 Relinda Walker still can't believe what she heard. Incredulity seeps into in her slow Southern drawl as she repeats the price – only 60 cents for a pound of organic Vidalia onions. Incredible. Walker, an organic farmer in south Georgia has seen great change in her industry, but this price, about 40 cents cheaper than she could ever conceivably charge, really gives her pause. She wants to pay fair wages to her American workers, and she's unwilling to take on the compromise made by some other Georgia farmers, using inmates to process her crop. The affection for this crop isn't lost on Walker. "It's a labor of love," she sighs. The onions take up a lot of land and labor, and are prone to disease. Since she grows organically, there's also the matter of hand weeding, rather than relying on chemicals. In a good year, she says, the crop makes her some money. But despite the low margin for profit and the backbreaking labor every September, Walker plants the onion seeds. She just plain likes doing it, she says. "In the winter when there's not a lot going on, you've still got those green shoots." This year, those green shoots produced a good crop but she still can't get over those low prices she's hearing about. Like many farmers, Walker has a lot on her mind in addition to weather, weeds and water. While it’s great to have beautiful onions lined up row after row, they’re useless if you can’t get them out of the ground. Unlike other farmers, Walker says she never finds herself short of labor. The hard part is finding the money to pay fair wages for the hands that pick her crop. For the past few months, the issue of farm labor has been front and center in Georgia. That's because last year, the state passed HB 87 - a tough immigration law modeled after Arizona's HB 1070. As a result, many farmers complained they had issues finding the farm labor they needed after HB 87 passed. It seemed that migrant workers didn’t even bother looking for jobs in the Peach State, and farmers were already having a difficult time filling positions with laborers on guest worker visas because of their cost and paperwork. The farmers commissioned a study from the University of Georgia’s Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development to determine the extent of damage the shortage had done. The study examined seven staple Georgia crops, Vidalia onions included. The findings were shocking: 18 Vidalia-producing farms lost an estimated $16,312,345 and 835 jobs. In total, the seven crops studied lost almost $75 million and more than 5,200 jobs because of the labor shortage. The state stepped in, with the suggestion of using probationers to do the work. The plan has helped. Farmers were able to save some of their crops, and a section of society that often struggles to find work was given the opportunity to play a small role in solving a statewide problem. This season, one onion farmer has turned to the state again - only this time, current prisoners are being allowed to help with the harvest. The program is small: just one farm using nine transitional center prisoners to help harvest and pack onions. The farmer initially granted media access to his farm but later declined CNN's request. Stephen Everett, one of the men participating in the program did speak with CNN by phone. Everett, who is serving a multiple year sentence for burglary, volunteered to work on the farm and said he enjoyed "being in a work environment with other people." The 42-year-old Georgia native is no stranger to farm labor; his family runs a cattle farm and he plans on working there should he be granted parole later this year. Everett and eight other inmates will have a few more weeks working with the onions, pulling down a minimum wage paycheck. The farmers get a subsidy from the government to cover part of the cost. They harvest, sort and ship the onions. Once the harvest is done, prison officials say they have no plans to work out similar arrangements with other farms or crops. So in Georgia, it's a small and temporary patch for what many farmers say is a larger problem with labor supply. Given the recent Supreme Court ruling over Arizona’s controversial SB 1070, which Georgia’s law was modeled after; it’s clear that the issue will remain a prominent one. Relinda Walker is just happy there’s a cost-effective, albeit temporary solution. She regularly gets calls from local folks, American citizens, she says, looking for farm work. The problem is, she says, they’re too expensive to pay. She could hire laborers on a guest worker visa, but there are additional costs like transportation and housing that make that option an expensive one. Then there’s the issue of verification. As of July 1, employers in Georgia with between 100 and 500 employees are required to use the E-Verify system for new hires. This system compares an employee’s information to Social Security and Immigration records and verifies citizenship. Though E-Verify is voluntary is some states, it is required for most employers in Georgia While the politics of the matters are worked out hundreds of miles away in Washington, all Walker can do is look forward to next Vidalia onion season and hope she can afford the hands that harvest her labor of love. Previously - Vidalia onions – accept no impostors and Peanut butter and Vidalia onions and other strange sandwich delights Also - Chefs with Issues: Immigrants in the kitchen and Comments: the cost of immigrant kitchen labor and How the modern day tomato came to be |
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This is a conflict of interest, sure it's technically voluntary. With money to be made off prisoners the goverment may wan't to incarcerate more, maybe to the point of taking the innocent.
U.S.A. is the land with a private prison enterprize which is seling to holdshares in the stock market a way to invest and make profits. The resentement and hate is in the hearth of a lot of Americans that today are feeling the same felings that was in the hearth of those Natives Americans few hundres years back in time. What a life! The desendents of those murderes land ripoffers,today behave like those Natives Americans.
The idea of using prison labor is long overdue and its implementation would surely cut cost not only to consumers but also our budgets. As a nation we spend taxpayer’s money to house prisoners and their welfare and this idea makes complete sense of retribution. Streets and neighborhood cleaning in addition to other services in the municipality must be applied to prisoner’s retribution to the society. I agree 100% to this idea and see nothing wrong especially at this difficult time of cost cutting.
Someone who volunteers is not a slave.
Calling this situation slavery is an insult to those who in the past were slaves and those who in many parts of the world still are.And I agree with the poster that stated prisoners in good standing should be allowed the opportunity to be used as a work force in other needed positions as well-It probably wouldn't hurt Bernie Madoff to pick a few onions either.
I think it's great that the government is putting low risk prisoners to good use by having them harvest crops. This is exactly what the government should be doing with prisoners – using them to do the jobs that "no american wants". Perhaps this will make potential criminals think twice before they commit a crime. No more "free" 3 hots and a cot. Now, you've got to earn it.
Inmates and those on welfare should be used for stuff like this. Any of those jobs that some people claim no American will take, let inmates and those on taxpayer money do them.
shame on you expecting people who are on the dole to work. shame on you for expecting people who are in prison to work. Isn't it enough that we provide them with a living already!.
I had placed sarcasm quotes around the previous comment and CNN removed them.
Why stop at prisoners harvesting onions? Why not make them assist in rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure of this country? (Roads, bridges, sewer systems, locks, dams, high speed rail etc etc etc). There is no reason why all that work needs to be done strictly by union, expensive labor!!!!
Amen to that! Get them off their lazy butts and put them to work. Prisoners are earning way more per hour to sit in jail day after day after day while I go out to work to keep them there.
I agree with JD, why stop at prisoners. We have people out there drawing a check - long term unemployment, and welfare, why not let them work on the infrastructure. Not sure I want the prisoners out there using heavy equipment. :)
Reading comprehension must be optional here. No one is forcing the prisoners to work – no one is putting a gun to their heads. They volunteer for it. They get paid. How is this slavery again? They may want to be out – this is the way. Is it prime? Probably not. Is it still a choice (and one that slaves didn't get)? Yes.
How much do they get paid? It does not say. My guess is that they get paid less than the minimum wage. Which creates a slippery slope with regards to corporate prisons funding the campaigns of judges so that more people are thrown in jail to provide workers for their farm subsidiaries.
"Everett and eight other inmates will have a few more weeks working with the onions, pulling down a minimum wage paycheck."
I see where it can go wrong like you say,but so far they are voluntary(Ever been to jail?You would be happy to pick onions too!),and get paid minimum wage which they can spend on commissary.Traditionally,farmers would have their children manage the farms,before the days of relying on immigrants to do the labor.I asked my Granny who picked the vegetables when she was a kid,and she said,"we did'!'That was how kids earned money for things they wanted in the Summer".She said she picked cotton,beans,tobacco,and everything else.Of course that was in the 20's when the finest tobacco was grown in Florida.I imagine hemp will be grown for fuel,and tobacco will be grown here again one day out of common sense.
