Really. Immigrants come here from the poorest nations in the world and do things like found Google and make millions. Yet we have 16 million American citizens who can’t find work. I don’t get it… America is the land of opportunity. Yet so many citizens can’t adapt and make do, while others come here and strike it rich. What gives?
It isn’t that Americans are lazy, it’s that immigrants are frequently ambitious, hard-working go-getters. The lazy ones stay at home.
It’s not an American thing. It happens everywhere - in the UK, Polish immigrants have really put the home-grown plumbers/builders/whatever to shame by their work ethic.
I’m unemployed since February 2009. My 99 weeks ran out and I’m hoping I’ll qualify for an extension.
I DID have some freelance work though where I worked for two places at once, over 50 hours a week for the whole summer.
You give me a full time job today and I’ll continue to work the 50 hour week without a complaint crossing my mind.
The depression is making me a recluse however. I get very nervous leaving the house WITHOUT a full timer.
I know plenty of immigrants out here in L.A. too, and those that work want the 50 hours too.
I’m currently focusing on looking for part timers, hopefully finding two of them and continuing that 50 hour week. So, no lazy here.
I will switch careers, travel long distances, make the same as I did 10 years ago, but pleeeeeease, job gods, throw an interview at me!
Make your own job. Start your own business. Surely you have some skill that you can parlay into an entrepreneurial venture, right? If not, you need to learn one. Don’t be a recluse… get out in your community.
A lot of liberals tell me that true self sufficiency never existed to begin with, but then what is their relationship with their community?
Loan me 20 Gs for the start of my business. I’ve always wanted to paint bath towels with various oils. 
(Kidding, kidding)
But I basically HAVE started a freelance business in post-production, utilizing my skills in subtitling, captioning, transfer, duplication and QC. So I’ve found temp jobs in those.
I’ve worked for five separate companies during this time. And they call back. What sucks is, my ads on craigslist have yielded NO, nada, none for responses, only ads from others for their products.
The plus side is I have established some connections to a full timer in the future. No one has complained about my work or me, AFAIK. 
As far as the recluse goes, I’ll go anywhere, long as it don’t cost any money! A friend’s house, sure. Local Taco Bell, not a problem.
One place I freelance at is about an hour ride, but since it’s work, no complaints on getting up a little early.
Larry Page - Born in Lansing, Michigan
Sergey Brin - Born in Moscow, Russia - emigrated to the United States at the ripe old age of six.
I assume you want more work than you already have? Then network marketing is your friend. Forget Craigslist, go face to face and make friends and connections to find people who will want your service. I am surprised you do not milk the heck out of your former clients for referrals.
My advice: make two referral calls and call me in the morning. 
The unemployment rate went from ~4% to ~10% in the last few years. Given the implausibility that several million Americans went from being hardworkers to lazy layabouts in the space of two years, it seems pretty likely that the reason for current high unemployment has some other cause. When we’re not recovering from recessions, the US actually has very low unemployment compared to other countries.
Also agree with the earlier poster that its a stretch to say Google was founded by immigrants from the poorest countries in the world. Both founders were raised here and one was born here.
This is aimed at me from an earlier thread. And it’s crap.
A society is a set of interconnected groups of people which are themselves made of interconnected sets of people. In fact, as any economist would tell you, modern economies (and even ancient ones) are FOUNDED on a lack of self-sufficiency. One person makes food, another canned goods, another automobiles and so forth. A diversified economy in which all pursue their specialties but none are self-sufficient is one of the reasons why we’ve gotten where we have.
And, for your interest, I have been an independent entrepreneur for years. I’ve been starting and selling businesses for fun and profit for more than a decade. But I have the brains to look beyond the hype of entrepreneurship and realize that we are all connected and exactly how much luck is involved in success.
And labeling me as a liberal is a damn foolish thing to do. Yet somehow you did so even though I’d earlier pointed out how you throw that around willy nilly without thought. It makes me take you less seriously as a debater. You should spend more time challenging your assumptions. It’ll make you a more subtle thinker and a better arguer.
Implying that people just need to adapt or that they’re lazy doesn’t make much sense. Last I checked some months ago, there were roughly five times as many unemployed as vacant jobs.
