Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Ryan in Maine on June 25, 2010, 09:09:02 PM
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http://www.takeourjobs.org/
Found via Yahoo news feed: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100624/ap_on_en_tv/us_immigration_take_our_jobs
Immigrant farm workers' challenge: Take our jobs
By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Writer Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jun 24, 5:42 pm ET
SAN FRANCISCO – In a tongue-in-cheek call for immigration reform, farm workers are teaming up with comedian Stephen Colbert to challenge unemployed Americans: Come on, take our jobs.
Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.
So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits or anti-immigrant activists who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.
All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner "I want to be a farm worker" at http://www.takeourjobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms.
According to the Labor Department, three out of four farm workers were born abroad, and more than half are illegal immigrants.
Proponents of tougher immigration laws have argued that farmers have become used to cheap labor and don't want to raise wages enough to draw in other workers.
And don't count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don't even have to pay the minimum wage. Fifteen states don't require farm labor to be covered by workers compensation laws.
Any takers?
"The reality is farmworkers who are here today aren't taking any American jobs away. They work in often unbearable situations," Rodriguez said. "I don't think there will be many takers, but the offer is being made. Let's see what happens."
To highlight how unlikely the prospect of Americans lining up to pick strawberries or grapes, Comedy Central's "Colbert Report" plans to feature the "Take Our Jobs" campaign on July 8.
The campaign is being played for jokes, but the need to secure the right to work for immigrants who are here is serious business, said Michael Rubio, supervisor in Kern County, one of the biggest ag producing counties in the nation.
"Our county, our economy, rely heavily on the work of immigrant and unauthorized workers," he said. "I would encourage all our national leaders to come visit Kern County and to spend one day, or even half a day, in the shoes of these farm workers."
"Give us a legal, qualified work force. Right now, farmers don't know from day to day if they're going to get hammered by ICE," he said, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "What happens to my labor pool?"
His organization supports AgJobs, a bill currently in the Senate which would allow those who have worked in U.S. agriculture for at least 150 days in the previous two years to get legal status.
The bill has been proposed in various forms since the late 1990s, with backing from the United Farm Workers of America and other farming groups, but has never passed.
Where to begin? Do you sympathize or empathize with the farmers and half of their employees? Do you support the legislation to give illegal immigrants US citizenship if they've been working here illegally for x-amount of days (half a year or something like that)? Etc?
Why would I take a job on a farm for less than minimum wage when I could work in an air conditioned Walmart (or other large company with a large work force to match)?
I admit that I'm not really familiar with wages on farms down on border states. What sort of pay are you looking at? Up here we have seasonal workers that get a solid wage for their work, so I'm not familiar with any disparities.
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A) Unions made most of those jobs unaffordable to employers when done by Americans
B) as soon as all those illegals are legals, they will demand unionization and higher pay
C) Before we had a welfare state and massive illegal immigration, those jobs were done by American migrant workers and by recent legal immigrants
I absolutely and unequivacoly (spelling? I'm a little buzzed tonight) do not support legalization of illegal immigrants. I'd rather see every one of them rounded up and sent whence they came.
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whats farm work pay in maine?
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We don't have an illegal immigrant problem, we have an illegal employer problem. Start fining, indicting and jailing some of these corporate CEO's who exploit illegals, and you see and end to it. No jobs, no illegals.
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http://business.mainetoday.com/news/061001fritzsche.html
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And don't count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don't even have to pay the minimum wage. Fifteen states don't require farm labor to be covered by workers compensation laws.
Uh huh. Perhaps because supply and demand is off kilter?
If farms currently employing illegals were subject to actual market pressures, they'd raise pay and benefits to a level that people would work for. By breaking the law and hiring illegals, they are intentionally (and illegally) keeping wages at an unappealing level.
Which brings the question, why aren't folks that intentionally hire illegals being arrested for their criminal activities?
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because some of them have good lobby's? and when they start arresting folks for hiring day labor to move and do yard work it'll bite em in the tail?
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Which brings the question, why aren't folks that intentionally hire illegals being arrested for their criminal activities?
Good question with a simple answer. Because the people in power, who would arrest criminal employers, are wholly owned, bought and paid for, by those same employers.
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since many of the people hiring either in person or by proxy are voters whats the surprise?
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http://business.mainetoday.com/news/061001fritzsche.html
That article is inaccurate. Which is likely why he doesn't cite any references, or anything for that matter.
