[Chuck Dent]

The direct costs go up dramatically after you bankrupt all the farmers and drive them out of business. Hard to survive w/o farmers.

OK, I know I'm making a mistake replying to you, but here goes: the costs are the same.

For the sake of argument, assume farmers do go BK. The receivers operating the businesses are then forced to pay prevailing wages to legal workers. So, while our direct costs of food go up, the indirect costs we're paying in the form of welfare, foodstamps, police, etc (which are reflected in state budget deficits, closed hospitals, overcrowded schools, etc) go down.

The net cost to US is the same.

[bray]

Nice try, after they go bankrupt you bring in new “farmers” who know nothing about farming and the crops fail. Maybe you brought in Rodguy and his Marxist conservative buddies who tried to pay a Living Wage.

Guess what happens next?? Its simple economics really.

Pray for W and Our Troops

[Cedric]

Hint: The part bray is omitting from the equation {less from deceit than ignorance, I hope} is the part about the relatively inelastic demand for farm goods.