-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
A little over a month ago, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal (left) signed HB 87, an Arizona-like immigration law. The law was designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, and now state officials are shocked feigning shock that it worked.
The resulting labor shortage has meant that millions of dollars of unharvested blueberries, onions, and other crops will be left rotting in the fields. Since many farmers live harvest-to-harvest, the loss of one crop could mean the loss of their farm.
Agriculture is Georgia’s number one economic activity, so Deal called for an investigation. The results of a survey show that at least 11,000 workers will needed. More than 6,300 of the jobs pay an average of $8 an hour, have no benefits, and are even not covered by workman’s compensation.
In an effort to downplay the effect the law would have on the farm labor force, Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black claimed that workers can earn $12 to $18 an hour. “Can” being the key word. However, that wage range is not reasonable. Vegetable and melon workers’ wages are near $7.78 an hour, and blueberry workers make about $6.70 an hour. These are, of course, seasonal wages.
Georgia farmers could try to solve their labor problem by offering higher wages, but passing that additional cost on to consumers would put their crops at a competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis other states that haven’t chased out the cheap labor. The Vidalia onion, Georgia’s official state vegetable, is going to be in scarce supply this year.
What did they think would happen? You don’t have to have a Nobel Prize in economics to have foreseen this crisis. And what is Deal’s contingency plan? He acts shocked.
H/T: AJC, Steve Benen.
During the last prez campaign Grandpa Walnuts made a statement to a crowd, “You wouldn’t pick lettuce for $50 an hour.” He, of course, was heckled by the crowd who understood that $50/hr would be $100k a year – on average more than twice what they were probably earning.
It is miserable work, made more so by the fact that so many who do it have to live in a shadow & the growers know it.
Don’t be surprised if some genius there does not propose making the unemployed pick for their checks, or prisoners. Anything so they don’t have to pay a living wage for the work
I am glad to see this post, which is obviously a study in “lack of vision”.
That is these governing officials are governing like someone who drives by looking out the rear view mirror instead of the front windshield.
It is a microcosm for the way we are treating the Earth, because as in this case there will be pure hell to pay.
Frank,
“Don’t be surprised if some genius there does not propose making the unemployed pick for their checks, or prisoners. Anything so they don’t have to pay a living wage for the work.”
So Deal’s plan did work out pretty good…
I mean Deal hasn’t figured it out just yet…
See why we have to have stupid drug laws… Keep those prisons full so we have a source of free labor.
When I was younger, I could not wait to turn 14 so that I could work on the tobacco farms and earn money. The farms sent buses into the suburbs to pick up the high school kids and those who were of age. It enabled the kids to earn money before going back to school, and most importantly to meet the opposite sex. Unfortunately, the airlines were expanding and tickets got cheaper, and the farms discovered Puerto Ricans. They did not have to go back to school, and were cheaper, thus I got aced out of a great opportunity.
Most of the guys I worked with in an oil refinery in Houston had personal experience of picking cotton and farm work too. All of those ag jobs were done by Americans for most of our history.
In GA most of that work was done by black Americans previously, and they were forced out by the illegals. So the farmers are mostly to blame for their own situation. Also they CAN hire immigrant workers, BUT they have to abide by the laws about conditions, wages, etc.. I know that obeying the law is foreign to most of those folks as well as the illegals, and it is too much of a hardship to do it. Though I think that doing so is not as hard as field work.
For now there are high fives in the Christie camp on this one,I guess it was the same in Deals camp as the chickens are coming home to roost.
I fear similarities here in Jersey with this bill.
N.J. Assembly passes landmark employee benefits overhaul
Published: Friday, June 24, 2011, 7:00 AM Updated: Friday, June 24, 2011, 11:20 AM
TRENTON — New Jersey lawmakers tonight voted to enact a sweeping plan to cut public worker benefits after a long day of high-pitched political drama in the streets of Trenton and behind closed doors.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/assembly_passes_landmark_emplo.html
Duh…..
Agricultural wages will probably rise modestly this year in Georgia to meet some of the labor shortage for the most profitable crops.
This could make the price of Georgia crops high enough so that people will opt for product imported from South America and Asia instead, like OsoSweet onions instead of Vidalia.