If you have any sort of work ethic, you can make twice minimum wage in blueberry, potato, or broccoli fields here. If you have a strong work ethic, you can do even better. Folks who aren't getting paid well are the ones who spend most of their time in the fields socializing rather than producing or folks who are using it as an excuse to take a short vacation and spend more time at the mall than in the fields.
Apple picking will get you minimum wage, maybe a little better. Maple syrup will get you minimum wage but there's not much demand for a work-force.
Lumber work will get you twice minimum wage.
Ocean harvests will get you better than minimum wage, easily, as long as you get your butt on a boat and have a strong work ethic. Blood worms and clams aren't producing the same numbers as they were in past years, so shore work has been hit. Not sure what you'll make going after those two this year.
Oh, and "animal farming" makes lots of Mainers good money every hunting season. =D
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And don't count on a big paycheck. Farm workers are excluded from federal overtime provisions, and small farms don't even have to pay the minimum wage.
"Small farms" are defined as ones using less than 500 man-days of hired help in any quarter of the previous year, meaning that they're most likely padding out their help with lots of unreported illegal labor to keep the reported man-days down.
Make piece-rate pay for regular employees easier to handle, and a lot of the problems go away when the lazy workers don't cost their employers as much as good ones.
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Heck, I've done farm work. Plowed, leveled, and planted fields for a local guy a few years ago, then sprayed weeds half-days (5am - 9am) most of that summer.
Lumber: I logged for years. Trouble is that what little hasn't been shut down by the enviro-nazis now is mechanized so that one or two guys can do all the work. I would go back to falling timber with a chainsaw in a heartbeat, if such work existed anymore.
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When an employer cannot make a profit because of labor costs what is the boss to do?
Get cheaper labor or learn to automate the process?
I worked for a company that has factories all over the world. A good number of them had automated production lines. But the boss went out to find cheaper labor when the robots started to wear out. They closed the plant I worked at and moved to Mexico for the cheap labor there because the boss found that Mexicans were cheaper than robots.
I wonder how that boss is doing now. The plant moved to Ciudad Juerez?
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I'd be curious if the quality was the same for the Mexican labor.
What is the break down of industries that hire illegals? Are farm workers and migrant workers the majority or a smaller percentage?
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Unions and fed.gov create the "problem" of jobs Americans won't do, then try to "solve" them by screwing over a second time the people they hurt the first time.
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Unions and fed.gov create the "problem" of jobs Americans won't do, then try to "solve" them by screwing over a second time the people they hurt the first time.
Yeah, its them dang unions. Oh come on now which union are we talking about? The Screen Actors and Writers Guild? NFL Players Union, MBL Players, AFT or NEA, Police and Firefighters Unions, Bus drivers, Conductors and Engineers of the state funded mass transit? Yeah the UAW did provide unsustainable legacy benefits but they had help from the management of the Big Three. And please do not forget the Government Workers both Federal and State also have Collective Bargaining Units. Now that is one Union I'd like to broken Have the Government, Teachers (and I'd be hard pressed not to include teacher in with the entertainers) and Entertainment Unions. And yes Sports are just Entertainment.
It has been awfully easy to get Unions decertified since RWR fired all the PATCO union members. Just how many of the several states are "right to work" states?
The CEOs that are taking huge bonuses for failing to turn a profit, that sit on the Boards of their fellow CEOs' companies. Maybe that is a contributing factor?
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Yeah, its them dang unions. Oh come on now which union are we talking about? The Screen Actors and Writers Guild? NFL Players Union, MBL Players, AFT or NEA, Police and Firefighters Unions, Bus drivers, Conductors and Engineers of the state funded mass transit? Yeah the UAW did provide unsustainable legacy benefits but they had help from the management of the Big Three. And please do not forget the Government Workers both Federal and State also have Collective Bargaining Units. Now that is one Union I'd like to broken Have the Government, Teachers (and I'd be hard pressed not to include teacher in with the entertainers) and Entertainment Unions. And yes Sports are just Entertainment.
It has been awfully easy to get Unions decertified since RWR fired all the PATCO union members. Just how many of the several states are "right to work" states?
The CEOs that are taking huge bonuses for failing to turn a profit, that sit on the Boards of their fellow CEOs' companies. Maybe that is a contributing factor?
Yes, I think that's a pretty comprehensive list of what's wrong with unions in this country. Well done.
Also, as to "BIG BONUSES," compare the price of those bonuses to the price of getting rid of a CEO unwillingly.
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take a look at the salaries and
"other compensation " the union shmucks stash away. its quite impressive they could give lessons to the king of zimbabwe the one who was quoted " steal a lil... wisely..."
