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If they paid $100 per hour for field workers, most of the American public wouldn't be able to afford to buy the food.
Very true! It's kinda like how if powering your home with solar costs twice as much as powering it with oil, most people aren't going to go solar. If eating food that comes from California is prohibitively expensive, people will eat something else.
Nonsense. Who do you think did these jobs before the 1980s? The low-skilled laborers that we already had here, that's who.
If there aren't enough "good white folk" as you say to fill these jobs, guess what happens? Wages rise. As long as you have a glut of willing labor, wages are going to always remain stagnant... and as they should.
As for the California pecan farmers... it sounds like if they can't get workers, they need to pay a higher wage. If a builder can't find someone to hang drywall for $10/hr, maybe it is time to start paying $12 or $15. Same goes for laying sod. Or working the drive thru line at Anyburger USA.
Sure, the prices of some things would rise a little bit in order to pay those higher wages. That's how the economy should work.
But people won’t pay higher prices. They will simply buy imports which will be cheaper. This is already been proven with the proliferation of big box stores where people let their small hometown businesses go under to buy cheaper goods at Walmart and Home Depot. And again you’re forgetting that these are temporary, seasonal jobs. There are not that many white Americans were going to be migrant workers. I don’t know any.
In terms of other jobs, such as landscapers. Back in the day before there was so much cheaper labor, landscapers were something only rich people had. I didn’t know a single person in our middle-class neighborhood who used the lawn mowing service. It was the proliferation of cheaper and more effective equipment combined with cheap labor that allowed landscaping to be something that regular middle-class people use. That allowed more many American owned small businesses to grow. Start paying a higher wage, and it’ll just mean that most of the landscaping services go out of business. Really is not as simple as you try to make it out to be.
These jobs are not full-time jobs they do not offer benefits. Most Americans need both.
But people won’t pay higher prices. They will simply buy imports which will be cheaper. This is already been proven with the proliferation of big box stores where people let their small hometown businesses go under to buy cheaper goods at Walmart and Home Depot. And again you’re forgetting that these are temporary, seasonal jobs. There are not that many white Americans were going to be migrant workers. I don’t know any.
In terms of other jobs, such as landscapers. Back in the day before there was so much cheaper labor, landscapers were something only rich people had. I didn’t know a single person in our middle-class neighborhood who used the lawn mowing service. It was the proliferation of cheaper and more effective equipment combined with cheap labor that allowed landscaping to be something that regular middle-class people use. That allowed more many American owned small businesses to grow. Start paying a higher wage, and it’ll just mean that most of the landscaping services go out of business. Really is not as simple as you try to make it out to be.
These jobs are not full-time jobs they do not offer benefits. Most Americans need both.
The fact is that American owned small businesses cannot compete with other businesses that use illegal immigrants and that drives legal businesses out of business. You have to have a level playing field and there is nothing level about illegal immigration. These companies are breaking our laws!
As far as not getting any food on our tables; many of those jobs are going to the robotics. Perhaps you have not seen all the recalls of our vegies lately. These big producers do not want the hassle of immigrants that don't wash their hands or defecate in the fields. The companies lose a lot of money on a recall and that drives even more automation. So where are the illegals going to work when all the standard farm jobs vanish?
That's an important point, I see apartments advertised all the time requiring a credit score of 650, and then there is the insane requirement that you earn 3X the rent, so for a $1500 apartment you need to gross $4500 in provable wages. A fair number of people who are struggling and earning low wages make extra money by doing odd jobs or babysitting, but that money won't count when you are trying to qualify for an apartment.
When I relocated to Tucson last June, I wanted to rent an apartment for 6 months, first time renting in 35 years of home ownership. My only income was social security of 1217, minus $121 for Medicare, leaving me 1077. I couldn't find any place to rent as they wanted 2-3 times income of the rent. I had $25k in the bank, and I faxed them my bank account, but they still wouldn't rent to me. As to the $25k in the bank: How do we know you're not going to go out and buy a car tomorrow!
I was in the midst of selling my house @$125k, so, in a panic, I just bought a low end mobile home for temporary living, and put it up for sale a week later after I moved there.
Homelessness is expensive for taxpayers, it's estimated that it costs taxpayers $42.5k a year to have one homeless person on our streets.
In some cities, like San Francisco and L.A., they have an addition problem of Nimbyism. In San Francisco the "Kings" and "Queens" of the Hills don't want anything built which will mar their precious views of the Bay, so no building higher than 3 stories. L.A. isn't much better, particularly the western part. Santa Monica hasn't seen a new high rise since 1970.
The fact is that American owned small businesses cannot compete with other businesses that use illegal immigrants and that drives legal businesses out of business. You have to have a level playing field and there is nothing level about illegal immigration. These companies are breaking our laws!
As far as not getting any food on our tables; many of those jobs are going to the robotics. Perhaps you have not seen all the recalls of our vegies lately. These big producers do not want the hassle of immigrants that don't wash their hands or defecate in the fields. The companies lose a lot of money on a recall and that drives even more automation. So where are the illegals going to work when all the standard farm jobs vanish?
Please post some evidence that illegals not washing their hands and defecating in fields is the cause of the problems in our food supply and is a reason farms are becoming automated. For that matter, show me evidence that they all defecate in the field and don’t wash their hands. Is this simply an assumption?