I absolutely agree, few responders seem to have read the article. just the headline and immediately started with the slavery junk! I think it should be expanded to include all manual labor choirs.
Why are so many people declaring this slavery? Don't people know that programs such as these are rewards for good behavior? Prisoners attempt to EARN the ability to get out of prison for a short public works program like picking crops, cleaning up the roadside, etc. Don't forget that they are PAID to do these activities. If a prisoner doesn't want to perform the task, then they sit in their cell instead (which they would have done if the program weren't available). They have a choice, unlike slaves.
Since the majority of inmates are African American this is a clear move towards "legal" slavery. Don't give me this "room and board" crap, most of these inmates were sent to prison over non-violent drug offenses due to the failed war on drugs. When you see lines of African Americans in fields picking cotton and detasseling corn you white folk will feel real nice driving by in your air conditioned car, won't you?
Slaves didn't get paid. They also didn't have a choice in the matter. These people have both.
Wow, what a sad, angry and racist person you are. And to top it all off, you didn't even bother to read the article closely enough to find that these inmates are PAID FOR THEIR WORK which is sorta different from slavery. Just too caught up in the opportunity to let that garbage spew from your fingertips.
First they are not inmates, they are probationers, second they are not doing this under duress - did you read the article.
"The state stepped in, with the suggestion of using probationers to do the work. The plan has helped. Farmers were able to save some of their crops, and a section of society that often struggles to find work was given the opportunity to play a small role in solving a statewide problem.
This season, one onion farmer has turned to the state again – only this time, current prisoners are being allowed to help with the harvest. The program is small: just one farm using nine transitional center prisoners to help harvest and pack onions. The farmer initially granted media access to his farm but later declined CNN's request.
Stephen Everett, one of the men participating in the program did speak with CNN by phone. Everett, who is serving a multiple year sentence for burglary, volunteered to work on the farm and said he enjoyed "being in a work environment with other people." "
Then vote for Ron Paul,he wants to pardon non violent,small amount,drug related convicts.He say's it is not only a waste of the taxpayers money, but it leaves kids without Dads, and 72% of black kids grow up fatherless.The prisoners out of jail are missing out on skills that they need to land a job,and ofttimes end up committing some petty crime to make money.Repeat cycle.Sure, some are hard heads that refuse to obey the law even when given a chance.They can crack corn for all I care.
It is interesting that the inmate cited in the article volunteered to do the work and said he “enjoyed being in a work environment with other people." I wonder why someone with this attitude behaved in a way that sent him to prison.
Are you sure we're getting upset about the right issue? Georgia passed some knee-jerk legislation targeted primarily against Hispanic illegal immigrants. It had unintended consequences - turns out a lot of Hispanics don't want to work or live in Georgia now - regardless of immigration status. As a result the state has lost a lot of workers and money: The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association estimates a loss of $391 million and 3,260 jobs. To help offset those losses, the Georgia government set up a small, temporary program that lets NINE (yes, really, only 9) halfway house prisoners out to havest onions for a few weeks. They don't plan to do it again.
Finally, a voice of reason! Thank you.
You also have to remember that these numbers are not separated by class.Mega corporation farms will be hit worse in the long run and hopefully go out of business.Right now these corporations are strong enough to manipulate the prices to try to force the small farms out of business because they own the very packers that buy the onions.Once communities get their own packing and shipping back,that is when the farmer will see some profit for their hard labor.
It is not going to happen overnight,but it must happen if we are going to save the American farmers.
No reason to buy onions, or any crops, from idiots who want to keep immigrants out but are too stupid to realize that this will mean their crops won't get picked. Now they need to rely on what amounts to slave labor. I guess slavery hasn't left the South after all.
Um, it is not the farmers that pushed the legislation. It's the Armchair Patriots. Who will probably whine when they cannot find local peaches or Vidalias in their suburban Publix.
i didn't read all the posts but i'm pretty sure....yep, pretty sure the prisoners are being paid minimum wage. now, i may not use proper punctuation, but i'm pretty sure i was taught history in school and i don't remember learning where slaves were paid much of anything.
Picking COTTON for The MAN. Just Like The Good Olde Days. The Days when a Plantation OWNED its Work Force is Remembered Fondly by the KKK and the GOP Leadership.
Cool, the Republicans finally got us back to slavery.
1. If you have prisoners do the work, you're putting the taxes that YOU paid to the IRS into the farmer's bank account.
That's a form of entitlement, known as "corporate welfare"...
I worked at a grocery store in high school. I processed Western Union transfers from the US to Mexico by the hundreds every month from day laborers. Would you prefer tax dollars to be recirculated within the United States or your salary earned by immigrants who send it home to stimulate their own local economy?
They would be in prison anyway, leaching up funds for nothing. More money in the farmers pocket means more competitive prices, which means more people could afford better food. Farming should be highly encouraged.
I don't quite understand people. Why is this an issue? Do you know why most (I say most becuase you have those instances of wrong convictions) go to jail? Because they break the law, and after they break the law they are given free room and board. And do you know who pays for all this....all of us tax payers – at least those of us tax payers that actually pay tax and don't get EVERYTHING back in a refund every year....but that's a whole other subject. I don't see a problem in replacing the "illigal" labor with prison labor. The only problem I had with the illigal stuff is that they are in the country not paying taxes – make them pay taxes and I'm ok, but it's not ok to be here and not contribute. And let's face it, the jobs that they work, how many of us are really willing to do that kind of labor. Have the prisoners do it, it will help everyone. It's not slavery – they put themselves in that position – thier fault!
It is an issue because we are trying to stop Slavery, not find ways to justify it.
We have a system in place that some illegal immigrants use to pay taxes. It is the ITIN program. The IRS does not investigate status, but expects that much of the money generated under the ITIN program is taxes paid by illegal immigrants. Many experts also believe that the mismatch between SS and W2s is also the result of illegal immigrants paying taxes. Based on these assumptions, in 8 years (1996 to 2003), it appears that illegal immigrants may have paid more than $90 billion in taxes. (Info is pulled from a USA today article)
Why would an illegal immigrant pay taxes? Sometimes it's required to get the job. Other times they hope that it will help if the government rolls out an amnesty program. Still others feel that it's their civic duty - they enjoy opportunity in the US and don't mind paying taxes back into the country.
Our nation's humanity is savage.
Its government sponsored slavery any which way you cut it. I understand its voluntary for the inmates, but when you are sitting in a cell all day getting some fresh air is probably nice. Im sure the slaves that were being transported across the atlantic were pretty happy to be on dry land as well.
The slaves being transported across the Atlantic were sleeping, living in "spoon" fashion. They were paid nothing. In almost all cases, the slaves of an African XYZ tribe were sold to the crazy white Dutch/English/etc buyers for baubles. But then there were many indentured WHITE slaves at Jamestown. The indigenous peoples of North America practiced slavery. That was then, This is now! These felons don't work for free!. They are paid. They voluntarily do it! Try reading!
Moderator...Just include me out. I cannot deal with so much sensitivities! Scrap my post... sorry to bother you folks,
Everyone screaming slave labor I'll bet not one clone here can say exactly how many or how much a picker has to pick plus this may include rent, utilities, medical access, food, transportation etc. ANYONE?
I'll type it slow, so you understand..
The "pickers" have a choice, the slaves do not..
"The hard part is finding the money to pay fair wages for the hands that pick her crop." Shoot, i'd go out and pick onions for $2.50 an hour. I don't exactly have a lot of options open at the moment and any kind of employment for any pay would be nice. It would be nice if people would get off their high horse and realize how much minimum wage limits hurts the unemployed.
You're either lying, or your LYING.