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Also, as to "BIG BONUSES," compare the price of those bonuses to the price of getting rid of a CEO unwillingly.
Accidents can happen cheaply.
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Yeah, its them dang unions. Oh come on now which union are we talking about? The Screen Actors and Writers Guild? NFL Players Union, MBL Players, AFT or NEA, Police and Firefighters Unions, Bus drivers, Conductors and Engineers of the state funded mass transit? Yeah the UAW did provide unsustainable legacy benefits but they had help from the management of the Big Three. And please do not forget the Government Workers both Federal and State also have Collective Bargaining Units. Now that is one Union I'd like to broken Have the Government, Teachers (and I'd be hard pressed not to include teacher in with the entertainers) and Entertainment Unions. And yes Sports are just Entertainment.
It has been awfully easy to get Unions decertified since RWR fired all the PATCO union members. Just how many of the several states are "right to work" states?
The CEOs that are taking huge bonuses for failing to turn a profit, that sit on the Boards of their fellow CEOs' companies. Maybe that is a contributing factor?
UFW. Gee, here's a shock, the UFW is BEHIND THE TAKE OUR JOBS.ORG WEBSITE. And then there is the UFCW for all those illegals working in processing plants. Oh, and SEIU will certainly step in and take care of the illegal dishwashers, etc.
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If you don't think that when these illegals become legal they won't be becoming part of the Unions....I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona for you too.
Big Labor drives up the cost of labor, which in turn drives up the cost of everything.
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The biggest problem I have with unions is that many of them don't seem to put much effort into making sure their members (including the senior guys) are well trained and do a competent job in a reasonable time. They don't maintain standards. If they did, I think many people would favor union labor.
Ask the new plant construction managers with our company what they think of union labor and it normally falls down to bad attitude, workmanship, and potential sabotage. Most them have run into that in closed shop states.
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The biggest problem with Unions is they are now just another "Big Business".
The biggest problem with our supposed "Free Market Capitalism" is it is a fiction. Both the Big Unions and the Big Business have too much power over our elected servants. And they have tilted the playing field so far into there favor the "Free Market" is tightly controlled. Corporatist Fascism would be a much better way to describe the economic system "We the (Small) People" deal with day to day.
But this is just My opinion and being one of the little people what do I know.
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The biggest problem with Unions is they are now just another "Big Business".
The biggest problem with our supposed "Free Market Capitalism" is it is a fiction. Both the Big Unions and the Big Business have too much power over our elected servants. And they have tilted the playing field so far into there favor the "Free Market" is tightly controlled. Corporatist Fascism would be a much better way to describe the economic system "We the (Small) People" deal with day to day.
But this is just My opinion and being one of the little people what do I know.
That's great. I won't even argue whether or not that's the case, because it doesn't matter.
Because the problem ISN'T business or labor. The problem is here: our elected servants
If you get government out of business and labor, the problems disappear. The businesses won't seek "power over our elected servants" if the servants didn't have anything to do with business.
You want business and labor out of government? Get the government out of business.
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Made more difficult by the SCOTUS ruling that Corp. has all the rights of a real living person, even super rights as compared to yours. All of the rules and laws cannot be focused on making business super rights. I'm in favor of leaving them alone to make the products and provide the services that We want to purchase. And those of us that work for them the freedom to organize. I'm NOT in favor of the system we have now. There is way too many stumbling blocks for Labor and way too many loopholes for the boss. NAFTA comes to mind first.
Anyway please stop our elected servant from serving only those with almost all the money. Please remember that the Founding Fathers didn't want the Corporate nor central government we are dealing with today.
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Made more difficult by the SCOTUS ruling that Corp. has all the rights of a real living person, even super rights as compared to yours. All of the rules and laws cannot be focused on making business super rights. I'm in favor of leaving them alone to make the products and provide the services that We want to purchase. And those of us that work for them the freedom to organize. I'm NOT in favor of the system we have now. There is way too many stumbling blocks for Labor and way too many loopholes for the boss. NAFTA comes to mind first.
Anyway please stop our elected servant from serving only those with almost all the money. Please remember that the Founding Fathers didn't want the Corporate nor central government we are dealing with today.
It's like you didn't even read the previous post.
The problem is government meddling. So the solution is to have government meddle even more in how they get elected?
:facepalm:
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Well I was agreeing with you, but anyway to get back to the Farm Workers and immigration from the opening post...
