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Jobs in a Time of Famine
A family trip to the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, NH — scene of the famous IMF/world-economic-order-creating conference in the summer of 1944 — produced a repeat of an observation that I have made at places as far-flung as West Palm Beach, Canobie Lake Amusement Park, and virtually any big city hotel: despite the economic storm supposedly howling around us, the American hospitality industry seems dependent on foreign guest workers.
At Brettton Woods, we met waiters from Argentina, Brazil, Jamaica, and Chile; and they told us that in the summer months (when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere and most are back in school), their jobs are filled in turn by workers from the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The U.S. has a special H2B visa program that admits tens of thousands of workers each year to do jobs for which there are no available Americans. I don’t quite understand how we can have this much unemployment and this many temporary workers.
In any event, we can be sure that over the years, hundreds of thousands of young, energetic foreigners are enjoying their time learning about America and making a few bucks to boot.
Addendum: It’s not just the hospitality industry that can’t find local workers. Want to be a dairy farmer?
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