You have a computer and internet access, $2.50 an hour won't pay for dinner, much less rent AND dinner.
Stop trying to pretend what few laws of decency we have are unimportant.
WOW.... government sanctioned slavery! Don't pay a living wage to nationals, don't want to pay a living wage for immigrants....instead...pay pennies on the dollar for prisoners who have few options......gotta love this country!
Slavery? Slavery? The farmer pays for the help. The FELONS get free food, room to sleep and health care. They have a library, cable TV and you think that I, (The tax payer) should give them a free ride? From 1955 until now I supported myself. These felons do not! What is wrong with working them, paying them and using the proceeds to offset their care and maintenance? I would work them like a rented mule for .50 cents an hour!
And would you make them call you "Massa"?
You really have no legitimate thoughts to offer. Still, I'll jump in; Do you feel that felonious, antisocial people are "owed" food, medical, entertainment, and a place to sleep safely? I don't!, I feel one must work for his/her or?
please. cable tv with 6 chaNNELS YOU CANT HEAR ANYWAY WITH ALL THE CHATTERING MONKEYS, SHUT UP ALREADY WOODHEAd
Simple fix. If you ain't making any money stop growing that crop and move onto something else. Or if you can't find a way to make money get out of farming. There is nothing wrong with using the inmates for work. They want to be out of jail and you need labor its a win win and most aren't in there for crimes that bad anyways(ie. didn't or couldn't pay child support, or public drunkedness). This farmer needs to learn that she is in a grown up world and needs to adapt. And for some reason everybody is on the all natural and organic bandwagon. I refuse to buy anything that says these two words simply because I am educated enough to know facts about modern production farming systems. Not so much on the plant side but animals but still.
And if you made it to the end of this post good for you cause I couldn't make it through most of the posts on here. Crazy how many english majors we have in this world.
And Abraham Lincoln says "Didn't I put a stop to this a few years ago?"
Don't quite understand what you are talking about here bud. Is it that everybody on here is calling the inmate working program government slavery? Thats just idiotic. Its not the inmates are in jail they want to see the outside and most want something to do. I know many that do this, they all say its better than sitting in a cell all day long. Sure they don't make money but heck they are in jail not on a real job and they don't have to pay for being in jail if they sign a paper saying they can't afford to pay for the time they were in there.
Suggest you look up the term slavery, then comment about it. This is not slavery; this is a person performing work and getting paid for it.
People convicted of felony's, I'm not talking about pot smokers, but thieves, robbers and looters, should work to offset their keep! Why do I, the taxpayer have to pay for their upkeep? They get fed, medical care and cable TV, no charge to them. I say work them at least six hours a day, Farmers can pay them minimum wage. Use their earnings to pay a part of their fare.
Slavery..slavery's good M'Kay?
Can I rent your daughter this weekend?
OMG PEOPLE!!! IT ISN'T FREAKING SLAVERY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They GET PAID to do this work, they learn a skill, they have something that says they are capable of working once they get released from prison. If I were in prison & was offered this opportunity you bet your underwear I would jump at it. These people are NOT slaves. Did the slaves have an opportunity to learn, did they have access to the regular things that their owners had, did they get paid for their work, was their work voluntary???? No, no & no. These inmates are asked if they want to work, the get paid minimum wage & they don't have to if they don't want to. This is the problem with people now a days, nobody wants to work, God forbid anyone have to work for the stuff they get, God forbid these PRISONERS who HAVE NOT CONTRIBUTED to society have to ACTUALLY work!!! That's why this world is going to hell in a handbasket.
Society pays for their upkeep because society made the rules, paid the police to enforce the rules, and they broke the rules and were caught. A society bears the burden of its rules, and there is a price to pay to keep the rule-breakers off the streets. We as Americans have lost sight of the fact that we are a SOCIETY, A COMMUNITY, NOT SIMPLY A COLLECTION OF INDIVIDUALS!!!! We have common interests that ALL must pay for because ALL benefit.
Vidalia onions have always been considered somewhat of a delicacy in my part of the country, so prices should be higher. Maybe I am young and naive, but why don't the farmers just hire the unemployed at minimum wage and sell the onions for enough of a profit. If all the farmers did it, and the foodies wanted there delicious onions, the onions would be bought regardless of price (truffles anyone?). So long as all the farmers hired workers at minimum wage it should be okay. I realize I'm an idealist, but I also detasseled corn at 14 years old and know how crappy field work can be on a hot day. If you want the money, you'll do it.
That's the whole problem. People don't have to work. They get welfare, subsidized housing, free medical care, food stamps, free school, etc etc. Why in the world would they want to go out in a field and pick onions?
Crazy how our taxes are paying chain gangs to do the work.
Oh... and I've paid taxes the entire time... I'm on a high horse for a good reason – I'm not a freeloader. Ignorance is contagious – get a flu shot, dummy.
Amendment 13 – Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
...except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted...
No issue here. Move along. There is plenty of work for prisoners to do.
I don't like the idea of inmates picking my produce. I can imagine them spitting, peeing, and pooping on the ground as they work. They don't take pride in work they're forced to do. Let them make license plates and furniture, but I don't want them touching my food. And pay regular Americans real wages to do the job.
And its another stupid conservative idea that sounds real satisfying to say but is absurd to put in practice. Do they hate "illegals" so much that they prefer violent felons in their neighborhoods picking vegetables instead? This would cost us all more to truck the prisoners to the fields, guard them securely and then truck them back to a secure location. The fields could be a long drive away from the prison. The only place this actually works is in Angola prison, LA. ... because the fields are INSIDE the prison fences.
Think people, before offering stupid ideas.
I agree, think before offering stupid ideas. THIS idea has been tried and proven cost efficient and even an enrichment for inmates. So before you continue, take your own advice.
wth? you dont wash your food before you cook it? eww
You have obviously never worked on a farm - it is hard work. If you need a job go to any of the farms out there I am sure they will hire you as a farm hand, if they can afford it. Be prepared you will start at the bottom minimum wage. Are you prepared to stoop all day picking onions (in this case), cutting weeds out of beans, etc. I did it when I was in high school to earn college money. It is not a fun way to earn a living.
Sounds like a good idea.
And after the unemployed pass their drug tests and before they collect their weekly check, they can pick them too.
I've been unemployed and never collected a handout – so, why would I be expected to pass a drug test unless it was as a new hire for a company? Please don't put welfare trash in the same category as someone laid off from a job after twelve years.
Hate to tell you buddy, but welfare from the state is welfare from the state. Get off your high chair and get a job before you start trashing others.
I lived on a severance package from my former employer AND NOT ONE DAY OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
Dean, you are an A $$. Unemployed people receiving benefits were working at one time and paying into the system. How dare you suggest that unemployed people are freeloaders. Have you even spent 10 minutes doing some homework before opening your big mouth?
Bring back the work camps on all levels – including debtor's prisons – if you could not pay your bills a hundred years ago, you went to jail and then to a work camp until you PAID YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY. It sure would make people think twice about what true responsibility is.
Amen!
Hey why stop there. Let's just hang from the highest tree, anyone who "Dean" thinks is doing something wrong. Never mind if Dean is correct or not. Bow down to the King who knows it all.
I vote tom to be the first hung.
Yes, taking parents away from their kids is a great idea.
Agreed, send the kids with them.
Yes, just like they did back in the good old days. ... When the kids were sold by the workhouses to factories, put in leg irons, beaten with sticks and straps, and occasionally had to endure such poor work conditions that they grew up to be crippled, got booted out and got to start their next career as street beggar. When fires started in factories, the workers typically died. The doors were locked to keep the child labor from running away.
Using slave labor undercuts the free market. Without a cheap source of exploitable labor (immigrant labor), there is no choice but to increase wages (which would of course make food more expensive), unless of course another source of cheap exploitable labor exists. Meanwhile unemployment continues above 8%.
