Comments on: No Illegal Aliens Equals Disaster for Farmers?

By: Rick DeMent

Rick DeMent — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 12:55:29 +0000

Steve,

Your being obtuse (imagine that), I am not talking about whether or not a profit is made, I am talking about the amount of profit made. Here I'll fix it again so even a flat earth economist can understand.

The bottom line is that major sectors of our economy depend on low wage workers so they can make even bigger profits then they would otherwise.

the whole idea some industries can't exist without coolly wage labor is a myth that only people like you believe. Remember class, economics is a soft science, it's social studies for math geeks and you cam make it say anything you want to, and you prove it with equations.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:14:46 +0000

The bottom line is that major sectors of our economy ~~depend~~ profits more from low wage workers.

...there fixed it for you....

Rick, your economic ignorance is showing again. No profits means that firms shut down. Duh.

By: carpeicthus

carpeicthus — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:37:45 +0000

"They’re turning kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers
But what’s the real cost, ‘cause the sneakers don’t seem that much cheaper
Why are we still paying so much for sneakers when you got little kid slaves making them
What are your overheads?"

By: R. Alex

R. Alex — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:00:14 +0000

In some cases I'm sure it's true that hiring the illegals is about saving a buck or two. Maybe in most cases. In other cases they really have a great deal of trouble staffing jobs even at pretty high wages.

When I was living in Idaho there were places paying $20-25 an hour. But even with that kind of money (which goes a long way in rural Idaho), it's hard to staff jobs that only exist during harvest season. But they never filled all of the positions.

By: UrbanGrounds » Blog Archive » American Farmers Want Their Cake and To Eat it Too

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:07:08 +0000

[...] James Joyner adds: Unlike the silly omnibus bill that was the focus of so much political controversy the last few months, these crackdown will force us to actually deal with the real issues. The bottom line is that major sectors of our economy depend on low wage workers. We’re going to have to either learn to get by without them and pay much higher prices to attract legal workers, substitute with imports from low wage countries, or figure out a way to legally admit tens of thousands more workers. Spread the word: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

By: floyd

floyd — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:42:14 +0000

90 days sounds like time for the harvest and firings every year without any reduction of illegal labor.Sweet deal!

By: just me

just me — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:55:09 +0000

Dave one of the apple orchards up here does the paperwork, and brings in several teams of Jamaican laborers to pick the apples every fall.

The real reason they don't want to do the paperwork, is they can pay the illegal worker less.

Which is the crux of the immigration problem, people from all corners of the political spectrum have reasons to keep the status quo, and to not actually do anything.

By: Rick DeMent

Rick DeMent — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:02:54 +0000

The bottom line is that major sectors of our economy ~~depend~~ profits more from low wage workers.

...there fixed it for you....

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 11:59:28 +0000

The bizarre irony of this is that under the H-2A visa program farmers can bring in unlimited numbers of temporary workers. The farmers' complaint is that they don't want to do paperwork.