As I recall, you are zealous about deporting the Salvadorans who are here legally, but you think they have been here to long. In fact, many here say that they are opposed only to illegals, but in reality, they are not. I challenge you to start a thread on the H2B visa quota increase that is coming up for renewal and being currently discussed in Congress. I can predict that the replies will be overwhelmingly opposed.
Like most, you trot out the mantra of automation/mechinization. The reality is that the US is not backward in farming techniques. The reality is that you know nothing about automation, farming, or capital investments.
As I recall, you are zealous about deporting the Salvadorans who are here legally, but you think they have been here to long. Wrong again. I'm against the TPS program. It's BS.
In fact, many here say that they are opposed only to illegals, but in reality, they are not.
Now your a mind reading.
I challenge you to start a thread on the H2B visa quota increase that is coming up for renewal and being currently discussed in Congress. I can predict that the replies will be overwhelmingly opposed.
Just because a poster does not want an increase in guest worker visas does not mean the poster wants all non-immigrants deported. I don't want the numbers increased either, but I don't want those that are already legally here to be thrown out. IMO, we don't need any more guest worker and no one has proved we do.
Like most, you trot out the mantra of automation/mechinization. The reality is that the US is not backward in farming techniques. The reality is that you know nothing about automation, farming, or capital investments.
No, the fact is, your speaking out the side of your mouth.
According to University of California, Davis, agricultural economist Philip Martin, farmers and hired workers who are American citizens do almost 80 percent of the nation's farm work. And even in those perishable crops where immigrant farm workers dominate, labor costs account for less than 10 percent of the retail price of produce. So a doubling of wages in those sectors would translate to less than a 10 percent increase in certain supermarket produce prices.
What's more, ending the growers' nearly endless supply of cheap, docile labor will spur automation and innovation. The result may actually be a decrease in the prices of certain products. For instance, growers in California testified in the early 1960s that ''the use of braceros is absolutely essential to the survival of the tomato industry.'' When the Bracero Program was eliminated anyway, the rate of mechanization increased, helping tomato production quadruple between 1960 and 1990 and leading to a drop in the price of ketchup and similar products.
There are alternatives to guest workers. Take the case of harvesting raisins, the single most labor-intensive activity in North America. Some 40,000 to 50,000 workers are hired each August-September to cut bunches of green grapes and lay them on paper trays to dry in the sun, producing sun-dried raisins. There is a labor shortage every year, as farmers wait as long as possible to raise the sugar content of their grapes, and then worry that the grapes will be rained on while they lie in the sun to dry. What is the alternative to paying workers, most of whom are unauthorized, 20 to 22 cents for each 25 pounds of grapes that are cut and laid on trays to dry? The cooperative that handles about one-third of the U.S. raisin crop, Sun Maid, has developed a dried-on-the-vine harvesting system that eliminates the need for an army of harvest workers. The grapes are trained to grow on the south or sunny side of vineyards that are planed in an east-west direction, the canes on which bunches of grapes are grown are cut by machine, the grapes dry into raisins while attached to the vine, and then the raisins are harvested by machine. New raisin-grape plantings are designed for machine harvesting. But there are few new raisin plantings, largely because Turkey and other countries have greatly increased raisin production and because they can produce raisins more cheaply than California growers. Thus, one way to think about importing guest workers for the raisin industry is that, faced with low prices brought about by increased world competition, guest workers allow employers to maximize their variable costs — if prices drop too low, raisins are simply not harvested. Many raisin grapes were not harvested in 2000 and growers will be paid to bulldoze or prune to eliminate about one-fourth of the 2001 crop because of low prices. Importing guest workers — some of whom will settle — in such a situation is analogous to importing mine workers just before the ore runs out.
Sorry Ben, it's you that knows nothing about automation, farming, or capital investments.