Quick, call in the Minutemen!

California fruit and vegetable growers lament that a record crop may well go partially unharvested because of crackdowns on illegal workers.

I fully expect patriotic Americans everywhere to rush to California's ag fields in this moment of national crisis ... NOT!

Why don't growers simply jack up wages enough to attract legal citizens?

They don't think consumers will pick up the tab, instead simply buying cheaper imports.

Cursed globalization! Damned if you harvest and damned if you don't.

Comments

[Christopher Thompson]

Wait a minute. As I recall for every dollar you spend at the grocery store on product the farmer gets a quarter of which all labor costs is about 2 cents. I believe that recently increased petroleum costs for fuel, feed, fertilizer, etc. has increased costs more that a pay hike would. Let's not simplify a complex subject. Farm labor is becoming necessarily more skilled and therefore more expensive. There is the issue of rural population declines. Etc. etc. etc.

[TEJ]

The Minutemen are a bit distracted right now:

Minuteman Chief Purges Ranks (Washington Times) “The top leaders of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps have been terminated by the group’s president, Chris Simcox, for requesting a meeting to discuss a lack of financial accountability by the organization’s leadership,” reports the Washington Times. Simcox “came under fire last year over questions about how much money the” Minutemen “had raised and where it had gone.” . . . http://www.washtimes.com/national/20070524-122345-1308r.htm

[Michael]

So much for the importance of farm subsidies. In spite of them, and the market distortions they create, the farmers still can't afford legal labor?