Why does Big AgriBusiness have to have guest workers to do all the plowing, planting. and picking? They must be smart businessmen can't they come up with ways to automate there process?
Hire the best at the best wages. One will need well educated workers to solve the problems of automating the process. And operating and maintaining these machines. Apprenticeships and "On The Job Training" have a history of providing the needed skills at the lowest cost to the worker and the boss.
Working together to increase return on investment for all concerned. Stoop laborers should be a stopgap measure not the final solution. Americans want to work in safe and efficient work places for a fair wage.
When the owner/CEOs of all the businesses see that taking all the profit from the business and not reinvesting enough to keep up the working conditions and machinery then we will never have "Corporations too big to fail" which really means the Corp. is contributing too much to the elected public servants.
Immigration into the USA is a privilege we grant to those that will be a asset to the USA, not a burden. If one wants the benefit of the club one need to pay the initiation fee and the dues. Having access to the fruit of our labor is a right for the boss and the worker. It just isn't going to happen with the system we have now. Yes, get business out of government and government out of business.
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P5 guy:
Unions and Progressives have driven the cost of living in America up. Minimum wage laws and taxes make it profitable to use illegal immigrant labor. And in many instances its a way around OSHA and other Regulatory compliance.
Some parts of agriculture have been successfully automated. But that's all pie-in-the-sky-what-ifs, and frankly a bit of a strawman. They have no incentives to automate systems, or find Americans to do the work. Employers get away with hiring illegals because they feed the coffers of the Right, and because the left sees illegals as another future voting block. The political will isn't there, so business has NO incentive to find another avenue. And with so many Americans content to sit on thier fat asses and collect Welfare, live in Government housing, and do nothing, why would they actually go out and work for a living?
You cannot have a successful prosperous nation with open borders AND a welfare state.
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P5 guy:
Unions and Progressives have driven the cost of living in America up. Minimum wage laws and taxes make it profitable to use illegal immigrant labor. And in many instances its a way around OSHA and other Regulatory compliance.
Some parts of agriculture have been successfully automated. But that's all pie-in-the-sky-what-ifs, and frankly a bit of a strawman. They have no incentives to automate systems, or find Americans to do the work. Employers get away with hiring illegals because they feed the coffers of the Right, and because the left sees illegals as another future voting block. The political will isn't there, so business has NO incentive to find another avenue. And with so many Americans content to sit on thier fat asses and collect Welfare, live in Government housing, and do nothing, why would they actually go out and work for a living?
You cannot have a successful prosperous nation with open borders AND a welfare state.
I'd go so far as to suggest you can't have a successful prosperous nation with a welfare state. Adding open borders merely speeds its demise.
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I'd go so far as to suggest you can't have a successful prosperous nation with a welfare state. Adding open borders merely speeds its demise.
Not a point I'd argue against, but I wasn't going to fire up the welfare debate.
A welfare state is certain to die with open borders, as there is nothing stopping the new immigrants from feeding at the public trough.
They already are:
Defacto free health care in public ER's
Anchor babies get CHIP and free education
Etc.
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Welfare makes coming into the USA all too attractive.
The value of money is relative. When our Uncle Sam set a poverty level wage, the minimum wage, they didn't really accomplish a thing. It is all cake and circuses. Unions don't have the power to push wages higher. There is far more pressure, downward, from undocumented labor. The threat of being deported keeps the undocumented very compliant to accept lower wages and dangerous and inferior working conditions.
"Unions & Progressives have driven the cost of living in America up"
I'm not seeing it. More things to buy has driven the standard of living higher, at increased cost. Six generations ago, even four generations ago there was not, I don't know where to start, TV, computers, radio, home theater systems, two cars in every driveway, and on and on. All the, what once were luxury items only the "Robber Barons" could afford are now in the homes of welfare recipients.
I'm 55 years old and work in manufacturing. I'm real happy I do not have to work for Henry Ford on his production line from 1920 even if Ford did pay the highest daily wages. Tenant Farming was barely making a living by anyones standards, Knitting Mills, Coal Mines, and Steel Mills were very dangerous places of employment. No one would want to go back to work in those conditions, for those wages.
The cost of doing business went up with the standard of living and it has a cost, so if the unions and the progressives are to blame. Ask your Great Grandma if she wants to give up her Kirby.
After all Bill Gates wants us all to buy his new and improved version of Windows.
