Surprise! Georgia has a farm labor shortage after banning illegals from working

We will start importing more food from other countries.

 

No offense, but what your opinion on what's a 'crap wage' doesn't matter a jot to those people who are willing to take on these wages and are actually trying to make a living for themselves. For such backbreaking work, is it a harsh pay? Yes, but crap and harshness are perspectives, and don't hold true for everybody.

Is C) Making immigration easier so that illegal immigrants don't HAVE to be illegal, not a real solution?

 

They would not accept this wage if they could sell their labor in other places. They have limited ability to sell their labor. Legal workers are unwilling to take the wage.

 

But the fact that there's a shortage (implying they have probably left Georgia) means that they are in fact geographically mobile, and so do not have a limited ability to sell their labour elsewhere. But in the past they have accepted this wage, whereas now they are barred from doing so.

 

I'm not impressed with Big Ag talking points. They pay illegals a low wage to work the fields, but the community has to assume the tax burden of taking care of the them when they decide to stick around and start having large families. This is nothing more than another form of corporate welfare.

 

A guest worker program won't work in a country where every child born is automatically awarded citizenship even if their parents aren't.

 

God forbid some owner should receive a little less profit because he has to pay his workers a fair wage.

 

Why not?

 

Why? I would think it would work better, as it means that those children don't become part of some permanent underclass like what occurs in Europe, unable to really get jobs as they aren't citizens, and thus start to create problems.

 

Manual labor jobs with no skills have always been the lowest wage jobs, throughout history. The only skillset these jobs take is being to physically do the work.

The reason Americans don't take these jobs is that we've removed incentive to do so. Throughout history the choice for an unskilled worke would be: poverty and starvation OR work your butt off and earn a living/food. This is why illegals still take these jobs, those are their two choices. Support their starving families at home with a crummy job, or slowly starve to death.

We have so heavily subsidized poverty in America, you'd almost be stupid to take a job like this. With housing assistance, food stamps, welfare, unemployment, medicaid, etc. you can set yourself up pretty well. While you are still poor, you have a roof and food. Why would you go work outside in grueling conditions for slightly more money than your government assitance gives you when you can sit around all day instead?

 

If you think living on food stamps, govt. housing, and welfare is setting yourself up nicely, you have a different definition of setting yourself up nicely than anyone I've ever known including those living in those conditions.

 

So the answer is a massive federal intervention into the labor marketplace.

 

This is where are immigration laws though work against us. Obviously these people are willing to do the work and do it at that rate. If we bring them out of the shadow economy, legalize them, then their labor can be accounted for and taxed properly.

Also keep in mind that illegal immigrants are not necessarily a net drag as they contribute already in terms of sales taxes, property taxes and in many cases SSI contributions which they can never benefit from.

 

That's the spirit!

 

This isn't true. Clearly you know nothing about history.

 

Germany enactedthis after WWII,led to a lot of Turks and N. Africans in Germany because their children were born citizens.

 

i just have to point out that the article specifically mentions onions. anyway you're right, except for onions of course.

i think you do have to weigh all consequences of not allowing illegals to work on these farms, such as a spike in food prices. however, i don't think in matters much in this case as you have pointed out. corn, rice, and other essentials i guess are harvested by machines.

 

Not that simple when it comes to farming.