Thread: Take My Job — Please! (AgJobs)

National Review Online
the corner
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
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:



and this:



(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.

07/07 05:44 PM

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/? ... YwNjVkMDk=

The sad fact is that, because of the trend established by President Carter to gut federal research for modernization and, also, the legal pressure brought by farmworker advocates, the long term trend looks very bad for US farms. And perhaps that is why subsidies have also been increasing. In an era of globalized agribusiness why stay in the US and pay $75 to $150 a day when you can locate in places like Brazil and Mexico and pay $5 to $10?

I'm sure you could get plenty of young guys to drive a machine (perhaps even air conditioned) for 15-20 dollars an hour ---and 24 hours a day if needed. I ask people to look closely at what they are buying in the grocery store---and see how much of it is imported. And just to officially validate that truth here is a 2007 USDA report:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ft ... s32801.pdf

One other thing you might note on the high tech farming equipment. Many times the harvesting implement is merely an attachment to a tractor, so it frequently is not necessary to invest in an expensive machine. YouTube has score of videos just enter the crop picker you are looking for.

Interesting points Captainron, and I'll check out YouTube as you suggest.

And I bet we'll be hearing more of the AgJobs amnesty talking points in the weeks and months ahead.

Great observations CaptainRon. Conjecture on my part, but will add a little to the mix.

As inflation, tax pressures, and further regulations, (veiled taxes) continue to apply more and more pressure to the AG districts in the higher labor end of the spectrum, ie fruits and veggies, the industry will move bit by bit to the southern climes as you have suggested. (Well underway and established)

All the more reason the border issue will play a large role, and the transportation across the border linked with the NAFTA Super Hwy and the various other threads of interstate that have already started being constructed.

These AG Corps will take with them much of the support companies that manufacture, repair, consult, process, warehouse, and transport the products.

How far can an inflationary dollar chase it's tail?