Even so, the increased labor costs and harvest shortages will raise prices somewhat. Georgia is a small producer, but even were this to happen in a larger producing state this would impact poorer consumers of US export markets the most. While food importers like Japan can easily afford higher prices, places like Egypt and Malaysia may have a harder time.
Government actions limiting the labor pool and setting artificially-high wages will simply push production out of the United States over time.
Dredd:
I caught a gentleman going off the radio at the end of his talk on the very subject of our natural
resources and how we should take care of them,and he made this point at the end of his talk he said”NAFTA has hurt more young children than NAMBLA could ever do”
Quite a way to make a point.
Manufacturing the first to go….Politics….Bull Shit….still here…
Gee rising production costs reduces production, who would have thought. I still have a suspicion that if this had been a democrat governor this post would be lit up with applause for him fighting for a “living wage” and “workers rights”. Ill give you credit though, you finally managed to analyze an economic phenomenon properly, lets see how long you can keep it up.
“Nathan Deal for Governor of Georgia. Join the campaign today and help bring new jobs to our state in order to put Georgia back to work!”
Promises, promises …..
“oh, oh, wait. You mean our hate has CONSEQUENCES?”
“Government actions limiting the labor pool and setting artificially-high wages will simply push production out of the United States over time.”
puzzling,
If our government started charging import duties, like for instance those in China and Japan, perhaps we could keep jobs here and still be competitive.
All the NAFTA’s, CAFTA’s etc. have done is to put American manufacturing, in America, at a disadvantage. It has cost us industry and jobs but has made multi-nationals big bucks. The fault for this lies with both parties.
http://projects.wri.org/sd-pams-database/china/import-duties
http://www.ustr.gov/trade-topics/industry-manufacturing/industrial-tariffs
Compare the rates. US rates are about 2% on average. China’s are about 23%. Any wonder why their goods flood our markets and take away our jobs?
BS is right. (11:23 am)
BS by the immigration genocidal maniacs who still think 10,000 year old harvesting techniques is “progressive”. Leave it to the Marxist pigs among us (not me, of course) to claim a superior interest in something called “progress” and “science” but yet wants to relegate a certain portion of the human race to the ancient back-breaking work of the peasant in the field for low wages merely because that is what has been done for ages.
The progressive thinker is the most regressive among us. He is always clinging to old ideas that don’t advance civilization (as long as he is above it all and doesn’t have to get his hands dirty).
Mechanization is the answer.
Engineering and technology provides the solutions, but the anti-science and anti-progressive Marxist dirt-bags on the left won’t allow it because it doesn’t fit into their communist scheme to make the rest of us live like dogs. They want us behaving like we did ten thousand years ago. In particular they want others to behave that way so they can sit around in clean clothes, climate controlled rooms, and let others serve them their food by their seat of their brow.
http://www.vdare.com/misc/archive00/mechanization.htm
What we have here is lies, lies, and more lies. Lies that farmers cannot harvest without massive imports of “fruit pickers” (the name Singapore’s former premier used on the Charlie Rose show one night to describe the uneducated immigrants (barbarians) America brings in to work in “the field” as opposed to the intelligent people Singapore brings in through its immigration system. Yeah, don’t bring in intelligent people. Find the dumbest ones you can locate and flood the country with them so you can reap the rewards of cheap food you don’t have to sweat over.
What a freaking hoot that interview was.
Then there are the lies by farmers that the only alternative to their problem is genocide of WASPs (and I don’t mean the bugs). No, they don’t admit this openly, this is just the results of their whining. They REFUSE to innovate and continually complain about “food rotting in the fields to scare people. Geeze, maybe they should stop planting so much?
Ironically, the answers to the problem appear to lie outside the limits of our border–in Asian in particular. They recognize the need for mechanization and are not afraid to address it.
http://www.agnet.org/library/nc/148a/
Maybe we should import those guys to work for us? They, unlike the retrograde and backwards progressive/leftist/Democrat in the America, actually want to progress. Oh wait, the Democrats prefer the barbaric peons with the low IQ who can help them return to the blissful and bucolic neanderthal knuckle-dragging state of perfection.
