McCain on working class wages

by smintheus [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Since the nation is in the midst of John McCain's 'housing crisis', in which he tries to remember how many houses he owns, and we're all still trying to figure out why McCain thinks an income of $5,000,000/year is needed to be considered rich, it's worth revisiting McCain's opinion about the value of wages. In 2006 at an AFL-CIO convention, when asked about the effect of immigration in depressing wages, McCain declared that no Americans would be willing do agricultural work for as little as $50/hour. At that rate, a worker would make as much in 6 months as the average annual household income in the US.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain’s job offer.

"I’ll take it!" one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. "You can’t do it, my friends."

Some in the crowd said they didn’t appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

A fake jobs program - the only kind Republicans favor. That's more than arrogant. McCain is totally out of touch with the realities of working Americans.

I'd love for voters to ask McCain at townhalls this summer and fall whether he still thinks nobody's willing to work for as little as $50/hour.