Posted on 09/08/2017 7:18:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The tide of globalism, is, according to economists, a train that has already left the station. The neo-liberal consensus, shared by both Republicans and Democrats alike over the past few decades has been that so-called ‘free trade’ is the solution to economic growth in American. But globalism also has its discontents, none less acknowledged than the American farm worker.
In 1870, at the height of the labor market in agriculture, fully half of all working Americans were employed in the agriculture industry. Today, that figure is less than one percent of all workers. There are several reasons for this. First, technological advancements have made farm work much less labor intensive. Mechanized farming methods account for the lion’s share of the decline in the percentage of the agriculture-related labor force. And that is by design.
Earlier in America’s history, seasonal migrant workers, both American and largely Mexican, crossed the borders frequently to work the harvest seasons, and then returned to their homes in Mexico. But beginning in the 1960s, American-born workers began to organize against migrants, who they viewed as undercutting their collective bargaining rights.
Cesar Chavez, a revered Chicano (and ethnic identity adopted by people of Mexican descent born in the U.S.) labor and civil rights activist, decried the importation of undocumented immigrants as a direct attack by farm owners against the rights of U.S. citizens. Chavez organized major labor strikes against U.S. farmers, resulting in some cases, massive shortages and price increases in agricultural staples.
But the neoliberal agenda quickly caught on. First, farming organizations began to break the organized labor stranglehold on production by secretly importing undocumented workers from Mexico. This practice proceeded, largely unchecked, until the 1990s, when a more formal solution was devised – NAFTA. Proposed by Republicans and enacted into legislation by President Bill Clinton, NAFTA was seen by many in the business community as the solution to intractable problems of government-imposed environmental and labor regulation that was stifling American economic growth. But it was sold to the American consumer as a way of getting goods on the table at lower cost.
To be sure, NAFTA delivered on its promise of lower cost to the consumer. But at what price? It seems obvious now, but the savings to the American consumer came at the cost of the American worker. This is a tradeoff that many other countries – including especially China – have refused to make. China sees the productive worker as the engine of its economy, Whereas America sees the consumer as the engine. In truth, both are wrong.
It takes both workers and consumers to drive the type of economic growth America needs now. How can consumers buy more goods if they are not generating incomes? With labor market participation rates showing modest signs of uptick after almost three decades in freefall, it seems that the labor market is recovering slightly. But we need to look for ways to get many, many more working age Americans into the labor market.
Farming is one open avenue. Whereas in 1998, more than a third of farm workers in America were recent immigrants, as of 2014, the number of recent immigrants in the U.S labor force fell to almost eleven percent. The Obama administration touted DACA - his executive order allowing children born abroad and brought illegally to the U.S. as children – as a measure to protect the human rights of undocumented immigrants. That is not the case. The objective of DACA, driven by major corporations, was to protect the dwindling supply of cheap undocumented labor available in the agricultural industry. And that diminishing supply, ironically, was driven by the success of NAFTA in driving up job opportunities for Mexicans in Mexico. As it stands, in 2016, there is a shortage of available labor in the U.S. agricultural sector of almost one million workers. And that in turn is starting to have adverse effects on the ability of U.S. farmers to compete in the global agricultural market.
There is another side to the solution to the American labor problem that is not contained in Trump’s promise to end DACA and strengthen the enforcement of immigration laws. It is that America – and especially the Republican Party – is going to have to come to terms with organized labor. American voters are not likely to return to farming and other industries under the same working conditions as undocumented immigrants. It goes without saying that a job that does not pay living wages is not a job worth doing for most Americans. On the other hand, both producers and consumers of American agricultural products are going to have to adjust to the higher costs of labor that will necessarily arise when American citizens are called upon to take over the jobs currently occupied by undocumented immigrants.
There's this new thing ... it's called "the marketplace". I think it can solve the problem. This is not something the government needs to be involved with.
As long as we do not flood the labor market with immigrants then let the supply and demand set the wage. But we don’t have a secure border and H-1 and h-2 visas are handed out like candy. Globalism is a form of legalized slavery.
All ‘farm workers’ in the future, NEAR future, will be replaced by robots and autonomous machines................
We pay our native low skilled citizens to lay around and breed more unproductive citizens. To suspend or even cut back on welfare in order to perhaps encourage these layabouts to seek gainful employment would bring forth rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth. Can’t upset the Democrat voting base, you see. Probably somehow be racist, like everything else.
Robotic agriculture is stupid waste of resources. It leads to rock hard tasteless engineered fruits and veggies.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/watch-this-drone-mow-the-tollways-steep-lawn-9323511
Growing up in Iowa I can tell you for sure.. the mule and plow aint coming back anytime soon...
They are in the ‘Model T’ stages yet.
The computerized pickers of tomorrow will have sight and smell sensors to determine when and what to pick or leave on the bush............
This is a perfect description of an economic system built around an empire rather than a sovereign nation. The "home country" of the empire is designed to live in affluence at the expense of the territories that provide it with its means to live.
And therein lies the problem. My dad, and I, worked in packing sheds for years. Made excellent money, long, long hours with lots of overtime. Would go to work at 7 in the morning and get off at midnight sometimes just to turn around and do it again. Most of the people who worked with us were white. Slowly but surely the Mexicans started coming in and the white people quit coming. Last year I worked there we were called to work onions and when I went to start work I was almost the only white person there so left and didn’t go back.
Too late. Our “scientists” at ADM already designed rock hard tasteless fruit and veggies. There is no incentive to develop a delicate robotic picker.
With all the hoopla over ‘genetically modified’ foods, ADM may have to rethink their positions...............
Go back to allowing migrants across the border for harvest only. Strictly monitor them and if they don’t return home they are deported and not allowed across the border again.
By the way all you Farmers, Farmer Dean had cancer surgery last week and it didn’t go so smoothly. There’s a few issues he is fighting and all the prayers are welcome, even from this city boy.
That’s how most of the fruits and veggies are shipped now.
The processor adds color and flavor and minerals and vitamins...and makes the world taste good.
Further mechanization of seasonal farm work would be a great benefit to the US. That is one type of labor that needs to be eliminated to the extent possible.
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