You have correctly identified the problem on this thread: two subjects are being intermingled, and that’s no way to discuss or solve a problem.
Taken in the context of illegal immigration, Rubio’s remarks rightly rankle.
Taken as a comment on the sad state of our society, they are right on.
And you, sir, apparently know very little about agriculture. It is already highly modernized, but there are just some things that machines can’t do. As long as affordable labor is eager to do that work, everybody benefits.
The problem is that this is not your grandfather’s America, and those folks Rubio was talking about aren’t about to get dirty and sweaty and miserable enough to harvest those crops. Unless, of course, you pay them high union wages.
In which case, you can’t afford the product.
It’s a mess, but it’s not going to be solved properly until a bunch of us quit spouting bromides and deal with facts.
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Nope, sorry. There’s a lot of automation in agriculture that could be done—including around the picking of crops—that hasn’t, because we’ve got cheap Mexican labor.
And I’ve been involved in farming for decades.
The cost of labor in agriculture should be the same as it is in the rest of our economy: what legals and Americans are willing to do it for. That’s the free market. Period. End of story.