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> Institute a minimum wage for farm work. Make it attractive to those who would ordinarily choose to work in a factory to work at a farm. If you have ever done
by Mediterraneo10 7y ago
> Institute a minimum wage for farm work. Make it attractive to those who would ordinarily choose to work in a factory to work at a farm.
If you have ever done fruit-picking yourself, you would find that it is back-breaking work, and anyone who has been in it for more than a few years develops health problems. A higher minimum wage might attract a few more young people to do it for a season or two to make some quick money, but it won’t make fruit picking an appealing career choice by which a whole industry can be sustained long-term. Any Western European with any sense would prefer to do anything else even if it means less money (or simply live on the dole), and rely on desperate migrants from developing countries to do the hard work.
- mikekchar 7y agoThat is a great point. I actually had in my head more like a union job like in the factories (which can also be back breaking and result in health problems). Of course such a union would almost certainly have to be enforced by law :-) And before people say that I've truly gone socialist, I don't really know if I'm actually in favour of my idea. I'm kind of thinking out loud. I really do think that something is fundamentally broken here and it needs some pretty serious surgury to fix it, though. Edit: I should note that while I haven't picked fruit, I have cut rice by hand. Would not want to do it for a full time job, but it was considerably easier than I expected.