Posted on 11/15/2011 10:19:20 AM PST by JerseyanExile
Skinning, gutting, and cutting up catfish is not easy or pleasant work. No one knows this better than Randy Rhodes, president of Harvest Select, which has a processing plant in impoverished Uniontown, Ala. For years, Rhodes has had trouble finding Americans willing to grab a knife and stand 10 or more hours a day in a cold, wet room for minimum wage and skimpy benefits.
Most of his employees are Guatemalan. Or they were, until Alabama enacted an immigration law in September that requires police to question people they suspect might be in the U.S. illegally and punish businesses -
(Excerpt) Read more at today.msnbc.msn.com ...
What does that cost?
It costs a lot less than the fines for hiring illegals... and it never takes a break , calls in drunk or sues you when it slices it’s hand open ...
I have no idea what it costs but it took all of 5 seconds to find with a search.
If you "own" a business that employs illegal aliens then you too are a common criminal. If you have to pay $100/hr and catfish costs $50/pound as a result and no one buys it then catfish is not marketable.
I don’t “own” a business that employs illegals, thank you. My question that you chose to quote has nothing to do with it. Thanks.
I completely agree.
It is not so much a mindset as it is a fact. Our family farm will offer $8-12/hour for field help. In addition to that, we will provide you with transportation if you have none, and we will feed you snacks, a good lunch, and everything you might want to drink during the day. There are few takers. Why do you think that is? The pay is excellent for this area of the country.
The pay may be excellent, but what about job security? What about becoming part of the operation? My own family ran a dairy and truck farm, and there wasn't much room for outsiders to become part of the operation, to be able to contribute to growth and prosperity of the enterprise, to invest in the place, and to share in its growth -- or decline. All the farm hands were paid a fixed price by the hour, or by the bushel, or whatever.
For some people -- like me -- just "doing a job" isn't enough. Oh, I'll do piecework when I have to, such as when my consulting business had the bottom drop out of it and I became a security guard temporarily to keep money coming in, but as soon as I found something better I was GONE. Which makes me a poor fit for your outfit.
A very good employee than can help this operation prosper, and even grow, has a great chance to become a part of something that pays higher and offers better benefits. Apparently we are not like your family’s farm.
Not sure what it is about this issue that confuses some people, market principles apply to labor just as they apply to other goods and commodities. But than, most farm and ranch "businesses" are so heavily subsidized that the entire concept of market principles has gone out the window.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. You can kill all government regulation and taxes, and you still can't compete with the labor wages in China.
Raising import quotas aren't going to make things too expensive for Americans to buy. Didn't Americans still buy stuff before we outsourced everything to China? Yes we did! The difference was that we all had jobs, and now 20% of us don't.
Do you really think that 15% of the population just willingly gave up working in the last couple of years due to the welfare state? I don't think so. I think they would love to have jobs. They might be holding out taking a job at Mcdonalds or cleaning catfish, because they don't make use of their skills, but you have to ask yourself where did the jobs go? What changed? And outsourcing overseas is what changed.
The choice is simple. Either raise import tariffs which will help equalize the tax burden on imported goods vs domestically produced goods. And get jobs to return to the U.S. Or continue to buy cheap stuff until you and everyone else is out of a job.
I agree.
Smallville has population 100 and 3 factories each employing 33 people that make ooo's aah's and Whoopdedos. There people earn 10K a year and unemployed recieve 3k a year unemployment. Smallville people buy the output from the 3 factories and everyone is very happy. Government taxes are 10%. They have 1% unemployment.
Smallville GNI is 99*10k = 990,000.
Gov't Revenues are 99,000
Gov't Expenditures are 3,000.
Gov't surplus is 96,000.
Scruyank has 300 people and they are dirt poor famers barely feeding themselves.
Scruyank offers the owners of Factory #3 $300 employees instead of the $10k smallville workers if Factory #3 is relocated to Scruyank. Scruyank management agrees.
Notice what happens to Smallville
Smallville unemployment jumps to 34%.
GNI is now 66*10k = 660,000.
Gov't Revenues are 66,000
Gov't Expenditures are 33*3k = 66,000.
Gov't Surplus is now $0.
However the 66% that still have jobs, can now buy Whoopdedo's for 1/3 the price that they could before. They are a little bit better off and begin to look down their nose at the lazy 34% that don't have jobs.
Now Scruyank approaches Factory #2 with a similar deal. Factory #2 agrees.
Smallville now has 67% unemployment.
GNI has fallen to 330,000.
Gov't Revenues are down to 33,000
Gov't Expenditures are up to 67,000
Gov't now runs a loss of (34,000).
However the 33% that still have jobs can now buy both aah's and whoopdedos at 1/3 the cost that they could previously. They look down their noses at the 67% unemployed and think if gov't unemployment wasn't so generous these people would have jobs. They worry that their taxes are going to go up because of all the gov't red ink.
This is a simplified version of the economic warfare that China is waging against us.
Finally the last factory relocates to Sruyank. The gov't goes bankrupt and fails. A dictatorship is installed it begins to offer employees for $100 to other countries. The people can not afford to buy ooh's or aah's or whoopdedos. They look back on the days when they had money and could buy cheap aah's and whoopdedo's and blame their lazy countrymen for ruining everything.
If tariffs on imports were the solution, then every Trashcanistan in the world would simply put tariffs on all their imports and turn themselves into economic powerhouses.
Continue to live in ignorance, but don’t expect me to waste my time with your ignorance.
Tariffs are a consumption tax, I am for it. Most of out trading “partners” already tariff the hell out of our exports. Time to fight back.
It sounds like this guy may be fighting a losing battle.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/17/eveningnews/main7255802.shtml
He is trying to compete with a large influx of imported catfish. It looks like the imported fish already sells for close to 2/3 the price of domestic. Increasing labor cost would basically shut him down.
Not trying to defend hiring illegals, just looking at the other side of the argument that the job is worth more than minimum wage.
The Old Republic circa 1787-1861, you know the Republic that actually worked before Lincoln the Goon ruined everything, was completely financed on the Federal level by levies and tariffs. Odd you consider our founders such "control freaks", I don't.
I didn't make this up but I wish I had: "Free Trade works so well we no longer have a steel or aluminum industry in the US"
PS: Try to export a rug or carpet made in Georgia(USA) into Turkey, Afghanistan or Pakistan and get back to me.
If we needed them, we would have them.
We can buy the stuff from others and don’t need to pay a large premium, a “Buy America” tax.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.