Describing it as a worker shortage is nothing more than code for saying wages are too high in the opinion of the speaker.

Unfortunately, at a minimum the processor or retailer captures 80% of the final sales price for food and a level of 95% would be common. The same thing happens in the fashion and apparel, or electronics industries — sweatshops are not necessary for production. If there is such a large markup and the margin of middle-men are back to levels from the Great Depression: the price of goods will be too high or the wages paid will be too low to have a self-sustaining economy.

Prices for food do not have to rise, the share of profits just needs to be adjusted. Pay more in wages, or cut the consumer’s price for food to a level where $8 is an attractive wage.

When you make a lot more than that for a long time, it’s pretty easy to get to a place where it’s hard to imagine being able to live on $50 a day.

The hard part is knowing that it’s difficult to access modern luxuries that can drastically improve quality and length of life at those wages.

The wages being offered are greater than the current minimum wage, and yet still no americans will do the work.

The minimum wage law has almost no bearing on low skilled workers. It’s effectively dead.

Besides the fact that Adam’s name is listed at the top, the big giveaway that Megan didn’t write it, is that the post pretty much gets things right. Heck, the supply and demand curves even make sense! That’s very unMegan.

I started to watch that 30 Days thing by Morgan Spurlock last night. I will have to finish watching it tonight. I live in the city it was based in. I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about living on minimum wage.

I’d bet that a vast majority of these farms who were using illegals were betting that this law wouldn’t get passed. Now that they are in a bind they don’t have the time to find legal help. I see this as more of a power play than a really serious issue.

If farmers want to keep farming they will figure out something else to farm that will work for their labor needs.

I live in NC, we used to farm tobacco. When that started going down the tube a lot of places switched to grapes and doing wine. Seems to have worked out better than expected.

There has to be a compromise somewhere that will allow the people who want to work for the lower wages into the country legally to pick the food we don’t want to pay too much for. Why is this so fucking hard to figure out?

Say the farmer raises his wages, then raises his prices to compensate, how do you imagine the rest of the supply chain goes? The grocery stores (operating as I understand it under very tight margins) will buy produce from other cheaper states. Or does the store ignore cheaper states and only put in locally grown berries at more expensive prices. Will they voluntarily cut their profits? Will they voluntarily reduce their competitiveness (“don’t go to mega-mart A, their produce is so expensive, lets go to B instead”). Or do they pay for twice the shelf space to have both cheap out-of-state berries and expensive in-state berries. Which product do you think will move off the shelves? What could they be selling instead of expensive blueberries where they aren’t the ones who get the profit? No doubt many boing boingers are happy to spend more money on local products, but boing boingers are not representative of the general population.

I’m not saying paying more for food is a bad idea, or a decent wage for farm workers. But I can’t see how this can work against such strong economic disincentives. A simplistic approach of ‘just raise local prices’ is working against a very strong economic tide. How can this be altered? For example the article points out that a reduction in illegal workers will require cooperation across many states.

(sarcasm)
And who would REALLY want to deprive these honest American’s of their right to own a new Ferrari? It’s just not quality to them unless everyone that makes what they own wears a Rolex or Breitling.
(/sarcasm)

@SharpieSniffer: You could have both… Just pay higher than $8/hour, keep the prices and there you go. The outcome would be less profitable farms, but not neccesarily unprofitable.

That was is in, like, ’96 though, so that would be like $12 an hour now. But still, decent apartment, car, kid, cable tv, computer, internet, etc. No problem, it wasn’t even a struggle.

One of the guys I worked with at one time made a living delivering pizzas. He lived in an old single-wide trailer with no power (but with water service) where he could hang out with his friends, drink beer and have a good time, read, exercise, etc. We were getting paid $5.50 an hour, plus tips (inconsistent, but maybe $4 an hour on a good day).

I was living with my parents at the time, because I wasn’t willing to be that poor.

I think we just have really high-standard poverty here.