It would be utopia to have the Free Market we read about, just like the Workers Paradise would be a utopian vision for the laborers. It isn't going to be that way and finding a balance between Labor and Management without all those guest workers disrupting the balance is the goal we should be hunting. Of course Uncle Sam wants to have his input depending on who is wearing the Uncle Sam costume.
Where is John Gault?
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Yeah, Lord knows if the mighty unions weren't fighting the good fight we'll see 12 y/o slave labour in the coal mines. ;/
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P5 guy:
Your defense of Unions is a full disconnect from reality.
I've been a Union employee and seen first hand the greed that is part and parcel to the Union way of life.
Riddle me this: Why is the average GM union employee paid $73 an hour in wages and benefits? While one can argue that auto workers are skilled employees, it also isn't rocket science and you can easily train replacements into the industry.
No, year after year Unions have demanded wages be increased above the standard of living, and above what other workers make. Industry is held hostage by thier tactics. In many states, union protectionisim is built into the laws.
Follow that with Progressives who think that being "poor" should come with a minimum standard of living: hence the minimum wage.
Both are forces that push the cost of labor and goods up. But if you're not a Union employee, your wages don't go up to match.
The recent housing bubble has proven that the Standard of living you call "good" is falsely inflated by a combination of Progessive financial policies and Labor Unions.
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Well sir I too worked in a Union shop and the only two Lincoln Continentals in the parking lot were the ones the boss owned and the other was the one the union rep drove courtesy of my dues. No one in that shop was getting rich working for wages. But hey it wasn't the UAW. And every discussion about unions pull them out from all the others.
So the UAW has a benefits and wage package worth $73 per hour. Can you name any others? And please leave out the Entertainers. I'd figure that the Government workers are running neck and neck with the UAW.
And realistically speaking how many others that labor for wages work in a union environment? Blaming this on Union Labor is the disconnect in my opinion.
So now the shop I, basically grew up in had it's union decertified and is now closed. That shop is where I learned my trade and I'm still applying that knowledge, albeit in another shop. The Corporation I work for now has the first third of their Employ Handbook devoted to how bad it would be if some one were to get the Union bug. Our wages are on a par with the other shops in the area, according to the Handbook. The boss doesn't want to get into a bidding war for workers. If my wage goes up $50 a pay I'm sure my co-pay for health insurance will go up at least that much.
Well now to housing. I OWN my house and the land it sits on. Our Uncle Sam is the one I hold responsible for the ridiculous run up in housing. Fannie and Freddie, and the insane idea that the American dream is deserved by all. Do you need that 2500 sq. ft. house? Mines barely 800. The unions, unless you are blaming the government workers at the above mentioned government offices as the problem had nothing to do with that. All the housing I saw being built here was done by guest workers. Yes a couple of Anglos and the rest were of Hispanic decent. I'm sure the carpenters and electrician unions were well represented.
Yeah I like my standard of living and I do not want to live like the guest workers do back in the old county. Obviously neither do they. Just wait 'til they decide to organize. Sounds like that '30s radio preacher complaining about the Commies from Europe doesn't it?
Let us see if we can disconnect the Boss and Uncle Sam. I have no idea how to achieve this at the present time but blaming us, the workers, for the greed of the CEOs is not productive.
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Here's some commentary on JAWD.
Pretty much makes the point I make periodically: in the absence of illegal alien labor, there will be fewer farm jobs at higher pay and greater capital investment.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjJiZDc0ZTYzYTNmNDA3MGYzYmMwMzA0MzYwNjVkMDk=
Take My Job — Please! [Mark Krikorian]
I just flew in from Cleveland, and boy, are my arms tired!
But seriously, folks. The United Farm Workers has launched a tongue-in-cheek lobbying campaign (to be highlighted tomorrow on Colbert's show) called "Take Our Jobs." In the words of the AP story, the effort encourages "the unemployed — and any Washington pundits who want to join them — to apply for [some of the] thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins"; there's an online form under the heading "I want to be a farm worker." The message is that America can't function without an endless supply of peasant labor from abroad, the goal being to make the case for the AgJobs bill, which would amnesty illegal-alien farm workers and set up an open-ended indentured-labor program to import more. (This is one of the two main piecemeal amnesties that are apparently now on the agenda of the Democrats and their fellow-travelers on the right.)