Well some of them must return to the life of the peasant, of course, just not the people who advocate it. They who want the peons to flood the border won’t be living that back-breaking life themselves. Hell no. They are too dainty and superior for that sort of thing and will insist others do it for them.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2yis9hXDz0&w=560&h=349
The big mistake that we mostly all make, including me at times, is that we believe that the average politician feels responsible to all his/her constituents and not just the ones with money. Operating out of that mindset the anti-immigration efforts have always been more about getting elected through xenophobia, rather than any benefit to the public. The fairly open, yet to political discourse a “dirty little secret” is that illegal immigrants have been vital to business interests for years in order to avoid paying fair wages and benefits. This has always been true in border states and in the South, primarily in agriculture. Rail all you want to get people to support your xenophobia, enforce the law on poor individuals and look the other way as your campaign donors using them, fill your coffers.
Tootie,
You are one of the xenophobic fools that has fallen for your conservative politicians line. They don’t want to stop illegal immigration, They want dupes like you voting for them, while they take handouts from those who benefit from illegal immigration. However, since it’s ethnic hatred they’re hypocritically pushing, they’ll always have people like you to vote for them.
They know from past experience that they really don’t have to do anything once elected, because they’ve so focused your hatred you won’t even know they’re picking your pocket.
If there was real justice in the world, 2T would be one of those farmers whose crops are rotting in the fields because of hatred and xenophobia. And greed.
I am skeptical that the farmers will actually learn something as the result of voting against their own self interests. They will continue to listen to the demagogues and vote for hate instead of economic self-interest. They will be convinced it the all the fault of that foreign-born Kenyan, socialist, Nazi and his “Democrat” henchmen. Just like 2T and some of the other economic knuckle-draggers we have had around here lately.
Mike and O.S.-
Tootie doesn’t hate. She’s a Christian. Just ask her.
Athur Randolph erb: “illegals” ? Illegal whats? Oh excuse me you are talking about people.
ICE Agent’s Union Speaks Out on Director’s “Discretionary Memo”
“Any American concerned about immigration needs to brace themselves for what’s coming,” said Chris Crane, President of the National ICE Council which represents approximately 7,000 ICE agents, officers and employees, “this is just one of many new ICE policies in queue aimed at stopping the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws in the United States. Unable to pass its immigration agenda through legislation, the Administration is now implementing it through agency policy … ICE worked hand-in-hand with immigrants rights groups, but excluded its own officers.”
Agents say the policy is a “law enforcement nightmare” developed by the Administration to win votes at the expense of sound and responsible law enforcement policy. “The desires of foreign nationals illegally in the United States were the framework from which these policies were developed,” Crane said, “the result is a means for every person here illegally to avoid arrest or detention, as officers we will never know who we can or cannot arrest.”
…”Our officers are already under orders not to make arrests or even talk to foreign nationals in most cases unless another agency has already arrested them; you won’t find that written in any public ICE policy.”
…”I think the writing is on the wall for every person concerned about good government and effective immigration reforms – the things happening at ICE represent neither, said Crane, we are asking everyone to please email or call your Congressman and Senators immediately and ask them to help stop what’s happening at ICE, we desperately need your help.”
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/policy-public-interest-latest-news/ice-agents-union-speaks-out-on-directors-discretionary-memo-124441368.html
ICE Amnesty Rules Already in Effect: Illegals Released in PA
Yesterday in Pennsylvania, police released three illegals who had been charged with speeding, driving without a license, without insurance, without registration, and providing police with false identification.
So not only do they get a pass on TSA pat downs they can come and go as they please.
Next time you get pulled over just say
“no tengo papeles” “no habla engles’
to which the officer will say thank you, your free to go.
Georgia GOP can’t see the crops rotting through the migrant farm workers. Welcome to reality, Governor!
Sounds like a really good way to drive a lot of small farms out of business. If you had a deal with a friendly bank you could probably take loans to buy a lot of land cheaply under the assumption that once the law was repealed farming would become profitable again.
If you were a legislator you could probably set it up perfectly.
It’s difficult to find decent produce in Atlanta–Georgia lacks small orchard and vegetable farms. The peanuts and peaches, the local signature crops mostly go to food processors. The “local” peaches come from South Carolina. Lumber (pulping plantations) is another major sector with “foreign” labor. The impact will be in peanut butter and peach jam rather than the produce section. Timber is a factor in other, competing states nearby.
i first heard about this a few days ago and my first thought was like bud’s comment they’ll probably either use state prisoners or the unemployed. the problem there is they would have to bus workers into the farm areas, and what the farmers pay for the labor is not what the prisoners would receive.
prison slave labor is an old tradition in the south and it wouldn’t take much to bring it back.
