"who do you think is willing to come to work these $25/hr jobs? you think people are going to flock here from all over the country?"

This is the part in my fantasy world of $25/hr farm work that I don't know that we can get around. You can't have a regular job or even a regular life if you are going to do migrant farm work. I can't remember now if I read it in one of the articles I was reading or one of the comments on here. When you throw in the requirement that the people be willing to be migrants you have effectively ruled out any US worker who is a hard working "go to work everyday" kind of person. They aren't going to travel across the country in search of the hope of work.

Someone referenced moving to the Dakotas for oil work. Yes they moved, but not in anticipation of being there for a couple/few weeks then moving to the next state.

I think where you and I differ is I have a really big beef with the employers. Like I think they should be jailed kind of beef. I really struggle with how migrant farm workers are treated, the housing they are given, the conditions they work in, and the wages they are paid. They claim necessity but also aren't pushing for changes to bring all of this work above board so I find their concerns disingenuous at best.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

i agree with you, provisionally. i just don't know how it works, from farm to farm. i might be beyond naive, but i like to think there are good farms and bad, good employers and bad. i just don't know.

i am confident in my opinion that this is one of those statute categories that is out of touch with actual, functional, human, and in this case necessary, practice. like sodomy or miscegeny laws, immigration laws (as they relate to work) save no one, help no one, and criminalizing what we know can and must exist simply serves to made things harder, less safe. the very asshole-in-chief who's stoking the fire is himself both a user of the H2-B visa program and a user and abuser of undocumented workers. i suspect it's pretty clear to everyone who's in the agri-industry that the H2-A program is where it's at. perhaps the H2-A visa workers should be given an expedited path to permanent status; maybe that would encourage everyone to get behind that program.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I agree to a point on the Butterfly effect in a single case in isolation.

But this article challenges that thinking a bit and the same cause is mentioned in 29 acts of violence, threats or alleged assaults. I start drawing conclusions with that many data points.


Read the article for case by case information.

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Suffer Well.

I only had to go to my grandma's house where she worked me like a dog for $0.25 per quart of blueberries. I think my brothers and I were illegal child labor.

And I wouldn't do the job for $25/hr. Maybe for a week but for a living, no way.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

Spiridon Louis wrote:

HB 56 was in effect for about 3 months eight years ago. It seems, however, by your description of it, that it was the most impactful piece of legislation ever passed, it's effects still rippling almost a decade later. The population in Alabama has increased since the last census. This bill that you keep referencing had little initial impact and zero lasting impact. And there is no "data" that says otherwise, only anecdotes mostly told by people with bias, like you.

Based on this, their population growth is not doing so well.

https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/.../ via @mgmadvertiser

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.