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Posted on 09/15/2006 8:32:02 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Fixed it for you.
Why do you have such a hard time believing that there are not americans willing to do that job for the price we can pay and still make money selling milk?
There are a lot of jobs in America that have more value to the economy than running a milk machine, and most people in america are way more qualified to do those jobs than the average mexican.
Using ignorant temporary foreign laborers to do jobs like this frees up our workers to be more productive and therefore contribute more to our economy.
We don't really have a glut of cheap physical labor in this country. I certainly agree that when required to pay a "legal" wage, you will find some americans to take some of those jobs, but the evidence is clear that there aren't enough americans willing to do these jobs today to throw out all the foreign workers, even if you DO pay a rational wage.
A guest worker program will require a rational wage, rather than an "illegal worker wage". That will bring some americans into the work force. The program should require jobs be advertised, to ensure that americans get a shot, and should only allow foreign workers for jobs americans don't ask for. Over time, we may be able to attract enough americans to obviate the need for the program.
BTW, a rational guest worker program would allow you to have your point proven, by ensuring that americans get first crack at the jobs. Isn't that sufficient to cover the concerns of the "americans are available to do the jobs" crowd?
"Why yes only in America could milking cows become a crime."
Kind of like they way you milk these threads? :)
At least let us be intellectually honest. Nobody put a gun to anyones head and made them cut sugarcane, or pick cotton either.
An organization that does not care who the politicians are - just show them the money. I've seen very conservative values farm folks fawn over Senators Clinton and Schumer like they were rock stars, begging/pleasing/demanding more money for agriculture.
How about their lack of proficient ENGLISH? Might that be a tip off? Duh
Dairy farmer Rodney Brown of Clifton Springs New York is breaking our laws, and he knows he's breaking them.
If ICE would arrest American lawbreakers like Brown we would see the beginning of the end of this problem.
But don't hold your breath until they do........
Why do you have such a hard time believing that there are not americans willing to do that job for the price we can pay and still make money selling milk?
milking the cows is of course, not a crime. Paying illegals is.
The "I didn't know better" defense has to be removed. Biometrics (Fingerprints,), and SSNs have to be checked and must match.
That will make it harder to work underground for people who have something to hide. I think I can live with that.
One of the problems with Dane's argument (other than his sarcasm) is that the area of upstate New York where Brown operates is full of farming operations, including dairy farms, that don't use illegals and, yet, still survive. Therefore, contrary to his implication, it is very possible to do the work without breaking the law.
For example, strawberry farmer Jim Coulter, 78, of Lockport, found himself 10 people short with 20,000-plus quarts to pick following an immigration raid this summer. Coulter said he was down at least $20,000.
Hmmm, interesting?
So old 'Farmer Jim' was "down" $20,000 because 20,000 quarts went unpicked (Let's drop the 'plus') when his pickers said adios.
There's also what Farmer Jim makes "his" illegals do for their pay.
160,000 berries / 10 workers = 16,000 each / 10 days = 1600 a day / 8 hours (ha) = 200 an hour and 3.33 berries a minute. This is without any break or stoppage - just constant picking.
He doesn't want workers he want slaves.
I live on the outskirts of the ghetto otherwise known as Rochester. These rural areas are not that far from here. When I drive past all the diverse teenagers loitering at nearly every block, I have often wondered what productive activity they could be doing at that moment. A perfect match if I ever saw one.
picking 3.3 berrys a minute isn't a hardship for someone. Being in the hot sun all day doing it might be, but that's a low number per minute.
The farmer MAKES a dollar a bushel according to the article, he doesn't PAY 1 dollar a bushel and sell for 4.
What you are saying is that, without any evidence, you are certain the 3 dollars in additional costs incurred between the time the farmer sells the berries, and the time you buy them at the store, is excessive. But I have no problem believing that a majority of the costs of providing me fresh berries a mile from my house is in the delivery and sale, NOT in the growing and harvesting. I have no evidence either.
Then you further suggest that if the farmer, say, doubled the price of his berries, the people in the middle would absorb the extra cost.
I still believe that you wouldn't get enough americans to harvest all of our food no matter what reasonable price you paid. Americans who live here full time aren't going to want to leave their homes for six months at a time and trapse around the country living in small communal shelters picking food 10-12 hours a day. It's not a lifestyle that we find appealing.
Sure, a welfare mom might be able to pick berries at the local berry farm -- IF there was a local berry farm, and transportation, and she didn't have to take care of children coming home from school, and she didn't need a job the other 6 months of the year.
Migrant workers from mexico fulfill the need for temporary (part-year) workers in Canada, and can do so here, without impacting our immigration problem. They are separate issues if the guest worker bill is written correctly.
And what's even better, if it turns out after a couple of years that, behold, the anti-guest-worker people were right, that americans ARE ready to do the jobs now they they are regulated and pay well, we simply stop hiring the mexicans through the worker program. Since the program didn't allow them to be living here, we don't have that problem anymore.
I find it a lot easier to believe the voices of thousands of farmers than some people do, I guess.
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The illegals LOVE all the frebees they get here.
You can't but like a good liberal you try to revise history.
So do native born Americans, but I hardly hear a peep from you, about them and or you saying we should get rid of the corrupt welfare system.
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