Entry Level Jobs

George McGovern makes an excellent point about the importance of entry-level jobs in teaching job skills to unskilled workers and providing them with a stepping stone to other opportunities (Column Left, Nov. 10). He goes on to lament the fact that many entry-level jobs are being phased out as employment costs rise. It's too bad that he and other liberals don't make the connection that the rising employment costs that destroy these entry-level jobs are a direct result of the standard liberal policy of imposing ever-increasing governmental rules and regulations on employers.

Like all storytelling, television is essentially manipulative. The point of any drama is to evoke thoughts and emotions that the audience, left to its own devices, might never experience. So to call CBS' new reality show "Undercover Boss" manipulative is almost beside the point. Actually, to call it "new" is almost beside the point; "Undercover Boss" is more like a spinoff of the Fox (originally British) show "Secret Millionaire" in which the rich and privileged were dispatched to troubled (which is to say poor)

J. Eugene Grigsby's column "Electronics Data Add Up for Affirmative Action" [Times Board of Advisors, Dec. 14] demonstrated that while better educated, better qualified African Americans do find work in the electronics field, they are passed over for entry level jobs which primarily go to immigrants. He feels that this confirms the need for affirmative action in hiring. In fact it confirms the need for stopping the flow of immigrants competing with our own people for entry level jobs.

After reading the review about Wal-Mart ("Wal-Mart's Spot in the World," Aug. 16), I must say, "UC Irvine parents, take note about the personal politics of American history teacher Jon Wiener! Tell your kids to shake a few grains of salt!" Obviously, Mr. Wiener has never lived or tried to get a job in rural America, where there are no jobs, and any job is better than no job. Poor areas pay only minimum wage, small-town businesses simply service the community, they are not high-profit corporations.

I am underwhelmed again by the intestinal fortitude of the INS. Our government does a miserable job of keeping illegal immigrants out of this country, and now it is easily intimidated by the Latino community into backing off the joint raids in Simi Valley ("Border Patrol to Pull Out of Simi Gang Sweeps," March 26). All this would be humorous if it wasn't so sad. Every illegal immigrant who works takes a potential job away from a legal citizen. Keep up the good work, INS, and most of the Hispanic citizens in this state will have no entry-level jobs available.

Re "Migrant studies counter negative images," Feb. 28 UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri claims that immigrants have increased wages for native workers. His study overlooks Economics 101. As long as there is an unlimited supply of cheap labor, wages will be driven down to whatever those workers will accept. Politicians would do better by controlling this supply rather than imposing "living wages" on a few industries in a futile attempt to control the low-wage problem. Additionally, the study's claim that immigrants push natives up the economic ladder fails to account for future natives who need entry-level jobs.

The suggestions in Manuel Pastor's essay "Growth Strategies must Include the Poor" (Dec. 8), are not likely to increase the income of low-level wage earners in Southern California as long as we permit a continued flow of unskilled workers from other countries to flood our job market. Our immigration policies force our own people in the inner cities to compete with new arrivals who are willing to work at whatever wage is offered. The need to save our jobs for our own people will become even more important as the new welfare policies, requiring welfare recipients to find jobs after two years of public assistance, bring tens of thousands of new people into the job market.

The usual justification for allowing street-corner, illegal alien day laborers is that they take jobs Americans don't want ("Toil and Trouble," March 6). Well, the jobs now going to illegal aliens are the same jobs that put me through high school and college. I worked as a laborer, busboy, farm worker, and other low-paying positions, and I was happy to have them. These entry-level jobs are now filled by adult illegals who work for random wages below the American scale. By returning illegal aliens back to their own countries, we will make these jobs again available to our jobless, frustrated youth.

Like all storytelling, television is essentially manipulative. The point of any drama is to evoke thoughts and emotions that the audience, left to its own devices, might never experience. So to call CBS' new reality show "Undercover Boss" manipulative is almost beside the point. Actually, to call it "new" is almost beside the point; "Undercover Boss" is more like a spinoff of the Fox (originally British) show "Secret Millionaire" in which the rich and privileged were dispatched to troubled (which is to say poor)

You listed an article ("Harkin Bets on the Wrong Party Base," by Elaine Ciulla Kamarck, Jan. 23) under Column Left. My understanding of the political category of left and right would place her piece under Column Right! There are no more vigorous right-wingers these days than the neoconservatives and Kamarck's attack on Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Tom Harkin is a perfect example of her right-wing views. Harkin is not for the post-industrial society. Harkin has seen what de-industrialization had done to the mass purchasing power of the country--it has failed!

