Lord have mercy. Ok I have seen sewing machine operators (Mission District SF) roofers (everywhere) recycling workers (all over the Bay Area) what else...farmers (OR and WA) Can't remember the rest...

While I could think of some body else who I would like to print this out and give it to, would not make a difference, so...time to cultivate gratitude...What a world we live in...

Oh yeah, nannies! See them everywhere . Friends with 'em. Folks tried to turn me into one. Not. Oh yeah, also know folks who employ them...

How dismal. Work humbles man. It's biblical.

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I've lived my entire life in NC until recently moving here to NJ. Of the jobs you have listed I've had two of them as a younger man: picking tobacco and roofing. Yes it is difficult work and hot in the summer, but it is work. In my hometown and my adopted town in NC we had chicken processing plants. That's a dirty job too and it isn't fun, but it's work. Once the textiles went south and tobacco went up in legislative smoke, poultry and swine were the only jobs left in those towns for people with HS educations or less. I have a difficult time with the innuendo that these jobs are evil, deplorable, or unfair to minorities or persons of a lower SES. My home town couldn't have survived without those jobs. My high school friends and neighbors would've been in even further financial troubles if those jobs were not available. Even now residents are being displaced in those jobs by migrant workers without work visas. How would you feel suddenly unemployed when someone who just moved to your home town came in and took your desk job away from you? On the flip side (here in NJ where labor wages are some of the highest in America due to unionization) it's almost impossible for hourly wage earners to live without working 60-80 hours a week. Property taxes, licensing, process fees, union dues, and etc., stifle any opportunity to "get ahead." Just the cost of living requires a 20%-30% increase in wages between moving from NC to NJ. I still can't believe I paid a truck driver a lawyerly hourly rate to tell me he couldn't unload the truck because he was union (losing time and more money on my end) and had to pay another "union" person to unload the truck when I could've done it myself (and it was stuff I owned). Net-net my cost of business went up 30%, a cost I had to pass to my customers and I'm sure they absorbed it by increasing theirs. I'm not a left-winger and certainly not a right-winger. I was a "blue" vote in a "red" state in NC. But some of our party have got to get their heads out of their asses. Bottom line would you rather be unemployed or work one of the "worst jobs?" By focusing on the worst aspects of those jobs you forget why people are there in the first place.

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Are you from the Heritage Foundation?

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I was totally astonished when I read Bill O'Reilly's IDEA of what poor people can do to better themselves, improve their quality of life, and escape catastrophes such as Katrina!

What planet is he from??!! What a bunch of simple-minded thinking! If he lived in the real world of our "Great America," perhaps he would see things a bit differently, things such as those mentioned in this article and in people's comments to it.
Unfortunately, life is not as simple as O'Reilly seems to think--education does NOT neccessarily = quality job with high pay nor does it = a nice home and an SUV to escape life's Katrinas. Life has too many variables and too many selfish people in charge of our country.

http://www.billoreilly.com/site/product?printerFriendly
=true&pid=19095&said=null&satype=null

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Notwithstanding that everything is now threatened, here is a short list of gains made by unions for wage laborers (even non-union wage laborers):

8 hour workday
5 day week
paid holidays
workman's compensation
on the job safety and availablility of safety equipment
health benefits
overtime pay and the right to refuse overtime
minimum age and wage laws
break time
lunch time

Did you think these things became common because of the kindness of employers?

Buy union. Support unionization. Don't cross a picket line, ever, for any reason.

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I have worked some miserable jobs, (roofing, painting, factory, waitressing) when the money and benefits are excellent, one can put up with the misery.

One time, in Cedar Rapids I was working as a temp and got assigned to a General Mills cereal plant for a week. The job (sticking coupons on cereal bags) was agonizingly tedious and repetitive, but had been designed so well (including frequent breaks), that eight hours went by without a complaint.

I don't know how it is there today, but back then workers there were treated unbelievably well. So well, that I wanted to get on full time.