Conservatives want their cake but eat it too! They say that all regulations on businesses are bad. That business should be left alone. Then at the same time, they want to tell businesses who they can hire if that person happens to be latin and "illegal". Hypocrites!
This whole idea of hating them coz they are "illegal" is absurd. Many things are illegal. Speeding, running a red light, cheating on your taxes and putting down that you gave money to the church when you did not, stealing a pencil from your company – all those things are "illegal" activities. Why is crossing the border without a paper so much more horrible to cause so much vitrol than the other illegal activities I named. I just don't get it.
Did you read the story? The onions are selling for 60c a pound. Farmers do not set the prices. They take whatever the market offers. If their labor cost goes up, they take it on the chin and go broke. They cannot pass on the increased cost. That is the problem. The anti immigrant fanatics did not think of any of this when they voted to expel farm laborers from the country.
Repeal the 14th Amendment. Open re-education camps for all convicted felons. Arbeit macht frei. Problem resolved.
Or maybe just let the free market set wages at a high enough level to attract workers. That is if you really beleive in the free market. Of course the farmers want the lowest wage possible and that means "wink" hiring illegal workers. The farmers do this by hiring a contractor to supply the labor. Since the workers are hired by the contractor and not the farmer, the farmer can say that he did not hire illegal workers.
I am sure that many farmers want to obey the law but they are undercut by the ones that want the cheapest labor (a variation of Grisham's law). The truth is that farm labor is hard and the pay is low because almost of the power is with the farmer. The farmers face pressure from their buyers to keep prices low. If someone can tell me how the free market will resolve this problem, please tell me. The current system is capitalism with almost no restraints.
Last year, Georgia farmers lost a couple billion dollars because a stringent immigration law kept illegals away. Now they're resorting to chain gangs to reap the harvest.
You reap what you sow.
Yes, and I bet the inmates are just crying over this!
If you rely on illegal labor, you have no business being in business.
Absolutely put them to work!!! Prison is not supposed to be a counryclub. Put them to work harvesting crops, building roads, digging ditches, any project that will help the public infrastructure! If they try to run away, shoot them and save us the money of having to house them for breaking the law!
You have my vote.
Nothing like "southern values" aka "slave labor"
Actually, work programs are voluntary.
Idiot.
lol yeah, the choice is either to sit and stew in one of the torture chambers we call prisons or go out and do hard labor. That sure doesn't sound like slavery!
inbred morally bankrupt clown
they are prisoners...why shoudl we pay for them to sit around all day...we could have kids if we wanted that.
Prisons are not slave camps put the unemployed to work not force prisoners to do so
the prisoners need to pay for the room and board. Honest work never killed anybody
Forced labor for corporate profit is not "Honest" labor.
How is this forced work?
Jacktaraz::: The word "Entitlement literally means a "Right" as in the individual has a right (entitlement) to receive money from the Social Security fund he or she paid into while working. It's equivalent to people bragging about being "Conservatives" when they are to dimwitted to open a dictionary and see the actual definition of the word conservative, if they beleive its a complimentary term then they have some issues that they need to work out.
For the rediculous Anti-Union rants on here: If you are anti-union then you are pro-slavery; I can't put it in any simpler terms. The idea that the workers producing the actual product are obligated to live in poverty is the stupidest concept that has come down the pike in my lifetime. History always repeats itself and when the masses reach the tipping point the streets will run with the blood of the oppressers, the 1%'s or whatever rediculous moniker the politicians want to use. That's not rocket science that's revolution, and that's how they start. They begin with oppression on a large scale and when the tipping point occurs they end with death on both sides. Somehow many of us allowed the dumbest of our species to rise to positions of power and influence and almost all of us are paying the price. There are millions of Americans who consider themselves very patriotic who are ready to take up arms, and they come from all sides of the spectrum meaning GOP, DEMs, Tea Partyists, etc. The 1st American revolution was over paying taxes and not being represented does that sound like a completely foriegn concept??
And for those of you thinking that the issue here is a farmer unwilling to pay a fair wage its universally about greed, the middleman is always trying to get more of the share than the producer (Farmer/worker) As one farmer on here mentioned (in a diffderent way) when you remove the greed factor and work together everyone prospers not just the person who wants everybodys share. I live in a world populated by intelligent people and people who are such imbeciles it amazes me they dont drown when they look up while its raining.
The word is spelled ridiculous, Not rediculous. You should probably not write that people are imbeciles if you cannot spell a simple word correctly.
So now we are getting the root of the immigration problem: These illegals are flooding across the border and stealing jobs from our prisoners. Americans should be outraged!!!!
Besides politics it is everyone who goes to the store to buy these and will not pay what it actually costs. The farmers don't even pay minimum wage. When they did to the convicts they were subsidized for their "lost income". I grew up on a farm and even in the 70's got paid only 1 dollar per wagon load of hay I unloaded. I could unload 8 wagons per hour which was good wages. These farmers are not paying enough either per hour or per 100 pounds harvested.
I admit I only read the article and none of your comments. Why don't they make this a part-time, summer job, off the books, for teenagers – just like babysitting or mowing lawns? My cousins used to pick corn in the summertime in Illinois back in the 1970's. Let tweens & teenagers work and learn about responsibility and the fun of earning one's own money. We don't need immigrants or illegals to do this – let the kids of America get to work! Okay, a little simplistic, but I do wish there were a simple solution that would get the crops out of the ground and teach American kids what hard work is.
Yes, I remember friends and cousins picking tobacco in Maryland (as I was washing dishes), but there's no way kids today could do it. I know, every generation says that, but no teen I've seen would be able to put their phone down long enough to get anything accomplished. Not exaggerating.
What I disagree with is paying prisoners minimum wage to do anything. Prisoners should have to work to cover their room and board while they are in prison. The harder the work, the more their account is credited. So if a prisoner is working hard and taking the hard jobs then yes, maybe they have a positive cash account when they leave. The state should bill out their labor at minimum wage to the farmers, and apply the income to their prison stay accounts. If a prisoner is lazy and gets themselves locked down to avoid performing work, you run a bill and when the sentence is completed you release the prisoner. When they get a job you garnish a portion of their wages until the prison balance is paid off. If a prisoner is taking technical, skilled trades, or college courses to gain a career skill you treat it like a credit if and only if they are taking approved courses that will make them contributing members to society after they are released, and are not violating prison rules. This would put enough money in the coffers of the states and federal prison systems that new facilities could be built, and more income could be generated.
So you say:"When they get a job you garnish a portion of their wages until the prison balance is paid off." You can't garnish the product of ill gotten gain :-). This would raise the incidence of recidivism if you could enforce it. Why pay back the state when you can steal from someone and not declare that income? Like all GOP rhetoric, it is empty or their heads are or you are just full of it.
This a prime example of Georgia GOP hypocrisy: Try to score political points by demonizing migrant workers who were already underpaid and exploited for hours of hard labor that no one else wanted to do. Then try to compensate farmers for their losses by getting prisoners who don't work as hard or as well, cost the state money to use, and there aren't enough of to keep crops from rotting in the field. But do you think the rural farmers worst affected will elect Democrats who support workers' rights? Of course not. They'd rather choke on their onions.
Spot on Jay. Repubs are masters at getting people to vote against their own best interests.
You'd like for everyone to believe that nobody here wants to do that type of work but you are wrong. Nobody here wants to do that type of work for LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE! That is the entire point.....a fair wage for a fair day's work. My first job as a teenager was picking beans in a neighbor's field. It was hard work but it was an income. In between seasons I would work at the local greenhouse planting flats. I had no problem doing that work then and if I had no income now would absolutely do that again. The difference was that I was paid minimum wage and not 2 bucks an hour. If you actually advertise jobs that pay at least minimum wage and you will find Americans willing to do those jobs. But if you pull a pickup truck into the local WalMart parking lot and expect to find hordes of American teens hanging out waiting to jump into your truck for a promise of $2/hr cash then well....you probably aren't going to find very many.
