All great civilizations have imported cheap labor to work the fields. America is no different.
We tried Africans. Now we are on to Mexicans.
Southern States used slavery because it was cheap and easy in the short run but it stopped them from industrializing.
Short term gain - long term disaster - the paradigm of all addictions from alcoholism to gambling to disastrous financial decisions.
Feels good in the short term - disaster in the long term. Cheap labor: Probably the main reason the South lost the civil war.
In today's world Mexico's a perfect example - it's the land of 'cheap labor'. Mexicans will happily work for a buck an hour... and their country is a hellhole. A few rich and many dirt poor.
Cheap labor's a short term addictive fix that stops better solutions.... Why develop and pay for research to create a machine that picks cherries and grapes when labor is cheap?
Mass production and industrialization made our country powerful not the labor of slaves or slaves/lite Mexicans...