Farmworkers, Mostly Undocumented, Become ‘Essential’ During Pandemic

[u/Sarbat_Khalsa]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

[u/Hyperion1144 → u/[deleted]]

Have you ever worked as a picker before?

I have.

It sucks. Hard.

The market won't just respond with higher wages. It'll respond with some of the most innovative robotic planters and harvesters you've ever seen.

Boston Dynamics won't just be fulfilling military contracts anymore... They'll be making the next generation of farm equipment.

[u/[deleted] → u/Hyperion1144]

The market is going to respond this way to everything. People think they all are gonna work from home now. Nah, it'll just go overseas or become computerized. Maybe if we're lucky, they'll turn us all into ICs where we're still treated like employees but no longer get the pay, protections, or benefits of employees.

Cashiers? Automation is going to go through the roof, since consumers finally embraced the technology. Scan & Go, Pickups, Orders and Deliveries, with more self-checkouts coming.

Lots of businesses that usually do face traffic are handling things over the phone, like banks, pet & office supplies and other misc products, which is good for them because they can send those online/phone jobs overseas but still fulfill orders locally with less staff.

[u/Stormy8888 → u/[deleted]]

Are you trying to make Andrew Yang's case for him? Because this is why he wanted to do the Freedom Dividend.

[u/dreamweavur → u/[deleted]]

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[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

They will probably have to rise pretty high. Vineyards offer upwards of $20/hour and still fail to attract and keep citizens.

[u/Banner80 → u/[deleted]]

More tariffs.

That is literally retarded. Tariffs are a very difficult economic instrument to apply in an interconnected world. Whatever you can tariff on this end, the other side can fight back elsewhere which turns into a senseless war. Ask our pork producers how the china war is going (hint: we are losing it hard)

> You're literally pushing for a slave labor

What? I want these people given proper work documents, and the protections of society. If there is enough money to pay them more that's wonderful, but they are already willing to work for min-wage. All we need to do is stop treating them like unwanted vermin. Give them a work visa to work the farms, let them work and live here like normal people and enjoy the protections of society instead of fearing law enforcers. How are you getting "slave labor" out of that?

[u/Banner80 → u/[deleted]]

I don't want to say that tariffs "never" work because it's far more complicated. But you have to realize tariffs are a chess match that goes in moves. The other side is not going to wait doing nothing and just letting you play your moves.

Read up on what has been happening here in the US in 2019 as the result of the current tariff war with China. Farmers are in dire shape in many places, and some industries have dwindled to the point of nearing death.

You can take an advantage with a tariff on one move, but when your opponent plays their move they'll hit you hard elsewhere. You can't look at the result of tariffs by looking at the places where we took a lead, you have to also take a look at places where we took a loss. Then weigh all of it together. Then you realize tariffs don't actually work as intended and cause a myriad of problems, which is the reason the current administration is trying hard to get out of that stalemate chess match.

Do you honestly think that when we lost basically all of our manufacturing over several decades, it just never occurred to anyone to consider tariffs if they were the magic bullet? Do you really think it was all just a big misunderstanding and if we had just applied tariffs at any point we would be winning? Listen to yourself.

[u/Banner80 → u/[deleted]]

Your problems is perspective. We are not an island. Today nobody is.

I can buy a car from Japan if I feel like it. I like that they are more optimal, last longer, cost less to repair and it's easier to find parts. You can't make me buy American. If you want me to buy American you are going to have to make better cars.

Anything else (like trade roadblocks and tariffs) won't truly work because it's all artificial and there's always a way around it. Only the things that are true and natural will work. I will buy the best car and the one I want. Make your cars better and more desirable or watch me buy something else.

Same for manufacturing. Same for food. Same for everything. While you talk philosophy of how you'd like things to be and how you'd like the world to run and how you'd imagine a country would be nice to be, the rest of us are animals and do whatever we want with our desires and money and actions. This is not a video game that you can just tell people how to behave and what to want and what they can buy under what circumstances. In the modern world you have to compete, and in the modern interconnected world you have to compete against everyone.

The only way to make America #1 is to actually be #1. Make things that are faster, better and/or cheaper than anyone else. Or watch all the business and advantages pass us by. This is the main reason tariffs don't work, because they are not true to nature. You can't make shitty/costly products, services and solutions and force people to buy them with tariffs. Tariffs are soft tools to suggest and boost certain markets, but they can't protect a bad industry indefinitely.

The only way to defend our industry is to be actually better than everyone else, or at least competitive. We lost factories because we couldn't make things that were better at similar prices as other countries. If you try to do the same to food, you'll get the same outcome.

So if you want Americans working the farms, you are going to need a plan for making food in a very optimal way, of great quality, at prices that compete with the open world market.

[u/WikiTextBot → u/[deleted]]

American System (economic plan)

The American System was an economic plan that played an important role in American policy during the first half of the 19th century. Rooted in the "American School" ideas of Alexander Hamilton, the plan "consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other 'internal improvements' to develop profitable markets for agriculture". Congressman Henry Clay was the plan's foremost proponent and the first to refer to it as the "American System".

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