The only way a job opening came up (I swear) is if someone died (not at work).

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I agree with BigWiggs that over-protection by the government and/or unions brings its own host of problems. I've been living in France for the last year, and the bureaucracy is absolutely strangling to the labor market. If you work full time here for at least 6 months, and are then laid-off or fired through no fault of your own, you get up to 6 months compensation pay at 80% of your previous wage. This sounds like a nice safety net. However, I have friends that make it a routine -- 6 months on, then they have an arrangement with the boss and get "fired", then 6 months of living off the state, then back to work. The worst part is that it doesn’t even make them happy. Then other friends in other industries can't find a job and are considering moving to the States or the UK. The long term unemployment rate (12 Months & Over) in France is 5.02%, Germany 4.65%, UK 1.15%, US 0.71%. [source: http://www.demographia.com/db-2003intlunem.htm ]

Liza Featherstone (the article's author) has a valid point that the conditions in these jobs can be deplorable, and need to be improved. Unions are necessary for the labor market, simply to balance the power of big corporations. However, I don't agree with karyse that we shouldn't "cross a picket line, ever, for any reason." Unions are human and fallible, and make self interested choices just like any other organization.

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not with a union or anything else for that matter.

The problem does not lie with the type of job, activity or occupation. The problem is about sharing the wealth. And I am not talking a communist type of system, I am talking about being better people in general.

As long as the system is set up so that the objective is to become stupidly wealthy by any means necessary you will always have abominable working conditons for a certain segment of our society.

I look at the list of worst occupations and I do not see any one occupation that is not needed somewhere along the economic chain. Even poultry processing is a much needed occupation. Just think about it the next time you pull into your friendly neighborhood KFC and order a bucket of extra crispy.

With a farm background I know it is not the farmers who make huge amounts from the grow operations, whether that be eggs, poultry, milk, beef, or grain unless you are of a 3rd or 4rth generation farm and all of your operation has been paid for, even then a couple of mistakes and you are done.

So if its not the farmer making extreme profit, and we know the plant worker is not getting rich then there are others who are less than exemplary members of this society.

People it is about greed, greed and more greed... think about that when you look at the next NIKE or Reebok ad and know that the clothes they sell for huge amounts cost but a few cents to make in a sweat shop someplace domestic or foreign. The American dream get rich at the expense of others....

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All these jobs need done. Hurray for the people who do them. They do them to feed their children, to survive.

That's a good thing.

What there IS something wrong with is treating these people with disrepect. Underpaying them. Making them work in unsafe conditions.

Their lives are not hell. They are not miserable. Yes, they need unions and decent conditions and decent pay. But they sure as H don't need your I'd-never-have-to-do-THAT horror and condescension.

Work lasts 8 hours and then you go home, enjoy the love of your significant other or family, give to the world, read, enjoy life. Even chicken processors have a lot to live for and they don't want your pity.

We need to have an honest respect for honest work and for the honest workers who work it.

Jan VanDenBerg

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I have to agree that these are difficult jobs that really don't get paid what they are worth, but they will never go away! If you eat chicken, then that requires a poultry processor. If you own a house you need a roofer. If you wear clothes you require a sewer... Of course we can do without forced and no pay prison labor. And although many would like to get rid of prostitution I don't see that ever going away, but we can recognize and regulate the issues there.

As one other commenter mentioned the true problem with these professions is the greed of someone else in the product line. Sometimes it's the operator of the facility, sometimes it's somewhere between there and retail.

I grew up on a family farm that barely stayed above water during the 1980's, and I can tell you that even when we were farming a 1000 acres there was no profit in the business and we did almost all the labor in the family. I used to hire friends in the summer to bale hay or straw and make money. Some days we'd make $2/hr, sometimes $10/hr+. I ran scheduling the jobs, hiring equipment (from dad at less than commercial rates), and then I ran the baler and taught the crew how to work smarter and more efficient. It was tough, dirty work, but for kids in the country it was money for things we wanted. (It's precisely how I bought my first computer, and now that's my profession.)

