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Bloomberg: ‘I Need More Mexicans’: A Kansas Farmer’s Message to Trump

The article says that they can make up to $18/hr depending on how fast they work, and that minimum wage in the area is $8.25.
As for the benefits... lol, what year is it?

Immigrant workers have ridiculous working hours, low wages and obviously no benefits. I know second hand that sometimes over 10 people will live in a tiny apartment, because they need to save money to help the families they left behind. They can't complain and they need the money, so they get exploited, and nobody does a thing about it.
 
It's so hilarious. There was a news story with farmers in the central valley of California (who voted for Trump) were worried about a shrinking workforce.
 

Nafai1123

Banned
Paying laborers more is a great solution...if you're willing to pay more for food. I would be fine with it, but I'm curious how many people saying "just pay a living wage" would bitch when they're paying $7 for a gallon of milk.
 

commedieu

Banned
It's crazy that morons don't realize how dependent the economy is on immigrants. From farm, to restaurants, construction, to mechanics and other skills that are screwing people over to keep prices competitive with the global market.

Americans are too good for these jobs, as per the American dream. As Georgia proved, even with higher wages, people are just better than labor. That and higher wages still aren't livable for most.

The true costs of MAGA means Americans, making livable wages..and selling these products to whom? Which will include the markup for wages and benefits/retirement...

The system works with immigrants because they send money back home. Or they live in a situation of people pooling money. All of these dollars are spent and contribute to the gdp of Mexico or America or Armenia or whatever the situation is. When you act like you don't need immigrant labor, you're just being a bigot. As usual.


Paying laborers more is a great solution...if you're willing to pay more for food. I would be fine with it, but I'm curious how many people saying "just pay a living wage" would bitch when they're paying $7 for a gallon of milk.

Do you ban products from other nations though? So that your only choice is American product x?
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
If your industry needs semi-slave labour there is something really wrong there, specially when planes will just fly by and drop pesticide on them.

Planes can't harvest crops.
 
Paying laborers more is a great solution...if you're willing to pay more for food. I would be fine with it, but I'm curious how many people saying "just pay a living wage" would bitch when they're paying $7 for a gallon of milk.

You pay for the poor anyway. They don't just go away by not paying them a fair wage. $150 more per year for milk is a drop in the bucket to the actual costs poverty has on our society. Given rates of food waste in our society (30%) we'd find ways to cope.
 
You pay for the poor anyway. They don't just go away by not paying them a fair wage. $150 more per year for milk is a drop in the bucket to the actual costs poverty has on our society. Given rates of food waste in our society (30%) we'd find ways to cope.

Thats a gallon of milk every 2.5 weeks. My family (wife, 2 kids, myself) currently use a gallon to a gallon and a half a week via cereal, drinking, and cooking. So lets say 1.25 per week on average.
1.25×$7×52 weeks=$455 goddamn dollars on cow tit juice. That's $37.91 a month.

The problem is its not just milk. Fruit and veggies would also go up. So my $100 grocery bill a week just became $125. That's an extra $1200 a year.

Im not arguing you, its just the point you were trying to prove is actually more of a problem when you do the math.

Most important though is that were going to hear Democrats and Republicans thinking they're fucking witty and drilling their version of "crying over spilled milk" all over Face The Nation and news interviews.
 
How can it actually be legal to hire an undocumented immigrant and pay them so little? If it's under the table, how can that be legal?
 

Nafai1123

Banned
Do you ban products from other nations though? So that your only choice is American product x?

No, but how does it help to import goods that can be produced locally? Shouldn't we be getting away from that from an environment perspective?

You pay for the poor anyway. They don't just go away by not paying them a fair wage. $150 more per year for milk is a drop in the bucket to the actual costs poverty has on our society. Given rates of food waste in our society (30%) we'd find ways to cope.

I don't disagree, I'm just saying that many people don't see it that way. They see the amount coming out of their pocket every week for groceries go up, and that's all they care about.
 
Thats a gallon of milk every 2.5 weeks. My family (wife, 2 kids, myself) currently use a gallon to a gallon and a half a week via cereal, drinking, and cooking. So lets say 1.25 per week on average.
1.25×$7×52 weeks=$455 goddamn dollars on cow tit juice. That's $37.91 a month.