Re "Migrant studies counter negative images," Feb. 28 UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri claims that immigrants have increased wages for native workers. His study overlooks Economics 101. As long as there is an unlimited supply of cheap labor, wages will be driven down to whatever those workers will accept. Politicians would do better by controlling this supply rather than imposing "living wages" on a few industries in a futile attempt to control the low-wage problem. Additionally, the study's claim that immigrants push natives up the economic ladder fails to account for future natives who need entry-level jobs.

Teen unemployment is rising as young job seekers face heightened competition from older workers and immigrants who are taking entry-level positions. Teenagers also are disadvantaged by a tighter job market in which employers are less willing to hire workers with little or no job experience. Some experts fear that these and other shifts in the job market could persist and hurt future prospects for many youths.

Along the south shore of San Francisco Bay, from the bookstores of Palo Alto to the estates of Atherton, one man's checkbook has created an Assembly race where it otherwise wouldn't exist. In a district dominated by Democrats, Republican Steve Poizner has spent $4.8 million of his own money -- writing checks of $100,000 or more to himself every week since August -- to pay for a blizzard of television ads and mailers, and has raised $1 million more.

J. Eugene Grigsby's column "Electronics Data Add Up for Affirmative Action" [Times Board of Advisors, Dec. 14] demonstrated that while better educated, better qualified African Americans do find work in the electronics field, they are passed over for entry level jobs which primarily go to immigrants. He feels that this confirms the need for affirmative action in hiring. In fact it confirms the need for stopping the flow of immigrants competing with our own people for entry level jobs.

I am underwhelmed again by the intestinal fortitude of the INS. Our government does a miserable job of keeping illegal immigrants out of this country, and now it is easily intimidated by the Latino community into backing off the joint raids in Simi Valley ("Border Patrol to Pull Out of Simi Gang Sweeps," March 26). All this would be humorous if it wasn't so sad. Every illegal immigrant who works takes a potential job away from a legal citizen. Keep up the good work, INS, and most of the Hispanic citizens in this state will have no entry-level jobs available.

The suggestions in Manuel Pastor's essay "Growth Strategies must Include the Poor" (Dec. 8), are not likely to increase the income of low-level wage earners in Southern California as long as we permit a continued flow of unskilled workers from other countries to flood our job market. Our immigration policies force our own people in the inner cities to compete with new arrivals who are willing to work at whatever wage is offered. The need to save our jobs for our own people will become even more important as the new welfare policies, requiring welfare recipients to find jobs after two years of public assistance, bring tens of thousands of new people into the job market.

After reading the review about Wal-Mart ("Wal-Mart's Spot in the World," Aug. 16), I must say, "UC Irvine parents, take note about the personal politics of American history teacher Jon Wiener! Tell your kids to shake a few grains of salt!" Obviously, Mr. Wiener has never lived or tried to get a job in rural America, where there are no jobs, and any job is better than no job. Poor areas pay only minimum wage, small-town businesses simply service the community, they are not high-profit corporations.

Teaching English to our newest immigrants is too important to remain scattered in various disciplines throughout the Los Angeles Community College District. According to California Tomorrow, an organization that documents demographic trends, 5.3 million people in California are foreign-born--20% of the population. It is imperative that they learn to read, write, and speak English if they are going to rise above entry-level jobs. To meet this demand the Board of Governors of the Community Colleges as well as the State Academic Senate have mandated that English as a Second Language is a separate discipline to be taught by instructors who have received the specialized training this field requires.

This is in answer to Robin Abcarian's column of June 19 ("The Real Issue Is the Color of Their Skin"). It is really sad when an intelligent columnist has to add fuel to the fire and play the race card, which seems to be the politically correct thing to do. Proposition 187 and all the things that are happening are not about race or color, but about language and the economy of California. Abcarian is too young to remember that white and black kids used to have entry level jobs, gardening and in restaurants.

I am writing to rebut George F. Will's malicious misrepresentation of the Davis-Bacon Act (Column Right, Feb. 5). Davis-Bacon is extremely beneficial legislation which protects local communities from economic disruption when the federal government uses taxpayers' dollars for construction. It simply requires contractors to pay construction workers on federally funded projects the minimum wage rate that already prevails in the community where the work is to be performed. The wage rates are not set by the federal government, instead they are set by the free market in each locality.