What we need to do, rather than belittle jobs like this or tell people to stay away from them, is to make sure there's an honest wage in their labor. We need to recognize that everyone, from the people who pickup stray trash in the park to custodians to (name your least favorite profession here) are all important cogs in our society that should be valued. Some jobs will get paid more than others, but if you job is labeled a "profession" then you should be able to at least be able to put beans and rice on the table you paid for in the house you are paying a mortgage on, and you should be able to get or afford health insurance.

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low paying jobs and luck in having these lousy jobs...it's easy to think and say others should be grateful for low paying,crappy jobs...so which bills do you propose they not pay...half their rent? gruel for groceries...the food bank at the end of thge month after busting their asses for corporate amerika's fat bank accounts??? How lucky can you get?
Basic needs meeting is the minimum people need to justify their expended time for dollars...there's little to lose when that isn't the end result-revolution time?.
Unions aren't perfect but sure are needed in these elitist, money grubbing times of Corporate greed and government tyranny.
Just because people work hard doesn't mean the american dream is available to them...note the list of the worst jobs ever......that illusion needs to be put to rest.

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I have personally been employed in two of these jobs-as a poultry processor and in farm labour. Yes, the hours are long, the pay is low and there are no benefits, other than the paycheck at the end of the week. I have also worked as a house cleaner, seamstress and baker- these three I have done on the side to earn extra cash when my children were small and my husband's work schedule varied. We strongly felt that we wanted to be the primary influences in our children's lives, and have arranged our work accordingly. We have tried to live simply and thriftily to achieve our aim. We both grew up in lower middle-class homes of multiple children, so we learned to work at a young age to supplement the family income. I strongly believe that a person does not understand something outside his/her realm of experience-it takes a certain degree of personal suffering to understand the suffering of others. As a child 40 years ago, I remember watching through the window, mesmerized, as the dry cleaners and laundresses worked the mangles and tools of their profession. Many times they would take the time to glance at me and smile, even though I'm sure their work was hot, uncomfortable and stifling. I now work with the severely challenged, my husband works as a factory press-setter. I believe who we are is not what we do, but a way to earn a living. I think we bring who we are to our jobs and make or break them with our attitudes.

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Every job is a tradeoff except for prostitutes. We all are the reason that they have to work in such hellish conditions. I wish for a world where people who wish to sell the gift of sex to their fellow man or woman would be treated as any other human being and not held up for ridicule or harrassment. Driving them underground and making them lawbreakers does not take away their needs it only makes their job more dangerous and leaves them open to the abuse you describe.
We need to change the laws that make prostitution a crime and weed out the people who exploit them then we will have a better world.

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Forgot that one the first time around.

My pops busted a cop for busting a hooker on the streets of SF. Yep, he watched this undercover sting, and called 'em on the carpet. LOL.

So that's what I was taught: drugs and prostitution should be legal. Go figure. Look at me now.

ROTFLMAO.

BTW I know several young ladies my age, college students or single mothers, or both, who have had to sell their bodies to make a living, only they don't call it prostitution, they call it 'dancing'.

Want to know the biblical perspective?

Look up the word harlot.

Want to know the feminist perspective?

Look up Angry Women by Re|Search or Susie Bright. And if you have an extra copy of that book send it my way. I lost mine.

Peace.

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I see in several posts the concept of the American Dream presented and I am curious.

I have my own description on what the American Dream means to me, but I am really curious as to those who are posting now what each of you believe to be the American dream?

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With the exception of the US Military I have a simple question.
Where are the labor unions?

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In # 10 - U$ soldier in Iraq - you say "Just like any other workers on this list, the 148,000 men and women fighting in Iraq take pride in their jobs and deserve our respect."

