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>Then there's of course the fact that almost nobody (with citizenship) actually wants to pick crops... This is complete bullshit and needs to quit being touted
by dikdik 10y ago
>Then there's of course the fact that almost nobody (with citizenship) actually wants to pick crops...
This is complete bullshit and needs to quit being touted. Americans are not afraid of hard, back-breaking labor. I grew up in the Midwest surrounded by corn and soy beans (and not too many illegal or legal immigrants). Tons of my white, middle class friends went out into the field to pollinate corn in the summers or went down to strawberry fields to pick when they came in season.
What a sheltered life you must lead if you've never met an American that does manual labor or works in a field...
- aanm1988 10y agoFor the wages and working conditions of illegal immigrants?
- monodeldiablo 10y agoIt's not "complete bullshit". Even at the height of the Great Recession, with unemployment through the roof, American citizens were turning down field work in droves.[1] I've seen it myself. Some of it's cultural -- manual farm work is seen as "beneath" people -- but most of it's economics. Nice that you grew up in a time and place where a citizen could afford to work in the fields, but those days are long gone. If you're not single and sharing the rent for your three bedroom house with 10 amigos, you're not going to make ends meet on farm labor wages and hours. [1]: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/despite-economy-americans-dont-want-farm-work/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/despite-economy-americans-dont-w...
- flukus 10y agoMissing from that article is how much it costs people to take those jobs. Travel expenses, lost benefits, etc.
- keyanp 10y agoDo you mean children/teenagers? Sure, you can get kids to do farm work. I picked crops when I was much younger and it was indeed back-breaking labor. Now if you can find ~1 million adults to do that work then that is another story.