The price of organic Vidalia onions is upwards of $3.49/lb. If the farmer gets 60 cents per pound, that means someone is making $2.89/lb. If "the store" says that transport, refrigeration, labelling, etc. costs $2.89/lb, how can anything in the produce aisle cost less than that? Someone is making a killing, and it's not the farm labor or the farmer.
The farmers need to go to their local high schools and put it out there they need help. Where I live jobs are difficult to come by for teenagers. Yes it may take a bit more time to train them but hey you have a cheap work force.
LOL! Just get teenagers to pick up the slack??????...are you FREEKING joking? DO YOU LIVE IN AMERICA?...Most not all but most teens I see these days will not get out in the sun working hard all day for minimum wage...plus the sun not good for there smartphones screens cant see to txt...sure I am joking a bit but Teens WILL NOT make up this job market. Figure out a way imigrants can work here legally with dignity already!! This red vs blue stuff isnt getting America anywhere.
Teenagers today are a useless drain on our society. Spoiled brats afraid of work of any kind, unless it involves Facebook or an iPhone. Parents are afraid to make their kids work because it will make them look poor or mean to their kids. I started babysitting at age twelve and got a job in a restaurant at age 15 – all by my own choice. Nobody made me. Kids today are lazy and have a sense of entitlement that will not benefit them or our country in the long run.
The idea of using teenage workers in field shows the true lack of understanding of how difficult it is to hand pick produce in the south during the summer months.
So for all of you immigrant hating 'they're taking our jobs' crowd-Why didn't any of you apply for these good old American jobs? You cost other people in the industry money AND jobs because you are so bigoted and ultra conservative. The biggest blow hasn't hit yet. All of those 'illegal' immigrants also paid taxes, social security, unemployment and disability taxes that they couldn't recoup, thus subsidizing YOUR payments. Now that they are gone, guess what? You'll be paying the unemployment for all of those 'legal' workers who are now unemployed because the crops won't be harvested, packed or shipped. Oh and by the way-expect your food costs to go up as well.
Finally, an excellent labor source for "jobs Americans won't do" Instead of hanging out with their crew in the prison gym building bigger and better muscles or meditating with their therapist, actual work for the wasted tax dollars spent on them.
When a country is successful like America once was, employers use impoverished labor to do unpleasant jobs. When good jobs are outsourced and the exploited labor returned to their OWN country, businesses will have to raise wages and improve conditions to stay in business. That's the way capitalism works. Destroying a successful American culture for a diversity agenda which allows employers to stop improving working conditions and pay if they want their crops harvested is destructive of America. If you aren't creative enough to find honest labor, too bad. In addition, the spoiled and entitled babies our education system are feeding fantasy propaganda to need to see the reality of what can happen and how hard survival can be when foreigners replace Americans on the Gov's list of priorities.
It isn't that Americans won't do the job, they just need to make a fair wage to pay their rent and feed their family. American citizens have costs that workers here illegally do not (such as filing that good old federal income tax return at the end of the year under the same ssn you worked under, not a stolen/falsified ssn for each). Also take into account that migrant workers are often paid in cash and a wage less than the state mandated minimums. How many employers are going to risk hiring an American citizen for a less than minimum wage and pay in cash when they know there is a higher risk of getting the whistle blown on them? Do you really think someone here illegally is going to complain that they are being paid less than minimum wage? And how many Americans do you know who can afford to pay for gas, car insurance, rent, groceries, etc on less than minimum wage? Some of those costs aren't applicable to those here illegally (after being the victim of 3 accidents caused by an illegal immigrant with no insurance each time I can vouch for that one). So it really isn't as simple as you are trying to make it out to be.
So if we gave the immigrants work permits, and allowed them to work legally, so they coul pay taxes and social security, would you be okay with that? That woul still be cheaper than the state paying the inmates to work. It should be obvious to everyone now, that the immigrants are NOT taking jobs away from other people. They are taking the jobs that nobody else will do, because these jobs require very hard work.
So you are saying before the illegal immigrant workers came here we had no people to harvest crops, no lawn service companies and no construction workers? You are dead wrong. My first job, AS A TEENAGER, was picking beans at a neighboring farm. It was hard but I got paid fairly. One of my uncles worked in construction and the other had a small lawn and landscaping service business. Now here we are 25 years later and people are now saying that Americans weren't willing to do these jobs??? Once again, dead wrong. My entire family did jobs of this nature until we were literally having to compete with people who were willing to take half of minimum wage for cash. Since most Americans can't make do on that amount we did what we had to do and adapted. I ended up joining the Army and my uncles went in together and opened an electronics repair shop. Maybe because YOU aren't willing to get your hands dirty and work hard doesn't mean the rest of America hasn't and isn't willing to.
Picking COTTON for The MAN. Just Like The Good Olde Days. The Days when a Plantation OWNED its Work Force is Remembered Fondly by the KKK and the GOP Leadership.
Interesting comment considering the time frame in which you refer. A time when Democrats controlled politics in the south. A time in which Republicans were needed by LBJ to pass the Civil Rights Act much to the consternation of Senator Byrd, Gore, etc!!! Ahhh the 1950's and 1960's when Democrats were such fine upstanding people, you know like George Wallace and Lester Maddox!!!
Bring Back the Party of Lincoln and that REAL Conservative Teddy Roosevelt who Created the National Park System to PRESERVE the Wealth of the Nation from robber Barons. The Current Neo-Conservative is More FASCIST Than Machine.
one of the things I like best about conservatives is how they stick to the fact and truth, although I admit I was a little surprised to learn that LBJ was in office during the days slavery. MY, my. The things one can learn on the internet.
You think that is something, wait until we take away your food stamps and other social service benefits. You are going to have to either work for a living or starve to death. You and all 85 of your illegitimate children.
One of the things I am sure you and your "cousins" never considered when you put Obammy in office. The repercussions of when he is no longer there.
2012 The End of an Error. The biggest error in the history of this nation.
Have you read "The Grapes of Wrath?" Death by starvation, sounds like you don't take that very seriously.
The entitlement economy and diversity agenda started in the 1960's with fantasy ideas about human behavior. The entire trajectory is a failure just like Communist and Socialist economies. Most EU countries are pushing back on the multicultural agendas which create parallel cultures and will destroy a successful society. The Netherlands just passed a law rejecting the multicultural approach because of the destruction primitive cultural ideas have had on their successful society. This will include deportation for those who don't want to assimulate. Israel has already deported many Sudenese whom they find a source of crime and problems. America is being destroyed by foreigners who embrace values of the 19th century and our Gov has allowed it for 50 years. So, it's not JUST Obama and don't think Romney is going to do anything different in this area either.
RP, please remember that those same Republicans who were needed to pass the Civil Rights legislation then turned to the Southern Democrats and said "See how your party has deserted your values? Come and join us and we will maintain the seniority of your Senators and Congressmen." That was how Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and their ilk became Republicans, and how States' Rights became the mantra of the Party that was founded to fight against the abuses of States' Rights.