Mike,
Your comment on trade reminded me of this clip from almost 20 years ago:
Raising tariffs to Chinese goods would lower the standard of living in the US by raising prices. That would lower consumer spending in other areas, including on domestic goods and services. Rather than returning jobs, tariffs might simply result in more automation in manufacturing, and not necessarily in the United States.
NAFTA is not free trade, it is government management of trade to favored sectors. No agreements are needed in a true free trade environment. I agree with you that these agreements should be abandoned.
Pete, they are nibbling at the edges:
http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress3/georgia-jails-prisoners-crops-immigration/
The reason that any alteration in the use of illegal aliens and trade policies would be so devastating for the country is that 2% of the population has half the wealth and the next 10% has most of whats left. There are only so many groceries they can eat and Tupperware bowels for the leftovers that they need after all.
above sb “bowls”
lottakatz,
I liked “bowels” better…
AY:
“Politics….Bull Shit….still here…”
And here in Jersey A proposed “victory lap” and more to come.
Gov. Christie calls pension overhaul his ‘biggest governmental victory’ in exclusive interview
Published: Sunday, June 26, 2011, 6:00 AM
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/06/gov_christie_calls_pension_ove.html
BTW,the failures outweigh this one “sucess”?
“Raising tariffs to Chinese goods would lower the standard of living in the US by raising prices. That would lower consumer spending in other areas, including on domestic goods and services. Rather than returning jobs, tariffs might simply result in more automation in manufacturing, and not necessarily in the United States.”
Puzzling,
Well we’ve seen how that theory worked out. We did they opposite and wound up in the same position the proponents feared would occur from raising tariffs. God save us from the “wise men” of the world, not only are they usually wrong, but in the process they get rich and we get screwed.
I am curious as to where people draw the line: if it is acceptable for “small farms” to use illegal labor to stay in business, what other illegal activities are also acceptable? And, is there a threshold level (e.g., gross sales) at which the acceptability ends because a farm is no longer “small?”
I am curious as to where people draw the line: if it is acceptable for “small farms” to use illegal labor to stay in business, what other illegal activities are also acceptable?
I was thinking the exact same thing last night. What came to mind was how many times I’ve heard many commenter’s here say we are or suppose to be a nation of laws and when those laws are broken they must be enforced. Of course the main subject most make that comment on is on torture. Illegal immigration gets a pass because we need fruit pickers cause no one else will do that job.
“Illegal immigration gets a pass because we need fruit pickers cause no one else will do that job.”
Bdaman,
I’m no fan of illegal immigration because I think it has been historically used to depress wages, especially after slavery was abolished. To me its’ greatest supporters have never been leftists per se, but extreme capitalists. See the California agricultural industry, as well as Georgia and other agricultural states.
See the California agricultural industry.
Maybe they should bus the people from California to Georgia.
Even though this story is from 2009 the water remains off.
The San Joaguin Valley is the southern half of California’s Central Valley. This valley is California’s most productive agricultural area, producing 12% of our food. In their attempts to save the delta smelt, the EPA has shut off irrigation water to the valley, which has allowed the land to return to its normally arid state (made worse by the current California drought). The result is a modern “dust bowel” with farms baking in the sun while life giving water flows mere yards away from the parched fields.
Unemployment in parts of the Valley reached 41 percent in August, according to the Fresno County Employment Development Department. It is estimated that 400,000 acres of farmland lie unplanted this year with the resulting economic impacts on the Valley’s rural communities. Residents are standing in lines for hours to receive government provided food. One great irony is they are given carrots that were shipped in from China! Food from China going to our richest agricultural region is unfathomable to me.
http://walksalone.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/save-the-minnow-sacrifice-humans-what%E2%80%99s-wrong-with-this-picture/
Bud:
“See why we have to have stupid drug laws… Keep those prisons full so we have a source of free labor.”
that is interesting that you say this, I was talking to a guy who works for the federal government as a purchasing agent. He was telling me that one department buys cars from GM or Ford or Chrysler and ships them down to Texas to have lights and logos put on the cars. For the logos the government is charged around a $150 dollars but it cost around $450 to ship the cars to Texas and back.
