On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:14:49 -0500, "Vito" wrote:

"Frank Boettcher" wrote
Well I'm back from my short week of work on the Coast.

The only way these people can come back is with volunteer labor. Many
are getting enough insurance money and financial help to buy materials
but can't cover labor which is inflated immensely because of the
shortage......

Bless you and your team. But that begs the *retorical* question of why is there
any labor shortage. What happened to all those unemployed folks living in
hotels and cruise ships?

Some of them were there. But there is a significant infrastructure
problem. there is no place to stay. Additionally, there is a skills
and supervision mismatch. A lot more could get done with unskilled
labor if there were more people around who could teach and supervise.
If you are a skilled framing or finish carpenter, drywall installer,
electrician, or plumber you get snapped up. If you are unskilled
there is no need, nobody to train you and nobody to supervise you.

And the big contractors who are rebuilding the Casinos snap up the
skilled labor and nobody is left for the type of person we were
helping. Mixed blessing because the Casinos create jobs and
significant tax revenue.

The people who are in hotels and cruise ships are the poorest people,
renters, who did not own land. If you owned any property at all you
could qualify for a FEMA trailer. And there are some very well off
people in FEMA trailers. I'm sure most would rather be in a trailer
than a family crammed into a hotel room regardless of the quality of
the hotel.

Keep in mind the media focuses on what is controversial, and the tens
of thousands of good folks just working hard to get back to somewhere
close to where they were and those that are coming in to help with
that effort never makes the news. So we all get jaded and righteously
indignant about what we hear from the media. ****es me off but that is
the way of our world.

Frank