
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
August 21, 2009
24 Menachem-Av 5769
Cheating the Least Among Us
By
Suzanne Fields
| 
|
|
|
| |
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. Colonial Williamsburg is proud of its
tradesmen. You can see the carpenters walking out of the history books and
down the cobblestone streets, ready to talk to visitors about how they
hammered Williamsburg together, log by log, shingle by shingle, as if still
in the 18th century.
These tradesmen built new homes, smokehouses, dairies, barns.
They built additions and repaired old structures. Some were skilled
carpenters and bricklayers, others were just learning, but together they
raised rafters and roof beams, set door frames, laid floors with timber cut
from nearby trees.
The colonial wages were paid to the original Williamsburg
tradesmen in Spanish-milled dollars and doubloons (worth about $16). Money
was minted in Mexico and called "pillar dollars" because of its image of two
pillars flanking two globes reflecting the colonial version of a global
economy.
But all that was a long time ago. Today, the picture for
laborers who aren't in 18th century costume tells a different story. Many
arrive from Mexico without money of any kind. Immigrants from Mexico,
Central and South America are often the last hired and the most abused and
exploited. Their daily pay is the equivalent to what a "pillar dollar" would
be worth today.
In a boom economy, the rich like Bernie Madoff exploit
the rich. Hurt hardest in the current recession are the illegal immigrants,
mostly from Mexico, who are sometimes paid with checks that bounce. Their
employers figure they won't complain because they're illegal and are afraid
of being sent home. With many Americans and workers with green cards joining
the ranks of the unemployed, such victims don't garner a lot of sympathy,
but the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot uncovered a nest of nasty contractors taking
cruel advantage during the recession of those at the bottom of the economic
ladder penny-ante Bernie Madoffs trading in human labor.
No matter what you think about illegal immigration, a scam is a
scam. It lowers the morale of workers and the state of workmanship. "At the
end of the day, any human being who works is entitled to pay, regardless
whether they're documented or not," says Myra Creed, chairwoman of the
Hispanic Advisory Committee in Newport News, Va.
Who can argue with that? In Washington and the suburbs, day
workers line up for work on street corners, waiting for contractors to
collect them for delivery to a day's work. It's a legitimate custom, and the
employers are easy to identify. But in these parts of Virginia, hungry
immigrants hear about jobs through informal networks spread by word of
mouth. The vulnerable become even more vulnerable. Workers who threaten to
report employers for cheating them say they're threatened with exposure,
reported as illegal as though their status were unknown to the employers who
hired them.
Typical is Edgar Cardenos, an illegal immigrant from Nicaragua
who has been in this country for eight years. His wife is pregnant with
their second daughter, who will, of course, be an American citizen by virtue
of birth. He heard about an Outback Steakhouse in the neighborhood that was
paying $15 to build an addition to the building. He hurried to the parking
lot of the restaurant, saw a crew of men putting up dry wall, spackling
seams, creating a new ceiling and installing exterior siding. He was told he
could join them at $15 an hour. He put in two weeks' work and received a
check for one week. The contractor promised the rest later. The first check
bounced, the next one never arrived. The initial contractor said he hired a
subcontractor and paid off at his end. He was two steps away from the crime.
The subcontractor disappeared. Such employers are twice guilty first for
hiring illegals and then for cheating them of their pay.
This isn't a high-bucks Ponzi scheme, but low life cheating of
human labor. Wendy Inge, director of the Virginia Department of Labor and
Industry, told the Virginian-Pilot that when a worker complains, no one
investigates his immigration status. Nevertheless, cheated laborers are
afraid to complain lest they be sent home.
Cardenos has now applied for an income tax ID, though zero times
zero, as any child learning his multiplication tables can tell you, is still
zero. Cardenos does the kind of low-wage work that even in these tough times
others don't want to do. He now works at two painting jobs, putting in 16
hours a day.
"It's very difficult to (work) where you don't get paid," says
Cardenos. "I have a family to take care of."
Life is not fair we all know that. Bernie Madoff is living
the prison life, leaving his wife to survive on $6 million. But the
recession is "unfairer" to some than to others.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here.
Suzanne Fields Archives
© 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|