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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elroy who wrote (316548)	12/20/2006 2:25:01 AM
From: combjelly	Respond to of 1591375

"If the cost of labor were not significant in construction then the construction industry wouldn't hire illegals as a means to lower the cost of labor." You obviously know little about the industry. Builders work with contractors. The contractors are not chosen by lowest bidder, they are chosen through personal relationships and/or kickbacks. All contractors charge about the same, except for ones new to the field. The builders don't care, They get their money based on factors other than their costs, as long as the land prices aren't too high. If you choose to be involved in the minutia of building a house, you quickly come to the realization that you have to carefully chose your contractors. Your costs can vary over a factor of 5 or more if you don't. If you shop the work and are flexible as to the schedule, you can save an awful lot of money on a new house. You will find that most contractors charge the same amount, to an almost spooky precision, but you can always find someone with a good reputation that will do the same work for much less. And they usually, at least in my experience, don't use illegals. Those are the contractors who are swinging a hammer with some of his friends. The heavy users of illegals are the ones with connections to the bigger builders and have a guaranteed number of contracts. They can milk it for all it is worth.

To: Elroy who wrote (316548)	12/23/2006 1:47:36 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1591375

The big variable in construction numbers is not labor......its the cost of the land. If the cost of labor were not significant in construction then the construction industry wouldn't hire illegals as a means to lower the cost of labor. The presence of illegals in the industry indicates the cost of labor is significant in the industry. Why would the employer hire them if labor cost didn't matter? I didn't say it wasn't important. What I said its is that its not the big variable. The big variable is the land. That first determines whether a project is doable. Then there is the contruction costs. Labor is one line item among many: materials, insurance, taxes, administration, architectural fees, construction permits, etc. And labor is not show as labor but as general contractor fees. Often the general contractor is a separate entity from the developer and does the actual hiring of illegals. They bid on the job along with other general contractors. Employing illegals will give them an edge, price wise, over those contractors who don't and probably land them the contract. The cost savings in general contractor fees will make a difference to the overall construction budget but not nearly the impact that the cost of land will have.