Hey Liza, you don't by any chance have a yellow Support Our Troops ribbon stuck on your car do you? Or does it say Respect Our Troops? Since you haven't figured it out yet let me be the first to clue you in - those so called troops of yours in Iraq are COMMITTING terrorism not fighting it, and as such they may deserve your pathological respect but they certainly don't "deserve" mine... if those 'troop' terrorists are taking pride in their jobs, then they fall securely under the definition of psychopath as i think you do for respecting them...

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I would disagree with the jobs listed as being the ten worst jobs in America. First, while the military jobs in Iraq are dangerous -- these people volunteered to serve in the military. I would hope that these folks understood that being in the military would mean the potential of being shot at by enemies. My female cousin joined the Air Force and served in both Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Most of the men in her unit have died from exposure to toxins in the Middle East. She has developed some skin condition but still does not view her years in the Air Force as an "undersirable job." Nannies (unless one has illegally been hired in the US --ie an unreported wage earner who has illegally entered the US; or was smuggled in from a Third World Nation) a nanny job be a decent respectable position. A relative of mine hired a nanny for her new born -- she was paid over $35,000 a year and had no house cleaning duties while she babysat a newborn child. Processing plants -- sure they smell and are physically dangerous but rather than these jobs being held by minority Americans these jobs are routinely held by illegal aliens or new lawful immigrants to the US. In Sioux Falls, South Dakota the meat processing plant regularly had to have the cops arrive on site to pull the hostile workers apart from each other because the brought their bitter rivaleries with them to the US. Meat that would be consumed by the public were used as "food fight" items to attack co-workers. Labor out of prisoners, let see these folks get three meals a day, shelter, clothing, and because of their bad acts against fellow human beings are now required to be babysat by the state at taxpayer expenses because they are anti-social. They get free education (GED); college and/or trade training opportunities in prison that is NOT available to US workers who are unemployed because of federal policy to export their jobs to a Third World nation. Prisoners are getting cushy jobs as travel agents that make one's hotel and airline reservations. I don't feel comfortable knowing that a prisoner knows when and for how long my residence will be vacant for his buddies to raid my home.

What would be a rotten job? How about a US high tech worker who has one or more college degrees who has to train a cheap imported alien to take over his/her job?

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I have heard it said that the California fruit and veggie farmers rely on cheap migrant workers, and without them the availability of cheap produce would be diminished greatly. At the same time you have the 'Minute Men' working diligently to stop the flow of illegals from across the border.

So I guess as the Mexicans are cut off from entering the country, you middle class folks being let go from your manufacturing and technical jobs can replace the mexicans. As one famous president might put it: "As the Mexicans stop up, we'll stoop down" or bend over. Don't worry it will be good exercise and your medical expenses will be covered by your 'private' retirement accounts.

I have also heard it said that one in five Americans believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth. I am of the opinion that your country is being run by the Fruits and Veggies.

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Prostitutes chose to do that because they are either to lazy to get a real job, or uneducated (usually by their own choice by dropping out of school) and no place wants a trashy looking person. The men and women in Iraq and, overseas in general, knew and some even wanted to go there. They are fighting for this country. That's better than sitting at home and complaining about the state of our economy whilst watching The Simpsons. Most people in prison are there for a reason and ther for have not a drop of my pity. I work for the correctional facilities in Texas and do a demographic study of the Mississippi, you will see that the area in which you are refering to is predominatly black. Just because white people work there does not mean that race has anything to do with it. The whole visa thing. Don't come here and expect full rights. They normally don't even know english much less make an effort to seem like they want to know. At least they have a job. The world doesn't need to base it's views on that of some cyber surfing 15 yearold that has nothing else to do but cry about the world and yet drives a fuel burning car, truthfully does not recycle, and throws trash out their car window. No one is perfect so stop acting like you are. At least these people have jobs and work for their money. And just because it's the oldest profession does not mean it is the best nor should it even be acceptable.

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