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Why is 120k the right number? Have you taken some implicit biases of your own, and decided that's the worth of farm work? The correct price of farm labor is wh

Why is 120k the right number? Have you taken some implicit biases of your own, and decided that's the worth of farm work? The correct price of farm labor is whatever it costs to obtain it. There is no cap. It's whatever it costs to persuade people to move from their comfy office to the farm.

scarface74 8y ago
At a certain point, the marginal value of a dollar to anyone isn't worth the work it would take to make that dollar. That value is different for different people based on the opportunity but it does add up in aggregate. If someone can choose to make $30K a year and adjust thier lifestyle accordingly instead of making $90K a year doing a job that they don't want to do, many people will choose the former. I would go so far as to say the vast majority of public school teachers make the choice between less pay and being able to do a job that they enjoy as opposed to doing a job that they don't enjoy. Anecdotally, every person I know that decided to work in the school system (including my mom and my wife) chose to do it because of stability, being off for the summer, and being able to work with kids when they both could have made more money doing something else. I doubt you could offer them 10x the amount of money to be willing to work in the fields. But more to the point of the article, many people would not take the trade off of the dangers and long hours away from thier families, for any amount of money.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- fjsolwmv 8y ago
  Are you sure teachers wouldn't take 10x? That means 1 year of sacrifice in exchange for moving retirement up 10 years -- that's much better stability and time to spend with family and kids.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    I seriously doubt that my mom would have been willing to work in the fields for any amount of money. Heck, I wouldn't. Once you have a comfortable lifestyle, the marginal value of a dollar goes down. After the kids get 4-5 they are in school during the day and you have the same schedule for the holidays and the summer. My mom not only went back to work part time for the school board, she voluntarily took a pay cut from what they were willing to offer her so she could work more hours helping at risk kids without interfering with her pension. She could have easily worked at a college, made more money and received her full pension

scarface74 8y ago

At a certain point, the marginal value of a dollar to anyone isn't worth the work it would take to make that dollar. That value is different for different people based on the opportunity but it does add up in aggregate. If someone can choose to make $30K a year and adjust thier lifestyle accordingly instead of making $90K a year doing a job that they don't want to do, many people will choose the former. I would go so far as to say the vast majority of public school teachers make the choice between less pay and being able to do a job that they enjoy as opposed to doing a job that they don't enjoy. Anecdotally, every person I know that decided to work in the school system (including my mom and my wife) chose to do it because of stability, being off for the summer, and being able to work with kids when they both could have made more money doing something else. I doubt you could offer them 10x the amount of money to be willing to work in the fields. But more to the point of the article, many people would not take the trade off of the dangers and long hours away from thier families, for any amount of money.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
fjsolwmv 8y ago
Are you sure teachers wouldn't take 10x? That means 1 year of sacrifice in exchange for moving retirement up 10 years -- that's much better stability and time to spend with family and kids.
- scarface74 8y ago
  I seriously doubt that my mom would have been willing to work in the fields for any amount of money. Heck, I wouldn't. Once you have a comfortable lifestyle, the marginal value of a dollar goes down. After the kids get 4-5 they are in school during the day and you have the same schedule for the holidays and the summer. My mom not only went back to work part time for the school board, she voluntarily took a pay cut from what they were willing to offer her so she could work more hours helping at risk kids without interfering with her pension. She could have easily worked at a college, made more money and received her full pension