Clever, and props to the marketing firm that came up with it. But since the effort was initiated by a labor union, it is, inevitably, economically illiterate. The fact is that no one wants to be a farm worker, not even farm workers, precisely because we have so many foreign farm workers. In other words, the low pay and appalling working conditions in farm labor are a direct result of excessive illegal immigration and agricultural guest-worker programs, which keep the labor market looser than it would otherwise be and reduce incentives for change. With fewer field hands available, farmers would do two things: First, raise wages and improve working conditions (because given the right circumstances, there are a non-trivial number of Americans and legal immigrants willing to do farm work). Second, they'd accelerate efforts at finding ways of getting by with less labor; i.e., mechanize.
Contrary to the assumption behind this amnesty effort, reducing the amount of foreign farm labor through better enforcement and ending guest-worker programs would not mean all those jobs would have to be filled by Andy Anglo and Wendy Whitebread. Rather, the foreign farm workers would be replaced by the likes of this:
lettuce harvester
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ramsayhighlander.com%2Fproducts%2Fromaine%2Fromaine-waterjet-mechanical-harvester-front.jpg&hash=79e5b26109c1d340712e8462227d6f78900e5436)
and this:
mini-harvester
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ramsayhighlander.com%2Fproducts%2Fbl-mini%2Fleafy-vegetable-harvester.jpg&hash=d6f1c1220f415cac87838b9fb735392e3c20bfa1)
(These are from Ramsey Highlander; there are other manufacturers as well.)
Sure, they still require labor, but the workers would be fewer, and more productive, and thus better paid, turning what is now a primitive, atavistic work environment featuring exploitation and injury into something a little more civilized. No one dreams of a career collecting trash, either, but with high pay and automatic can-dumpers, there are plenty of (native-born) takers.
http://www.cis.org/krikorian/JAWD
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I'd be curious if the quality was the same for the Mexican labor.
What is the break down of industries that hire illegals? Are farm workers and migrant workers the majority or a smaller percentage?
IIRC, in no sector is illegal alien labor the majority. It tops out around 25% in the most obvious sectors (migrant ag labor or some such).
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lettuce harvester
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ramsayhighlander.com%2Fproducts%2Fromaine%2Fromaine-waterjet-mechanical-harvester-front.jpg&hash=79e5b26109c1d340712e8462227d6f78900e5436)
and this:
mini-harvester
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ramsayhighlander.com%2Fproducts%2Fbl-mini%2Fleafy-vegetable-harvester.jpg&hash=d6f1c1220f415cac87838b9fb735392e3c20bfa1)
(These are from Ramsey Highlander; there are other manufacturers as well.)
Sure, they still require labor, but the workers would be fewer, and more productive,
I see lots and lots of delicate parts just waiting to break, which also means nice, productive jobs for lots of skilled technicians like Andy Anglo. Even good freelance opportunities for Wendy Whitebread if the manufacturers aren't overprotective of the repair parts. Just another overall benefit to getting rid of the illegals.
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I see lots and lots of delicate parts just waiting to break
me too plus another 250 k machine to buy farmers are gonna love it and how many weeks a year will it get used?
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I see lots and lots of delicate parts just waiting to break
me too plus another 250 k machine to buy farmers are gonna love it and how many weeks a year will it get used?
If it works well, likely they'll do what they did back in the old days when mechanical tractors were new: pool their money, buy one, and share it. Hell, small farmers are still doing that with the really big combines, which don't get used any more often than these will.
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If it works well, likely they'll do what they did back in the old days when mechanical tractors were new: pool their money, buy one, and share it. Hell, small farmers are still doing that with the really big combines, which don't get used any more often than these will.
Or they'll do what farmers did before mechanical tractors; have big American families with lots of kids who aren't afraid of work.
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me too plus another 250 k machine to buy farmers are gonna love it and how many weeks a year will it get used?
I'll bet a productive, durable(in the economic sense) $250,000 machine, built by a California company - which probably doesn't send 50% of its profits to Mexico - is a more worthwhile investment than a $250,000 fine for hiring illegals.
Plus, the machine doesn't come with jail time or revoke your business license.
I will echo some others in this thread: this is a result of government messing with the market. Make it prohibitively expensive to hire Americans, create obtuse tax and regulation structures which can be gotten around anyway, etc - basically incentivize the hiring of illegals. But then that seems to fit with the whole wink-wink-nod-nod approach our federal government takes toward immigration these days.
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me too plus another 250 k machine to buy farmers are gonna love it and how many weeks a year will it get used?
Hmm.... Lettuce can survive minor freezing, ready for harvesting in 70-80 days after seeding, 'ideal' temperatures are in the 60's.
In California, with a sufficiently sized farm and rotating fields, you should be able to use it like 30 weeks out of the year, easy.