Prisoners do the work and apparently they do it for a private company which pays them next to nothing. This company also makes furniture for the government and gives large campaign contributions to this congressman. The guy wouldn’t tell me the name of the company or the congressman.
Personally I would like to know because my tax dollars are being used in, what is my opinion, a criminal enterprise. And the idea of the government purchasing products made by prisoners being paid slave wages is reprehensible.
In my opinion even if the are being paid minimum wage it is reprehensible for the tax payer to pay $450 dollars to ship a car to put a $150 dollar logo on the door. They could do it cheaper near the factory.
If middle class America knew what was going on with our tax dollars we would revolt. Maybe the Tea Party has a point?
Bdaman:
that story you posted is a classic. It is an example, one of many, of the incompetence of the politicians and the bureaucrats who control us.
Mike Spindell:
“God save us from the “wise men” of the world, not only are they usually wrong, but in the process they get rich and we get screwed.”
And that is why I believe in the collective judgement of 6 billion people taking decisions on what to purchase in an unfettered arena without the input of those “wise men” you so correctly point out screw us all.
Since farmers were trying to get the bill stopped what has happened is no big surprise.
Therefore it was deliberate.
Why?
To run small farmers out of business.
Why?
So big agribusinesses that are big donors can get their land cheap.
Marnie:
you might be on to something.
bdaman
you should update your links. the link you gave is from sept.2009 during a drought. try this one
http://westernfarmpress.com/irrigation/california-water-allocation-increases-70-percent
Bdaman: “See the California agricultural industry.
Maybe they should bus the people from California to Georgia.
Even though this story is from 2009 the water remains off.
The San Joaguin Valley is the southern half of California’s Central Valley. This valley is California’s most productive agricultural area, producing 12% of our food. In their attempts to save the delta smelt, the EPA has shut off irrigation water to the valley, which has allowed the land to return to its normally arid state (made worse by the current California drought). The result is a modern….”
—–
USDA says 500 jobs were lost due to the provisions for the smelt, the rest (which are growing) are due to the drought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_smelt
Maybe the folks in Texas should be sent to Georgia too:
“Texas Medicaid Cutbacks to Cost Over 5,000 Jobs…and That’s Only the Beginning”
From Dallas Business Journal:
“A 10 percent rate reduction in Medicaid payments could cause 5,100 jobs to be lost and reduce sales tax revenue by more than $5 million in North Texas alone, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.
According to an economic impact study released by the council in January, North Texas hospitals generate 237,000 jobs and contribute $12 billion to the economy annually. Hospitals trigger $4 billion in retail sales and account for $245 million in sales tax revenue.”
http://billhicksisdead.blogspot.com/2011/05/texas-medicaid-cutbacks-to-cost-5000.html
it’s also hard to tell who is getting money not to grow food. this link is from may 2010.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/farm-subsidies-paid-congressmen-why-congress-shut-down-database
this one is from march 2011
http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2011/03/farm-subsidies-paid-to-the-members-of-the-112th-congress/
Pete, I’m shocked. Shocked.
i also googled “minnows”. it turns out they’re small fish that big fish eat to reproduce more big fish. something about a “food chain”.
L K
from what i’ve heard a lot of people without insurance cross the border to get healthcare. from the us to mexico. not quite what they report on fox though.
In Germany, they love to eat white asparagus, but no one likes to tend this harvest. (It is very labor intensive, you have to keep the stalks buried as they grow)
So the Germans give Polish people work permits to come tend this harvest as well as others.
If the Germans can do this, year after year, we can do this in the US.
@ Tootie -
I fully support mechanization of agriculture. I certainly think that’s a better solution that ancient primitive backbreaking labor practices.
But I’m also a liberal/progressive/democrat that you spent 1/2 of your rant demonizing. What’s that old saying about flies and sugar and vinegar?
The next time you want to advance an idea, why don’t you advance the idea on it’s own merits, without prejudging and supposing who will agree with you? Or assuming that merely based upon a person’s political ideology that they will instantly disagree with you?
tootie:
if you give me an email address I will send you an essay you will love about exactly what you are talking about.
Or tell me another web site and I will post it there.
whoops that should say better dead than red, my bad.
Anti Commie,
tootie san be found at:
southernchristionhaters.com. I think you love it.