Not So Sweet

The American Conservative ^ | June 5, 2006 Issue | Timothy P. Carney

[philman_36]

I mentioned the date because that was an issue in earlier posts in the thread.
I don't see it and it doesn't matter anyway. Nigglers.
(read that last word carefully as I'm already considered a racist simply because I want the borders closed)

I wasn't trying to be combative. My apologies.
I wasn't either. No apologies are necessary.
If you took my reply as combative then accept my apologies. That wasn't my intent.

[Chanticleer]

ROFL! And now for our Words of the Day....

niggler (noun)
A noun
1 carper, niggler
someone who constantly criticizes in a petty way

niggardly (adj.)
1 : grudgingly mean about spending or granting : BEGRUDGING
2 : provided in meanly limited supply

[GOP_1900AD]

AVERAGE salary in Dutch Harbor is something like 60 grand per year. They pay!

[philman_36]

The NAACP is niggardly in their praise towards many right leaning thoughts, beliefs, opinions and ideals.

[cyn]

Right. I don't understand this article, which seems to be bashing FL agriculture with wrong information -- what's with that?

From http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/SC032 :

When and how is the cane harvested?

Years ago, sugarcane was hand-harvested using cane knives. Improvements in mechanical harvesters have resulted in a total movement away from hand harvesting.

Acreage that was machine-harvested increased from 30% in 1987 to 100% in 1993.

[Nowhere Man]

I guess I ought to be a physical and emotional wreck because I've done about all this stuff. Chopped some cane to make sorgum, shocked fodder, baled and hauled hay, shucked corn, chopped pigweed out of soybeans with a machete. I did it all before I was 18 years old, either because dad said do it, or because it was the best money I could make at the time. I got no sympathy for any lazy SOB that won't do hard work.

I suggest a national service program into which all able bodied 18 year olds have to go if they don't join the military. The government could then hire thm out to do the "jobs Americans won't do" Three years of physical labor at a reasonable wage would do more to produce decent productive citizens than any college course in existance.

I think "the jobs Americans won't do" is largely a myth and I am kind of split on such a draft for people out of high school (although it does have its merits), maybe instead if they sign up for such a program, they can get free college once their terms are up. Instead of a stick, use a carrot.

I do like the idea that Michael Savage and Glenn Beck had where if there are such unfilled jobs in the local areas where there are able-bodied on welfare, then I think they should work 20, 30, 40 hours a week, whatever, in return for their assistance in cash, food stamps and healthcare. Any pay they receive will be theirs to keep and if it is not enough to cover what they have then welfare will fill that gap. Unless the person on welfare is in school to learn a trade to get off of the dole, then they should be doing these jobs, picking up trash in the parks and so on.

I was in a similar debate on an alternate history forum where "what if" the movie "Day Without Mexicans" would occur and how the film said our economy would suffer. Most of us, after the initial shock and investigations of such an even by scientists, Congress, religious leaders and so forth on such a Rapture-like disappearance, the economy might shake a little but it would end up where in the past, they paid Julio $4 an hour to pick lettuce, it would be Frank being paid $6 an hour. You might have slight inflation but nothing much to worry about.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Agriculture; sugar cane included should be brought into the 21st century with automation.

If wages rise beyond a certain point they will automate.

The UFW and the AFL-CIO realized this back in 1998 which is why they voted to support blanket amnesty and lobbied for the end to work place raids.

At eight dollars an hour you have manual labor, at twelve you automate. It is really that simple. Instead of 300 people cutting cane by hand you hire six to do it with a machine.

Big Labor not being totally stupid saw the handwriting on the wall. They were already losing members left and right. The prospect of more automation scared the pants off of them. After all those 300 workers are worth 20-40 dollars a month in union dues. And once one farm automates the others will follow.

[Constantine XIII]

I saw a nifty plan to make it out of algae.

The stuff grows like nuts in the right conditions, the whole system is single phase, and it doesn't require vast tracts of land.

[Moonman62]

Nuts would be for biodiesel ;-)

[Constantine XIII]

LOL!

Fuel doesn't grow on trees, you know. :)

[Road Warrior ‘04]

Is the cane still burned before harvest?

Yes! And, most of it is cut and harvested by machinery.

[danamco]

In this country the plan is for most future ethanol to come from cellulose.



It sure would be a benefit for our health care system if all American cut WAY down on sugar consumption!!!
Hmmm???

[danamco]

Amazing! Al would do or say anything to get elected. Think what a disaster it would be for America were he to actually succeed. That thought drove many of us in Tennessee to work our butts off keeping him from winning Tennessee in the electoral votes. I found him most despicable because of his 'change' reagrding abortion on demand ... he once professed to be pro-life (to get elected in Tennessee no doubt) but changed to get a better position with the democrat party national constituencies who worship that rite. Perhaps that helps you to understand why I despise the man.




Then the "He"-man would stay crying at their convention about his sister's lung cancer!
And, then he would be one of the lead proponents to sue the tobacco company for billions of $$$!!
And now he says we ONLY have 9 years and 242 days before civilization is GONE forever!!!

[308MBR]

No kidding! There is still too much labor in ALL farm products. It has been proven repeatedly over history that good machines are more cost effective than people, even if wages are kept artificially low through any program.

I don't see WHAT is so special about cutting cane. I can certainly envision a conveyor equipped combine using some sort of sickle bar mower doing the job quite well. I have the machine shop and the engineering degree. Who has some cash laying around they are tripping over and wants to get into the implement business?

[CFC__VRWC]

The citrus growers have spent all kinds of time and money trying to find an economical way to automate the harvesting process. It's been a very difficult problem, though, finding a machine that can harvest citrus without damaging the fruit and/or the tree. The last try I heard about was a machine that grabbed the tree by the trunk and literally shook the fruit off it. Haven't heard much about it lately, though.

When I was in high school, some of the kids would skip school and spend the day out in the groves picking fruit. You could make money, but it was very hard work, climbing a ladder, stripping the fruit off the tree without tearing the twigs off the tree or a piece of the peel off the fruit, and gently placing it in a fruit bag you wore on your hip so you wouldn't bruise it. When the bag was full you'd empty it in a bin and go right back up the tree. And the foreman checked the bin - if he saw a lot of bruised or half-peeled fruit, you didn't get paid for that bin. The going rate for a bin, assuming the fruit was in good shape, was around 7 bucks or so if you were picking grapefruit, and it went up to about 15 - 20 bucks (IIRC) if you were picking tangerines.