Wow, okay, so you are obviously not from Georgia. A few years ago, say 14 or 15, Redneck Larry turned in his neighbor Redneck Sam for using illegal immigrants for onion picking, it kind of backfired when the INS showed up and took everybody's labor force away. Boy, were the farmers crying then, where they going to get people to pick onions before they rotted in the ground? I stopped at a convienence store outside of Glenville, Ga, near the first of the month and was accosted by people try to sell me food stamps for $.50 on the dollar or buy beer or wine to trade for food stamps, and not just by one or two people, but by about 15. I couldn't get in the store, it was like they were going to die if they didn't get something to drink, but they had food stamps. Want to guess what color they were? Who cares? What matters was there was a work force, BUT THEY DIDN"T WANT TO WORK. And why should they? They were getting food stamps, and finding enough people to trade them for alcohol that they were okay.
So, put away your race card, if people are like that, then they don't deserve ANYTHING. but the dumbocrats will make sure that "everybody is treated fairly" won't they?
Umm, hate to break this to you.. but um, the KKK was founded by democrats... probably the grandfathers of the Mormon/religion/successfull businessman/conservative hating democrats of today.. just saying
Well... they worked, right? It's better than what we have today. Decent, honest taxpayers are paying for everything for those who now feel "entitled" to sit around and do absolutely nothing – oh, wait... they find time to have babies that they cannot afford, how could I forget?
Be careful of what you ask for – you may receive it!
They didn't want foreign workers picking the crops. Hard working people just tyring to survive and willing to put in a hard days work for their pay. Now they'll have murders picking the food you give to your children. Georgia made their bed and now they'll sleep in it. You got to wonder though, prison workers work for free or dirt cheap. Slave labor, just like the old days! Georgians must be delighted.
Did you actually read the article?
From cheap labor to slave labor. Why do I feel America is going backwards?
Paid minimum wage. The law was designed so that ILLEGAL immigrants are not allowed to work; at slave labor wages without proper taxes.
Please read the article & use your brain.
Its a Govt. subsidy.
Right Wing Fail.
If you think about it, America was built on the back of slave labor. Free labor is what made us great and powerful and allowed us to become the world power we are today. Look at China now and you should see the similarities to what happened in our early days. I'm not agreeing with the practice by any means, just stating an observation.
So according to you, it was a good thing that Slave Labor built the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court buildings and started construction on the Washington Monument? That slave labor built the buildings at the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia, and the Virginia House of Burgess and other government buildings there? Just makin' sure.
I see no problem with convicts doing the work that would have been for the immigrants. After all, our taxes is keeping them up, and the have to do nothing. I even believe they would be less likely to commit the crimes again, since they realize that prison will no longer be a place for free loaders. Free loaders are serious scum of the Earth that purposely try to get in prison so they never have to work and have everything they need while some of us law abiding citizens are struggling to keep ourselves above water.
I see no problem with convicts doing the work, too. The problem is only some of the farmers are able to get these laborers. If this is to benefit the entire state of Georgia, then every farmer should have this benefit.
I also see no problem with convicts doing this work instead of illegal immigrants. At least more of the money will stay in the US instead of being sent to the home country. It will also teach the incarcerated the value of work (for those who are willing to learn, anyway). At least they are providing a benefit to society at last instead of being a drain of tax dollars. And again, at least more of them will be spending their earnings within the US which goes back into the local economy.
This would be all fine and dandy if we didn't have a private prison industry locking people up for sneezing in the wrong direction.
Seriously, this is another excuse for corporate america to imprison people for petty crimes and use the "hard labor" excuse as a way to have these so called hardened criminals "earn their way."
I have no sympathy for these farmers or the consumers dying for cheap crops. Pay people a fair wage and raise the prices accordingly.
Simple and fair.
Then you'll be complaining about high food prices, if you want everyoen to get equal pay, expect your food prices to rise by atleast double.
Pay people decent wages and they will be able to afford a little higher price. We have a culture now that thinks everyone should be a CEO and we need to support every inept business owner until they run another business into the ground.
Why stop there? I say raise minimum wage to 100k per year, then poverty will be eliminated right? It cant possibly backfire.
Why not use the concept of offering customers "Pick your Own" and charge for the cost of the crop only, since the customer is the labor? It's not a total solution, but all things by the sum of their parts make something work out.
Ever hear of offering customers "Pick your Own" and charge for the cost of the crop only, since the customer is the labor? It's not a total solution, but all things by the sum of their parts make something work out.
There's the GOP answer.
Get rid of immigrant labor and use slave labor.
Some may consider this slavery, but these are convicts we're talking about.
If anything, it's community service.
This is such a great idea on so many levels. We don't need immigrants; the food gets harvested; the inmates earn part of the "keep" it costs the state (i.e. taxpayers like you and me) to support and house them.... and quite frankly, labor and gardens are a good way to get some introspect, a way to touch and get in touch with the real world. Kudos !
Public school sure failed you two. The government pays more money to the farmers to offset the cost of prison workers. So really, Georgians are paying more to allow the prisoners to work the farms. How is that better?
There's big business in prison workers labor.
Get all those GOP voters who are anti immigration and on welfare to work those fields. No work, no food stamps.
The prisoners are making minimum wage, while the GA state government helps to pay the wage. The prison system can charge the prisoners for transportation costs, costs to feed them while working, so in the end, the prisoner has little left in the way of person money made from working the farm. The solution some will make, will be to get rid of the minimum wage. Some farmers are able to provide a 'living wage', some farmers cannot and some farmers will not. Read into this, the GA tax payer is paying taxes to house the prisoners and paying taxes to pay the prisoners to work. Those taxes help the private run parts of the GA prison system, which by contract must be kept 90% full. The private prison corporations donates to those in political office. What does a person do? RUN FOR OFFICE and HOPE TO WIN! (or else do a crime, get housed in a facility where you have a bed, a shower, food, sex and time to work out in the GA sun, developing your tan. Inmates will enjoy those tan lines!)
Well that kind of work is too hard...only brown people can do that kind of work...it doesn't pay enough for me to have a 10 bedroom house and 3 SUV's...somebody else should do it, we might get dirty...it smells funny...I have a Master's degree in business..."Obama" made me do it...
I hope your comment is a sick attempt as a joke... or you are the joke.
"The farmers get a subsidy from the government " Fantastic. Republicans have got rid of the illegals and subsidizing the labor WITH YOUR TAX DOLLARS. Need I say more?
John McCain said Americans won't pick lettice in Yuma Arizona for $10.00 to 15.00 dollars an hour. I think he is full of it. Republican business people just like cheap, illegal labor. They don't have to deal with rules, regs, litigation, union etc. Republicans are 90% responsible for our run away illegal allien problem. Illegals have wised up and moved on to the other jobs that pay alot more. We don't need 15 to 20 million illegals to pick fruit and vegetables. Get rid of illegals and watch unemployment drop to 6%. Raise the price of produce at the grocery store so farmers can pay a fair wage, and watch Americans picling apples, onions, lettuce on americas farms.
RAISE THE PRICE OF FOOD...SO FARMER CAN PAY THEIR WORKERS A DECENT WAGE???
SO, a farmer paying his workers decent wages, having healthcare plans, comply with labor laws and ETC... will require the farmer to hire HR personel, since the wages will be more complex and a farm need many people to function then he will need a payroll personell and ETC.....
IF THE FARMER HAS TO PAY for all that and try to make profit selling his products, i dont think anyone will be able to affrod food.
farming does not generate much profit for a reason.
That's what I was going to say....stop selling your onions for .20 each and maybe you can pay to farm them?
farmers don't set the prices. The market does.....
@Shane
right...I am sure everyone in the USA will be able to afford a $10 onion.
So you're saying citizens would be willing to work in the fields, in the broiling sun, bent at the waist, to plant, weed, cultivate and harvest? Then where are they? Why did the industry lose 75 million dollars? There were plenty of jobs waiting. How many unemployed bankers, investors, factory workers, school teachers or even teenagers showed up? NONE. Face it; Republican day dreams of illegal immigrant bogeymen are just that. Day dreams. They use them to keep the ignorant and uninformed frightened and in the fold.The world will collapse because of National debt, health care, illegal immigrants and oh, by the way, there's no such thing as Global warming. We (the GOP) are the only ones who can save this country, but please disregard the fact that we put you in this financial mess in the first place!
