jumped the fence and got caught then claimed they were held against their will and they sued the company and won.
Reply:i have my own company
Reply:Right now, I work at a hospital filing loose paperwork. in the past ten years I've been a live in nanny, flipped burgers, worked as a cashier at a gas station that about two years ago got bought out by some middle easterners who fired everyone who worked ther and replaced them all with family, and spent three years doing garden maintenance until the owner closed shop and moved out of state. Just about all of these jobs have been taken over by illegals because it's cheaper to hire them than someone who actually was raised here.
Reply:I worked warehouse/shipping/receiving positions since 1987. Moved my way up through various different companies until I finally got a Supervisor type position.


I've paid for my Social Security.
Reply:I worked my butt off to pay for college. I am an Engineer. I am getting married to a farmer so I also do farm work. I have worked since I was 15. I have not gone with out a job since. But I am lazy. I worked fast food, nursing homes, and as a draftsmen. I am at where I am because I worked.
Reply:I still work for the same company, but the job I used to do, along with around 150 of my co-workers, was outsourced to Costa Rica. I still never know if I am going to walk in the door and find out that they decided to move everything there.





I used to wait tables and only made $2.01 an hour, plus tips, but I was taxed on 8% of whatever the total sales of the tickets that I wrote up that day, even on take-out orders which no one ever tips on and no benefits whatsover.





My ex is a plumber and literally has had to work up to his elbows in excrement before, work 7 days a week and be on call 24 hrs a day...he even had to work Christmas Day and evening on year and started out digging ditches for what was minimum wage at the time...$4.75 an hour.





My biggest issue with illegals are not paying taxes like we do, for goodness sake it seems like 1/3 of my check is gone before I ever see it, and getting benefits that the working poor (like yourself) are not entitled to.
Reply:Those oranges are still rotting in Florida...


So much for spoilt Americans wanting to work...
Reply:LOL helping unescorted Illegal alien minors reunite with family here in the states legal or illegal. How's that for justice? Our grants are from INS and we recieve our residents from ICE AND INS,and ORR
Reply:now there's an authentic irish gal for ya! We irish have a heritage that includes people that picked potatoes BEFORE it was stylish! LOLOL Good on u for having such a strong work ethic, don't believe a word of the soap opera they're pushing, Mexico's trying to sell us a rhetorical bill of goods. NO sale! LOL
Reply:Good for you gidget!! I think your great by the way!! Now back to the question, good for you who all have had jobs and work now! thats great you should be proud that you had the oppertunity to work. But oh yeah you live in America, so no sh!t you have a job. Now what if the tables were turned and you just happend to be born in lets just say Mexico, and the same question was asked of you. Your responce would be more like "I worked for a sexest pig who tryed to take advantige of me every day, I plowed fields with 1 muel and by hand 16 hours a day for 75 cents a day!
Reply:My husband and I run the family farm here in Northern Iowa that is now a century farm (same family for over a 100 yrs.) My husband has served as Cheif of police, held factory jobs, I too have worked in a Hotel as a housekeeper, clerked at the local grocery. We have done just about any and everything in the past to keep this farm running. Aside from all that we still mow our own 3 acre yard, maintain a lg garden, wash our own dishes, all those "jobs" that everyone is saying we Americans won't do!
Reply:Please spare us your sob stories. We all have to 'work' for a living. All of us share one common goal, including illegals, and that is to better ourselves. If your situation is so hard, why don't you get an education, instead of focusing how bad your situation is and how others are taking what you think is rightfully yours.





My question to you is, why do you blame illegals? You know for a fact your employer is hiring illegals, why don't you report them? They are the ones who are to blame, they take advantage of slave labor and you turn the other way? Get a life lady and stop moaning about your situation and do something to better yourself, instead of focusing on everyone else...
Reply:Illegals are not competition, EVERYONE is. You are obviously not a qualified worker if a non-native is taking your job. I'm tired of hearing people like you say that "doing the dirty work is the excuse for their cause." That's only part true, but I can tell your even to ignorant to research the cause before you write about it. You are more than welcome to go pick some lettuce....but will you - I think not.





I completely agree with 'colortx'
Reply:Good question. I do accounting for a construction company. I have been working since I was 14 and have never been out of a job. For several years I worked two jobs, fast food, and went to high school. After high school I worked at a motel front desk all night so I could go to college during the day, both work and school full time. I AM LAZY! Until I began laying it out for you, I thought that I worked hard to get where I am. lol Anyway, we Americans are strong, willing and capable of taking care of ourselves, so all you illegals can GO HOME NOW!!!





bunt- If you're so worried about some damn oranges in Florida, you go pick them. Frankly, if that farmer was so dependant on illegals to build his business, he deserves to go under. He should be prosecuted too. To hell with him, I am not worried about the damn oranges either.
Reply:I think Americans worked so hard they created a Great nation. Not by taking form others-but by working their butts off and doing every kind of job there is. We have had our hard times-but we worked it through without others.


I worked those fields in all kinds of weather.





Just my opinion---life is tough-get over it.
Reply:HOLD ON LET ME GET THE VIOLIN OUT. YOUR COMPLAINTS DONT MAKE SENSE, IT SOUNDS LIKE A PERSONAL PROBLEM TO ME. NOW THAT YOU GOT A JOB, GET ALIFE.
Reply:Umm hadenough America is America because it was taken from others.
Reply:Why don't you quit your crying and get a friggin education?Or are the illegals stopping you from doing that also.Maybe if you quit blaming the illegals for all your troubles you could be more able to "pick yourself up from your bootstraps".Did the illegals stop you from finishing High School?I don't know anyone who graduated from high scholl that is making minimum wage.You know there's alot of fast food restaurants that will pay higher than minimum.It's not always that Americans are too lazy to take those jobs it's that they feel those jobs are beneath them.


Oh,and I am an escrow officer for a title co,but I doubt you know what that is.
Reply:You're right,AMERICANS have done ALL those jobs that illegals say we can't do!!! In my lifetime i have worked in the meat department of a grocery store,worked in several convenience stores, cleaned other peoples houses (oh gee,i guess that shoots down their theory that we don't clean toilets or wash dishes), worked in homehealth care, worked in a school cafeteria,worked as a teachers aid,worked in a hospital, and worked as an armed security guard.





'bunt" if you're so worried about some oranges,then YOU go pick them!!!





"laughoutloud" so you're saying that it is OUR fault these people had it hard???You're saying it is OUR responsibility to take care of them??? NO,it is NOT our fault,OR our responsibility!!! There are people EVERYWHERE that "have it hard",but that does NOT mean they are our reponsibility!!!!!!!!!!!


people in AFRICA have it HARDER than people in mexico,you're just biased!!!!!!!!!


Pancho's telling YOU to "get an education" then she spells "high scholl??!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reply:im a dishwasher. praise me.