re: Why did we turn over new home construction to immigrant labor?

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Why did we turn over new home construction to immigrant labor?

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Cheap materials combined with even cheaper labor equal much higher profits for the builders. The savings are not passed on the consumers nor do they use higher quality materials with the money the builders save.

If your builder/contractor wants to use TAMKO shingles then they're likely cheating out everywhere else

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If you could get the youth off the computers and not scared to sweat, we have plenty of entry level apprentices and workers.

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Oh please. You expect young people to work for the same hourly rate you pay exploited 3rd world migrant laborers? There's a reason young men aren't going into construction and trades and it isn't laziness. Money talks. I thought you boomers believed in the laws of economics? The old days of being able to do well for yourself as a tradesman and construction worker are over because it's not good for the profit margins of those doing the building.

And many, if not most, of these 3rd world construction workers do shoddy, shite work. They are by no means craftsmen.

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Because no WASP will take a job that isn't middle class, there was a shortage and illegals filled it.

I thought they were middle class jobs but I remember talking to a industrial construction work in 93 I was working with and him telling me I bet you think we are all middle class but we aren't. I ask him to explain because they were making 30-40 bucks an hour. He explained they had no benefits, no insurance, no guarantee etc, they didn't get paid if it rained, etc etc and where always a paycheck or two from disaster

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I worked in construction as a framer helper during the summers that time. I was probably making $7/hr. in absolutely stifling heat and humidity toting 3/4" tongue in groove plywood, 12', 2"x12"s and doing other work that would be downright demeaning to pussy-boys today. I'd come home, eat, shower, and crash, and at 5am, get up and do it again. If it rained, there was little indoor work you could do unless you were doing punch-out work such as A/C duct framing, hurricane clips, or other finish work that might last a half day. The bosses worked their asses off too, and if someone didn't show up, they did the hard work as well. You didn't get paid if you didn't work, and when most of these guys didn't work, they drank and did hard drugs. These weren't middle-class jobs. They were borderline exploitative.

Latinos came in and undercut the natives because they'd work two or three jobs for less than what I was making, and they'd work weekends. Say what you will about the current crop of Latino construction workers, but they'll live on the cheap with 10 in a house(or trailer) for 6. They don't drive new vehicles or tote around brand new iPhones. They shop yard sales. Yet they send half of their paycheck home as remittances. No taxes, no forced overtime, and no complaints.

They're, for the most part, terrible craftsmen. They are now getting into finish work such as plumbing and electrical, which doesn't bode well for future quality.

Ultimately, people aren't willing to do back-breaking labor because they think they're too good for it. It's an unpopular take, but times have changed (not for the better) regarding sacrificing your pride and some luxuries early in life to work your way up.

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So why are they building almost all our new houses?

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Cheap, generally reliable, want to work, don't ask for days off....

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If you could get the youth off the computers and not scared to sweat, we have plenty of entry level apprentices and workers.

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Oh please. You expect young people to work for the same hourly rate you pay exploited 3rd world migrant laborers? There's a reason young men aren't going into construction and trades and it isn't laziness. Money talks.

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Frankly, I think both of you are correct. Both are factors.

Why pay youi $30 per hour, when the illegal will take your job for $12 per hour.

Corporate America will take profit over quality every single time.

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I do find it interesting that as the numbers of illegal aliens and [false] asylum seekers skyrocketed so did housing construction costs.

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Yet your graph starts in late 2018 and there isn't any skyrocketing until Covid

I bet if you move the graph further back in time, it further refutes this point

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Yet your graph starts in late 2018 and there isn't any skyrocketing until Covid

I bet if you move the graph further back in time, it further refutes this point

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It does not matter. Your illegal and demographic changing vermin are still leaving out country.

Tough shite for you America-hating, White-people-hating, Constitutional Republic-hating leftists.

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They have no clue what a square wall even looks like.

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Because in today's market, it doesn't matter if anything is square. It doesn't matter if its strong. The only thing that matters is size and looks.

Spending time in all the new houses my friends have, paid for at exorbitant costs, makes me want to vomit. By and large they are built like shite, horribly expensive, and the white girls dont give a frick if anything is square.

I was told my house is of relatively low quality by a home inspector. My family built it themselves. Its built like a brick shithouse, everything is perfectly square and plumb, everything is easy to access and work on. None of that matters. What makes it low quality is formica counter tops, cheap faucets, no ship lap, etc.

So, why bother paying for good craftsmanship when you can build a standing heap of shite in a hurry, fill it up with Shiney trinkets, and sell it for more money?

The customers are the problem here. People used to build their own houses and can't anymore.

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Because in today's market, it doesn't matter if anything is square. It doesn't matter if its strong.

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I mean the market seems to have shifted from an obsession over perfect 90 degree angles, sure, but houses today are built stronger than houses in the past (talking 50s-80s here, not the over-built houses like mine that are 100+ years old), due to higher codes and more advanced materials.