When discussing starting companies, people like Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin are an exception, not a rule. They are so far outside the norm that they’re hardly worth discussing when we wonder why the unemployed don’t start their own businesses. There may not be a single person of their caliber that is on the unemployment rolls right now.
The problem is not the work but lack of full time work. You see an sign at Walgreens saying “Help wanted” but it’s only for 16 hours a week. AND they don’t give you a schedule in advance. Try to combine two part time jobs when you have no idea when you’re working from one week to the next.
Another reason is perception. I had a job in a factory early this year. It was a temp job. Most of the leads were immigrants. Here legally and making at least $15/hr.
Now here’s the thing, all of them I talked to got those jobs in the 90s when jobs were everywhere. They got them because back in the mid to late 90s, jobs were easy to get and no one wanted factory work. Now Americans would love to make those wages, but the jobs are filled by immigrants.
So you see how Americans can be resentful of such legal immigrants. They took the jobs when no one else wanted them. Now that times change but the immigrants are here to stay. They couldn’t move on as they had no skills other than factory work.
Eh, no it wasn’t. The whole premise of your post fails right there.
I keep saying, this is irrelevant. Jobs are a thing of the past. *Jobs are a thing of the past. *
Start your own business and make your own living.
That’s because they’re conditioned to be worker bees.
Look, you can either adapt or die. That’s how it is. There’s not enough work for everyone and there’ll probably never enough work to get unemployment below 7% with u6 approaching 10%. That’s how it’s gonna be.
Working for someone else is not an option for 17 million Americans. Either find a way to adapt or perish. That’s not just me saying this - it’s reality saying this.
The premise of this thread is ridiculously idiotic. American workers work longer hours and get far less sick time, vacation time, maternity leave, etc. than any other country in the developed world. Yet somehow, amidst a once a generation world economic downturn, the high unemployment rate is proof that American workers a lazy? What a joke.
Immigrants will make do with a much lower standard of living than what even the poorest americans are used too, this allows them to work for less while spending much less.
Five people for every job opening. I guess no problem if you are already working.
I have 3 guys on my street who started a lawn and snow shoveling service. They too are struggling. Competition is driving down thew availability of work and cutting prices.
You are living in an economic fantasy land.
Most new business startups fail (usually leaving the person who started them worse off than before). That is the whole foundation of why free enterprise capitalism is (in a certain, rather slanted, sense of the term) more efficient than the sort of planned economy that communist countries tried to run. Inefficient and incompetent (and unlucky) entrepreneurs get weeded out of the system by going bankrupt, and to make a living they must work for the enterprises founded by one of that small minority of entrepreneurs who succeeded. Capitalism works by competition, and competition means that there will be losers - indeed, that most will be losers.
In a weak economy, of course, a higher proportion of business startups will fail than in a strong one, and, even in good economic times, if a higher proportion of the population attempt to start their own businesses an even higher proportion of them will fail.
Starting a business is a huge gamble (even for people with the right talents and the right connections, which is almost certainly not most people) and gambles do not always pay off. Indeed, gambles do not usually pay off. Most people, even good, deserving, hardworking people will lose the gamble you are proposing.
This!
It must be that they all decided to be lazy.
/sarcasm
Get your lazy bums moving and start up some business’s, We need more job and business creation to fund the government via taxes and Wall Street via investments.
It would be better if the situation was like it was in the 30’s when many could move back to the farm to ride out the hard times.
I appreciate this opportunity to speak for the American Workers Is Just Too Downright Lazy Party. American workers is just too downright lazy! Thank you, and good day.
I’m reminded of the SNL skit where there is a Japanese version of The McLaughlin Group debating: Who is Raziest American Workah?
I would like to make a counter suggestion to the topic. I think American entrepreneurs are too lazy. Why, there’s a huge supply of raw materials at hand: American Workers. Is it their fault nobody has figured out a way to turn this raw material into a product the public wants? No. Not at all.
It’s the fault of the entrepreneur class, who are being horribly lazy about breaking new ground in thinking of ways to use this raw material. They keep retreating to the tried and true methods of laying people off and forcing existing workers to do more with less, not to mention outsourcing and offshore production.
Think outside the box, American entrepreneurs! There’s money to be made here. All you have to do is figure out how!