Again, illegal immigration is at historic lows and has been declining every year for about 10 years. It has not resulted in higher wages, it has resulted in fruit rotting in the fields in California, and there are several small cuties in the Midwest hurting. The overall effect on the economy is negative. Seasonal farm jobs are never going to provide anything but seasonal work, it is never going to be a job Americans want to do. Americans are simply not going to work two or three months in one place and then move to another for another two or three months. It’s just not going to happen.
Automation is going to hurt everyone, Americans included. I wouldn’t be rooting it on. And again, there can’t be that level playing field you want so much without Americans being willing to spend more for what they buy. All evidence points to the opposite.
Cheap imports and big box stores have hurt small businesses and wages much much much more than illegal immigration ever could, but people did not care. I find it quite hypocritical that the same people who go to Walmart, Home Depot and Auto Zone rather than local more expensive stores pretend to care about level playing fields when it comes to immigrants.
Please post some evidence that illegals not washing their hands and defecating in fields is the cause of the problems in our food supply and is a reason farms are becoming automated. For that matter, show me evidence that they all defecate in the field and don’t wash their hands. Is this simply an assumption?
Again, illegal immigration is at historic lows and has been declining every year for about 10 years. It has not resulted in higher wages, it has resulted in fruit rotting in the fields in California, and there are several small cuties in the Midwest hurting. The overall effect on the economy is negative. Seasonal farm jobs are never going to provide anything but seasonal work, it is never going to be a job Americans want to do. Americans are simply not going to work two or three months in one place and then move to another for another two or three months. It’s just not going to happen.
Automation is going to hurt everyone, Americans included. I wouldn’t be rooting it on. And again, there can’t be that level playing field you want so much without Americans being willing to spend more for what they buy. All evidence points to the opposite.
Cheap imports and big box stores have hurt small businesses and wages much much much more than illegal immigration ever could, but people did not care. I find it quite hypocritical that the same people who go to Walmart, Home Depot and Auto Zone rather than local more expensive stores pretend to care about level playing fields when it comes to immigrants.
Every time we have a recall it launces and investigation. I wish that they would tell us all the findings of those investigations; they don't. We hear that they still have not found the cause and they are still looking; or we simply never hear the whole story.
As far as automation hurting everybody: why do we need to be further hurt by illegal immigration? How poor do you want our Nation? Legal immigration is the only way to go. We know the people we need and, after checking their backgrounds, we assist them into our Country. Our President did not make our current immigration laws; our legislation did. Why go to all the trouble of making laws and turn our backs on enforcement? It takes away from the whole system.
They had that special on our border and many of the people coming in are simply criminals. Drug traffickers, human traffickers, anything and everything to make a dollar or to have us pay. You have to have rules and laws and you have to enforce them.
I doubt any such tenants are trying to rent $500-600k home properties. A one-room apartment would be plenty as long as it's clean and safe. But in most urban areas, even those have blown through the roof in cost.
I also own a $600,000 multi-tenant unit. One bad tenant can easily cause me multiple tens of thousands of dollars in damage, none of which is collectable.
So to those who decry background checks, tell me again why I should take the risk of renting to someone who lists their last address as "on the sidewalk by the corner of Crack & BJs?"
Every time we have a recall it launces and investigation. I wish that they would tell us all the findings of those investigations; they don't. We hear that they still have not found the cause and they are still looking; or we simply never hear the whole story.
As far as automation hurting everybody: why do we need to be further hurt by illegal immigration? How poor do you want our Nation? Legal immigration is the only way to go. We know the people we need and, after checking their backgrounds, we assist them into our Country. Our President did not make our current immigration laws; our legislation did. Why go to all the trouble of making laws and turn our backs on enforcement? It takes away from the whole system.
They had that special on our border and many of the people coming in are simply criminals. Drug traffickers, human traffickers, anything and everything to make a dollar or to have us pay. You have to have rules and laws and you have to enforce them.
You sound like you’re just parroting incorrect propaganda. Drugs do not come from single people sneaking in, they come through legit border crossings in cars and trucks, and shipping ports. It is also well documented that illegal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than others because they know theyll be deported.
Again I think illegal cheap labor did far more damage to wages and small businesses than illegal immigration could ever do. I think it helps the economy. Ask farmers and meat processing plant owners. And as I said, it is hardly the threat to wages and small business than cheap imports and big box stores.
I also own a $600,000 multi-tenant unit. One bad tenant can easily cause me multiple tens of thousands of dollars in damage, none of which is collectable.
So to those who decry background checks, tell me again why I should take the risk of renting to someone who lists their last address as "on the sidewalk by the corner of Crack & BJs?"
Years ago I threw a commercial tenant out for not paying. They ran up to another location and gave my name as a reference. The man never called me to check; he took his new tenant's word. About a month after they moved in; their 'candle shop' caught on fire and burned down the other landlord's building. Distraught the landlord called me up to complain why I would ever recommend those tenants. I had to inform him that I would not recommend them to my worst enemy! About one month after that the new landlord dropped over dead from a heart attack; he did not have insurance at the time of the fire. True story.
I am glad that I am no longer a landlord. I could not picture taking in tenants without a thorough background check. I had a neighbor that rented his house out and the tenants totally destroyed the place. They had to take the building down to just the framing to remediate the damage. One man at work rented out his building and has been working for the last ten years to restore it to where it was before he rented it! Thorough back ground are necessary and following up on any recommendations is a must.
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