Increase the wages and hire the high school and college kids looking for work. Let the fat-cat middle-men store take a cut in their prices. Maybe its time Americans learn what it takes to grow food and pay a bit more it if gives American kids jobs... or subsidise their wages with all the Pork, Incentives, Kickbacks, etc Congress throws to Big Corporation.
Change is coming.... former WH residents, Congres, Fed REserve (NOT a govn't agency), bankers, CEOs, world wide are about to be arrested for massive crimes you see being expose now.... for updates, search benjamin fulford, david wilcock, drake interviews.... Time the Bushs get jailed for their 9/11 murders. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
chill out, hombre
Oh! High school and college kids doing this work! Damn they are too busy with ipads, iphones and video games and following what Justin Beiber is doing next and so on... We have already started to mess up the work ethic of our future generation. ..
Alex that was great and you are 100% correct
@alex
some are busy studying biology, chemistry, physic, Nursing, Math, statistics AND LATER they create cure for diseases, new fuel for rockets, star their doctor residency and etc...
you trying to imply that ALL college students are lazy and just lounge around is pretty damn ignorant.
Most of you don't get it. If labor intensive crop farmers raise wages and have to charge more money for their products consumers will simply buy a cheaper alternative farmed in another country. that is the way it works. consumers have alternatives, including onions grown in other countries. that is why high wages for labor intensive crops means that farmer would simply stop growing that crop.
I buy produce directly from a local farm here in PA. I know it's fresh, I know the people who grew it, I know it sure tastes better than the genetically engineered or imported crap they sell in the grocery store. I'm willing to pay just a little extra for it and to support our local farm community rather than pay for the imported items I can get right here in my own state. If I want a pineapple I go to the store. If I want onions, tomatos, lettuce, peppers, etc, I either grow it in my garden or get it from the farm.
That's the key.
Where I live, except in Winter, I rarely have to step in a grocery store. What for?
Eggs, meat, fruit and vegetables all grown locally. If it's packaged in a cardboard box, I don't want it anyway.
Now I wonder if that farmer you give cash to will declare this income to the IRS or state revenue department? Trade an illegal immigrant workforce for an under the table economy. It does make sense in a way, at least to the Amish farmer...
Epidi,
I also go to my local farmers markets for certain produce rather than the store. It is a little more expensive but it taste so much better and I am helping the local farmer.
my god this country's stu p id.
LET US ARREST MORE BLACK PEOPLE on MARIJUANA charges and let them do farm work.
we can bring back slavery all over again.
You must send your resume to the Republican national headquarters immediately.
Democrats founded the KKK, hello! ..the slavery south was predominantly democrat. Evidently you're one of the educated democrats the party has so many of.... Pay people a decent wage and they will work.. if everyone plays by the rules (another hard concept for democrats, I know) evryone benifits..
It's a great idea! I think the mean, tortured onions that went into the Angry Whoppers would have been more zesty had they been tended to by inmates.
LMAO
slavery is back.............
Slavery is back huh? LMAO is right because now white inmates have to experience it now to see what it is like to be a SLAVE!!!! I GET A HARDY LAUGH OUT OF THAT ONE! AMAZINGLY FUNNY AS HELL!!!!
We should get Jan Brewer the governor of Arizona to go get her onion picking hand in the field to go pick those onions.
And tragically, the reality of our dependence upon exploited foreign labor has now been made clear. We refuse to pay the modest increases in prices required to provide workers with a living wage and modest benefits and instead turn to prisons to find the labor needed in the fields. Shame.
What will it take for people to wake up. This is slavery, pure and simple. For profit prisons, right to work laws, destruction of the safety net. The country we once knew – for those of us old enough to remember – has nearly disappeared. It does not have to be this way and we do not have to lose what so many sacrificed so much to achieve in previous generations. A first step would be to make illegal prison labor and not permit it to compete with the private sector.
PLEASE HIRE ME. I live in South Carolina, and I WILL GLADLY pick onions for whatever it is your are paying. I am serious about to run out of all help. PLEASE HIRE ME. SOMEONE PLEASE .......
Like someone told Forrest Gump: Are you stupid boy? If you speak and write English and can only get a job picking onions you are welcome to go to Georgia, no one is stopping you. If you can work 8 hours in the sun in a backbreaking job for very low pay you are welcome to.
BULL..............IF YOU REALLY WANTED TO WORK FOR ANY PAY THEY GIVE YOU, YOU CAN FIND MANY FARMS.
READ THE ARTICLE.....IN SOME COUNTIES THERE ARE 532 JOBS AVAILABLE AND ANOTHER HAS MORE THAN 1000 FARMING JOBS AVAILABLE.
YOU ARE JUST MOUTHING OF ON THE NET, TO TRY TO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE YOU WILL DO ANY FARM JOB FOR ANY PAY.
AGAIN...I SAY BULL.......
We should arrest more people to work for cheap labor. Just imagine the possibilities of a new gulag system!
now if this isn't slavery ... arrest the illegals, cause they working i the fields without permission, send them fro the prison to work in the field for free ... to make them pay their debt to the society.
Slavery, that's what this is about
Would you rather pay more for increased prison size or pay less with illegal immigrants doing jobs that many Americans would never accept?
I dont hear nothing about the fact that in Georgia and a lot of other places the Republicans have turned the prisons over to the buddies of the politicians in power and they will reap the money paid to the prisoners. the tax payers will still pay for the bar bells, color t.v.s, food and clothing and medical care of the inmates just as they always have and the pols will get the kickbacks from thieir buddies Saturday at the Country Club. This is pure bull droppings.
If they use prison labor, they should be required to pay minimum wage or union scale, whichever is more, and the prisoner should get the pay, not the prison company.
All this fuss over an onion. If the damn onions are as good as they are cracked up to be sell them as as you would T-bone steak or caviar and the ones that cannot do without them will pay whatever the price. This is nothing but whining from the greedy farmers who want to get rich quick and sell out to some conglomerate and move to Atlanta and live in a penthouse on Peachtree Road. I remember seeing the farmers driving through Washington in brand new, air-conditioned, John Deere and Allis Chalmers tractors protesting something or another. The leader of the movement had to stay at home because his helicopter needed repair. Onions make your breath smell like a dead cat and gives you heartburn to boot.
WHAT!? Americans don't want to do the work? Union you say?
She cant afford to pay what the labor market defines as a fair wage because no one else is paying it. A vicious circle.
this seems to be absurd, the "story" for the last 20 years was not white americans wanted these jobs so we had to let the illegals come on in and do the work ... now with over 32 mil of them here none want to do this work? What happened to your argument? It was all a bunch of bs huh ... it has to do with the wages not the work – stupid.
are you retarded? can you read? they cant work in georgia because the new labors laws...not because they dont want the work. And there are not 32 million illegals genius. Wow....go read a book. can you read?
LMAO
slavery is back........
I live in a smaller rural community and eight of the ten families that live on our street are unemployed. A couple factories laid off all the employees after being purchased by a major conglomerate, which in turn sent the jobs to China for $1 a day. We've been trying to grow most of our food and we've managed to drill hand-pump water wells. America cannot compete with $1 a day Chinese labor. And the executives and shareholders are all making a killing on the profits. There is only two mom and pop stores and they are nearly closing because they cannot compete against the big box stores. Most of the families here cannot even afford to go to walmart, much less shop at an all-American store. The American dream has been sold to China. All the tax cuts in the world isn't going to fix this.
