| MartinSE |
06-08-2022 01:26 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimjamuser
(Post 2104002)
Legal US citizens would do hard work IF (and only if) they are adequately paid. Also, safe working conditions are necessary. Many farm employers get greedy and take advantage of their illegal workers by paying them lower than US citizens will work for and exposing them to unnecessarily dangerous and unhealthy conditions.
..........The employers are the problem, not the potential workers!
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Well, partially. The issue is "adequately paid". Try working in the sun in southern CA or southern FL bent over for 8 hours, carrying heavy loads. It is hard physical work. Farmers would have to pay a lot more to get Americans to give up their unemployment and work the fields. The price of food would skyrocket.
On the other hand, being a liberal and being in favor of fair liberal wages, I agree with you, that the farm workers (actually everyone) should be paid better, even potentially a "living wage" for the area. Of course, there are consequences for paying higher wages, that being shoppers have to pay higher prices to cover it. BUT, for farm goods, I think I read the other day that $0.15 of every dollar of the retail price of food goes to the farmer. So, assuming farm workers make up half of the farmer's burdened cost ( and it is NOT that high ), that only comes to $0.08 per dollar retail price, doubling what the workers are paid would only increase retail food prices - or an 8% increase in food prices at the retail store. 8% is a serious increase in food costs, but it is one time and not "sky rocketing".
Sadly, most companies when faced with increased production costs pass on more than the increase to the consumer - you know might as well make a little extra - just look a the fossil fuel industry for an example. |
