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When farm workers make a wage that can support a family of five without any government benefits, including paying health care premiums without subsidies, then w

When farm workers make a wage that can support a family of five without any government benefits, including paying health care premiums without subsidies, then we can start talking about a labor shortage.

damagednoob 9y ago
When I see comments like this I wonder if people realise where these higher wages will come from? Higher prices, perhaps?
- tchaffee 9y ago
  I can speak for myself and some close friends. Yes we do. If the primary factor of a lower price is "our employees can barely survive" I'll try pretty hard to find a substitute.
- cylinder 9y ago
  Less profit and less compensation at the top, yes this means the professional classes with the high salaries they enjoy in the US.
- RugnirViking 9y ago
  I expect they look at a graph like this and wonder how that productivity gain could not possibly be passed on to workers at least a little bit http://investeddevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Employment-vs-GDP.png http://investeddevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Em...
hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
Arguments like yours seem divorced from the reality of what a farmer can sell his produce for in the US. What your argument is really saying is that the price of produce should greatly, greatly increase in the US. That may be a fine argument, but if so you should explain how that is possible (i.e. it would require very high import tariffs), instead of arguing basically that farmers should pay much higher wages from their orchards of money trees.
- pkaye 9y ago
  Has anyone calculated how much the price needs to go up in order to achieve that?
- soniman 9y ago
  Employee wages are a tiny fraction of the cost of produce. To get a head of lettuce to your supermarket, the main cost factors are land, irrigation, fertilizer, farm equipment, seeds, pesticides, transportation, spoilage, marketing, storage, compliance, retail markup, etc etc. Why is it that market prices are fine for all of those factors but not for labor?
  - hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
    > Why is it that market prices are fine for all of those factors but not for labor? Huh, I don't understand that? It's clear that the problem is that the market price for farm labor is extremely low.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - soniman 9y ago
      And what's even more curious is that the farmers are complaining that there's a shortage of workers. How can there be a shortage when the market price is extremely low, as you put it? There is no shortage. The farmers will always complain about "crops rotting in the fields," I made a Twitter account a while ago to gently mock their endless whining. twitter.com/bigagmoneybucks
- smm2000 9y ago
  A
klipt 9y ago
A single software engineering wage can barely support a family of five in the Bay Area. Maybe the problem is the high cost of living?

damagednoob 9y ago

When I see comments like this I wonder if people realise where these higher wages will come from? Higher prices, perhaps?

tchaffee 9y ago
I can speak for myself and some close friends. Yes we do. If the primary factor of a lower price is "our employees can barely survive" I'll try pretty hard to find a substitute.
cylinder 9y ago
Less profit and less compensation at the top, yes this means the professional classes with the high salaries they enjoy in the US.
RugnirViking 9y ago
I expect they look at a graph like this and wonder how that productivity gain could not possibly be passed on to workers at least a little bit http://investeddevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Employment-vs-GDP.png http://investeddevelopment.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Em...

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago

Arguments like yours seem divorced from the reality of what a farmer can sell his produce for in the US. What your argument is really saying is that the price of produce should greatly, greatly increase in the US. That may be a fine argument, but if so you should explain how that is possible (i.e. it would require very high import tariffs), instead of arguing basically that farmers should pay much higher wages from their orchards of money trees.

pkaye 9y ago
Has anyone calculated how much the price needs to go up in order to achieve that?
soniman 9y ago
Employee wages are a tiny fraction of the cost of produce. To get a head of lettuce to your supermarket, the main cost factors are land, irrigation, fertilizer, farm equipment, seeds, pesticides, transportation, spoilage, marketing, storage, compliance, retail markup, etc etc. Why is it that market prices are fine for all of those factors but not for labor?
- hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
  > Why is it that market prices are fine for all of those factors but not for labor? Huh, I don't understand that? It's clear that the problem is that the market price for farm labor is extremely low.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - soniman 9y ago
    And what's even more curious is that the farmers are complaining that there's a shortage of workers. How can there be a shortage when the market price is extremely low, as you put it? There is no shortage. The farmers will always complain about "crops rotting in the fields," I made a Twitter account a while ago to gently mock their endless whining. twitter.com/bigagmoneybucks
smm2000 9y ago
A

klipt 9y ago

A single software engineering wage can barely support a family of five in the Bay Area. Maybe the problem is the high cost of living?