The problem is its not just milk. Fruit and veggies would also go up. So my $100 grocery bill a week just became $125. That's an extra $1200 a year.

Im not arguing you, its just the point you were trying to prove is actually more of a problem when you do the math

Except the measure is $2 more (this is the actual expected rise for 2017 from the dairy industry). For example, you are paying $5 a gallon now, and the price goes up to $7 a gallon. That's 1.25 * $2 * 52 = $130 of additional cost per year. Your math is wrong.
 
Ahhhhh the American economy is still dependent on slaves.

Pay more and provide better working conditions to attract workers.


read the article guys.

Kyle Averhoff, general manager of Royal Farms Dairy in Garden City, Kan., says he’s seen the flow of applicants slow in recent months as the labor market has tightened. Unemployment in Finney County, where Royal Farms is based, was just 2.8 percent in April, down from 3.1 percent a year ago. “We’ve gone to some of the highest-unemployment counties in our state and ran ads, and without success,” he says. An entry-level job at Royal Farms could pay as much as $40,000 in wages and benefits, with no prior skills required, Averhoff says: “For us the immigration issue is not about cheap labor. It’s been about finding people who have the aptitude and want to work in our industry

although it doesn't specify for what position that salary is for,they aren't paying slave wages.
 
Except the measure is $2 more (this is the actual expected rise for 2017 from the dairy industry). For example, you are paying $5 a gallon now, and the price goes up to $7 a gallon. That's 1.25 * $2 * 52 = $130 of additional cost per year. Your math is wrong.
My math was based on your quoted $7 amount. Milk where I live is actually cheap. ($2.25) so it would be $4.25, so Im going to be spending $276.25.
 

commedieu

Banned
No, but how does it help to import goods that can be produced locally? Shouldn't we be getting away from that from an environment perspective?



I don't disagree, I'm just saying that many people don't see it that way. They see the amount coming out of their pocket every week for groceries go up, and that's all they care about.

These questions should have been asked before we decided to buy everything from china. Pandora's box is open now. It's a global community. So home grown products won't be able to be purchased by half of our nation which is at the poverty line and below.

It's fun thinking, for sure. But the people against immigrant labor are also against poor people in general. Which is why it makes it clear that these efforts aren't to produce American jobs. It's just to get rid of immigrants, while killing welfare and healthcare.

It's a great theory but people buy cheap products because they can't afford expensive items. So you'd have to a dress that. And again the GOP is pro bootstrap. So.. that's where the fantasy ends.
 
Americans will do these jobs. I've done it myself. Not any harder than most construction jobs.

The pay is garbage and you would have to relocate 4 times per year every year as the seasons change to have a "career" doing this kind of work. No American wants to live like that and not for that kind of pay.
 

Xe4

Banned
It has nothing to do with Trump really. Illegal immigration has been dropping since '08, so a situation like this was bound to arise sooner or later.

It's probably for the best. They're going to have to raise the price on labor to above basically slave labor standards, and it'll hurt the consumer but be good for the poorest section of American society. The way illegal immigrants are treated in business is pretty disgusting anyhow.
 
Representative Roger Marshall, a Republican whose district includes southwest Kansas, says immigration is the No. 1 concern he hears about from constituents. The freshman congressman says he's confident that once the border is secure, ”President Trump will look at this, too, as an economic problem."
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read the article guys.



although it doesn't specify for what position that salary is for,they aren't paying slave wages.

"Could pay as much as" is hogwash. That means you have to get some outworldly productivity rate to hit that $18 an hour and it probably only happens a few times a season. Plus the back breaking work, lack of healthcare and c seasonal nature.
 

Apt101

Member
Am I supposed to feel bad because the farmers can't exploit undocumented workers now?

If my grocery bill has to increase to pay people regular wages to do that work, I'm fine with that.
 

smurfx

get some go again
read the article guys.



although it doesn't specify for what position that salary is for,they aren't paying slave wages.
its usually the minimum wage of the state and they can't find many americans to do the work since they can work other service jobs for minimum wage without having to be busting their asses on a hot field every day.
 
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