Do we really need illegal aliens or low waged workers to pick crops?

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I hear that issue a lot, we need low wage/low skilled workers willing to do manual labor. Maybe we don't.
Maybe we do need more robots and automation.

If these machines are precise enough to pick weeds and run off of solar energy, what the heck are we waiting for?
Give Americans jobs making these machines and fixing/them.

I am personally all for automation. I want to be living like a Jetson, it is taking too long.

a reply to: JAGStorm

No we dont.
I for one welcome our robot overlords.

But here in Indiana the illegals work in mobile home and RV factories.

Can robots clean hotel rooms?

a reply to: JAGStorm

What you really mean is do we need poor uneducated people.

The answer is no if we get rid of the 1%ers everyone could have a fair share.

If memory serves antigravity tech and free energy were prevalent in the Jetsons.

So until be break out those tools we really don't have a chance.

a reply to: andy06shake

The jetsons lived in houses on legs above the smog too so maybe we shouldn't use that particular model as our future.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Some think that Americans will NOT make those machines. Some say that machines will make those machines. That is the speculation what with nano and stuff. One guy will program the first machine and then the rest is ,,,, the machine.

Likewise who is even to say that Americans will do the programming. Corporations will seek the lowest possible wage outlay for every ground level job. Have we not learned that yet?

And as for how we got to that meme that the US needs immigrants to pick the crops, this was not a decision of our government but rather the agriculture industry who wanted, guess what, low wage workers. So they have been allowed to come in now for ages. Don't blame government for immigrants looking for a better life here, blame businesses that hire them under the radar.

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: JAGStorm

What you really mean is do we need poor uneducated people.

The answer is no if we get rid of the 1%ers everyone could have a fair share.

If memory serves antigravity tech and free energy were prevalent in the Jetsons.

So until be break out those tools we really don't have a chance.

We don't need poor or uneducated people, and if you think crop picking helps either of those things....

a reply to: TerryMcGuire

Don't blame government for immigrants looking for a better life here, blame businesses that hire them under the radar.

I blame both. The businesses that hire them, the government that is very lax on punishing the businesses.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Well, let's just say its probably a skill that should not be lost.

But i dont see it furthering nor adding to any University degree unless it's in agriculture.

Why would i think crop picking helps either of those things? LoL

a reply to: JAGStorm

Absolutely right Jag. But why is government so lax on punishing those businesses? Because those businesses OWN the government. Easy Peasy.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Well, Humans have been living in houses on stilts since before recorded history.

And the way we are headed, houses in the smog seems like a perfect analogy for our future.

More like caves a couple of Klicks below ground all the same.

a reply to: JAGStorm

And oh, one more thought. Remember the 40 acres and a mule promise? Well back last century the cotton industry was chugging right along employing who knows how many cotton pickers. Country living cotton pickers. Then along comes the big machine cotton picker and out of each 50 cotton pickers one was retained to run the cotton picker while the other 49 were left with no form of income. So what did they do? They moved to the urban areas that promised large amounts of work in the factories and manufacturing plants. And where did they live? In older neighborhoods that were already run down while the previous owners all moved out to the suburbs.

The liberals seem to want the uneducated immigrants, to take advantage of and to tell how to vote. The rest of America wants robots to do all of the labor intensive jobs so that they can relax in there floaty chairs while on there iPads.
I don’t care if it’s digging post holes, riding fence, splitting wood, or building something. Doesn’t anyone get a sense of satisfaction from a job well done anymore?

a reply to: andy06shake

Fair enough..

I live in rural Ag country in California and without tens of thousands of migrant workers, produce would rot in place. With tree crops in particular, all the same crops in a general area are ready for harvest at the same time, with some ripening state wide within a few weeks.
I believe the agricultural industry would fail without the low wage migrant worker?
A failure which would result in astronomic food prices .
So I think Ag may be the exception?

a reply to: Knapperdude

The U.K is the same, without immigrants and migrant workers, not much would get harvested or built, and our hotels and entertainments industries would be rather short staffed, nevermind the fact that our NHS would be missing more than half the doctors and nurses required.

Immigrants and migrant workers are quite simply a necessity in any first-world nation, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: JAGStorm

Absolutely right Jag. But why is government so lax on punishing those businesses? Because those businesses OWN the government. Easy Peasy.

Don't leave out consumers who want the lowest possible prices...

Businesses respond to consumer input. There is a lot of competition in most industries and labor is usually the biggest expense of any business. Consumers are constantly looking for the lowest price. There has been a huge commodification of almost everything to where price is all that matters.

As a result, business seek the cheapest labor cost as that is the only way they can compete.

originally posted by: Knapperdude
I live in rural Ag country in California and without tens of thousands of migrant workers, produce would rot in place. With tree crops in particular, all the same crops in a general area are ready for harvest at the same time, with some ripening state wide within a few weeks.
I believe the agricultural industry would fail without the low wage migrant worker?
A failure which would result in astronomic food prices .
So I think Ag may be the exception?

Same - - except I'm in AZ.

There used to be a migrant work program - - but, politicians appeasing their base - - screwed that up.

There will ALWAYS be an underclass. It is a fantasy to think otherwise. Historically, the underclass has been immigrants. Chinese. Italians. Irish. Blacks. etc.

People come for a better life and the move up the ladder through hard work or provide an opportunity for their children to have a better life. Usually through education.

The difference though is that the US forced assimilation. People had to learn the language. Secondly, immigrants knew the rules. You are on your own.

Some groups still do it this way. Asians in particular. West Africans. Carribean immigrants.

The problem we have now is that we aren't forcing assimilation and we are subsidizing people to the point that they don't actually improve their position.

No and we don't need them driving down construction wages and quality too.

originally posted by: JAGStorm
I hear that issue a lot, we need low wage/low skilled workers willing to do manual labor. Maybe we don't.
Maybe we do need more robots and automation.

In agriculture and some other industries, the availability of low cost labour is a disincentive to invest in new technologies and innovation. Similarly, new technologies can reduce the use of pesticides and herbicides which are so environmentally damaging, but it’s cheaper to sterilise fields than bother. There are already small robots than can pick weeds, or machines to chos and pick strawberries.

I speak as someone who is close to farming.