She can't afford to pay what american citizens want to get paid??? then stop farming!!! if the rest of the country pays minimum wage to keep a business she can too. The article says this is a "lack of labor"??? no it's a lack of good wages. If Apple decided to pay 10k for an engineer they will not find them either. America got used to paying $3 an hour for farning labor, let's get back to good wages.
I agree. The Farmers have come to rely on Illegal Aliens. That wasn't always so. Years ago, LEGAL Americans did that work. If ALL the Farmers complied with E Verify, then the ALL would be in the same boat. And then, if prices need to rise, then so be it. But, I doubt that is the case. The United States takes in 1.25 MILLION LEGAL IMMIGRANTS each and every year. If you take away the Welfare, Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing from them, they will gladly do this work. OUR problem is NOT wages, it is the Entitlements that low wage earners, legal and not legal, have come to depend on and expect. You take away those freebies, which we cannot afford anyhow with a $16 TRILLION DOLLAR National Debt, and those people will have Maximum Motivation to work.
And, what happened to the Chain Gangs that Georgia, Florida and other States had?? The ACLU and Bleeding Heart Liberals killed them off? Bring them back.
We have plentiful labor sources here in the U.S. But, when you PAY people to sit on the sofa and eat government food, you don't have any takers for low, minumum wage jobs. Remove the entitlements and America can go back to being productive. Make the Politicians erect Trade Tariffs, to protect our jobs and they won't go to China. Vote the Politicians OUT who allow our jobs to go Offshore. Stop crying and whining. DO SOMETHING about your predicament. If all the LEGAL Citizens that are now unemployed voted out the Politicians that do NOT protect U.S. jobs from going Offshore, the new crop of Politicians would get the message. Instead, people whine and cry the blues and then either do not vote, or vote the SAME slob back into office that was the problem. Take back America with your vote!
It's not that she doesn't want to pay them a fair wage, it's that American consumers will not or cannot pay the prices for products that are built/harvested by Americans. Compared to other Western countries, your average Americans aren't earning a living wage. Factor in the exorbitant cost of health care, what little income they have left barely pays for the bare necessities of living in most cases. American made items inherently cost more, and most refuse to pay that cost.
Slave labor. What a great idea! It works in China, it kept the munitions factories of the Third Reich running, and now American Agriculture gets back to slavery after that unfourtunate Civil War "Misunderstanding". The problem is that slaves are not as motivated as paid workers. Indeed, slaves are not motivated at all. You get a lot of rotting smashed produce with slaves. After a season of farm bankruptcies, perhaps we will be more grateful for Mexican farm laborers and will try to treat them like human beings, instead of slaves.
Lots of initials after your name and you STILL don't get it.
The basis for ALL business is the rule of "SUPPLY & DEMAND". IF the majority of a Farmers crop rots in the ground, then the portion that IS picked and packed will be worth more.
All this talk about Slaves and the need for Illegal Aliens is hogwash. For over 250, the American economy was THE best in the world. Then, the WORST President that we ever had, Lyndon Baines Johnson, LBJ, and Congress passed his "Great Society" Program. Paying people to sit home and procreate. It ruined our economy and took the motivation away from people to work. Hungry people make motivated workers. Period. Fat people sitting on a sofa, watching Oprah Winfrey are NOT motivated.
This is utter BS. I am a farmer and I have at least 3 if not more American citizens with families to take care of ask me for a job every week. They are willing to do anything to put food on the table for their kids. They are law abiding, hard working, and do jobs any illegal would like to do, and are willing to do it for a legal wage, and a few benefits. One thing though, I do give those I hire a stake in it all. After harvest is complete, they get a bonus which is based on profitability. The less machinery is tore up, the more production they give me, and the more they are willing to work as if this was their farm, the bigger the bonus I pay. They have never been let down, and Americans are really hard workers, when feeding their Children. It is soooo untrue, that illegals are doing jobs no American will do. It's called work ethic and my employees are awesome.
You may have missed an important point in the article. It wasn't that the farmers couldn't find Americans to do the job. They just couldn't afford to pay Americans a fare wage. The implication here is that the migrant labor was not making a fare wage. It sounds like you take good care of your workers and run an efficient operation. If a farm can't afford to pay a fare wage to it's workers, then they can't continue to operate in a free market. If these farms are important to us, and I think agriculture is very important to our national security, then we need to look at a way to subsidize them like other countries do.
Mark, No, YOU missed the point. This Farmer, vet4life63, pays a living wage and gets ALL the legal workers he needs. He runs his farm the way it SHOULD be run. Government subsidies and ILLEGAL ALIEN workers are a recent issue, only 50-60 years now. America ran like a clock for over 250 years.
Jack, read what I wrote again. I said this farmer is obviously doing things the right way. What you fail to see is that obviously not all farmers are able to do it like that. A lot them, as the article indicates, are reliant on cheap migrant labor. When that labor gets scared away, they have a hard time staying afloat because they can't afford to pay a fare wage. What you don't seem to grasp is that without subsidies, you would be eating a lot more Mexican produce than you currently do.
By the way, Jack, that clock ran on slave labor for about 100 years, and the equivalent of slave labor in the south for around 100 years after that.
that was before international trade. America manufactured electronics years ago, what about today. Republicans said freetrade was good, that it would create jobs. Freetrade across nations makes goods cheap and creates wealth for companies and shareholders that ship jobs abroad. how can an american farmer pay 10 dollars an hour if a farmer somewhere else pays 1 dollar an hour or less. eventually the American farmer cannot compete and will shut down his farm. He can only compete in crops that are not labor intensive and require machinary instead such as wheat and corn. The US dominates world corn production.
Andrew got it right. Vet4life63 has 3 US Citizen working for him. It is obvious that his operation is not Labor Intensive.
Thank you, Sir, for setting the truth out there.
SO it's not that Americans will not do the work. It's really about companies and their never ending goal to profit off of dirt cheap or slave labor.
If inmates do jobs that no one else wants, which is obvious since the farmers were using illegals before, and the inmates are paid going wages, that's a very good thing. Then the inmate may leave prison with enough money to get a home right away, such as first and last months rent and damage deposit. Having a home should cut recidivism and make it easier to get a job. All good.
Your state may be different, but most states don't pay inmates "going wages." Washington state pays $2 a day, Colorado $.60 a day, and other states are in similar situations. Atop that, they likely have to pay restitution out of whatever they earn, too, so while you're hopeful and optimistic about an inmate's future, it's sadly not going to happen.
Unions are the cause of that. Lobbyists and Unions are killing our country. If inmates are paid just enough money to take the job, then they will be motivated. If the Unions hammer the Politicians to only pay $0.60 per hour, then it is harder to get them motivated. I have never been in prison. But, if I WAS, I would rather work at bringing in the crops, then sitting in a cell, rotting away. ALSO, Felons have a hard time getting jobs because of their record. They SHOULD be grateful for farm work. Three hots and a cot are better than re-offending and going back in. Drugs might be part of that problem. Not enough disposable income to buy drugs when working for farm wages.
Good points. I used to be a prison guard and even at sixty cents a day and no chance at overtime, inmates would volunteer for all kinds of extra work just to stay out of their cells. One of the things I'd like to see is that a cons record in prison be used in his favor when looking for a job. If he was a good worker and gave nobody any problems, that should count toward his evaluation. (Not holding my breath, though.) Still, if it gives a con a chance to get out and keep from re-offending, bring it on, regardless of wages.
so if inmates do the work, the taxpayers are paying for them?
That is kind of how it sounds. To hire Inmmates at fair wage farmers need either to raise prices or get subsidies from the goverment. Since raising prices is not an option in an open market (You have to compete with foreing produce), then the subsidy is the other option. If the Federal Goverment gives a subsidy, then you can conclude that your tax money is been used to paid immates to work on someones else farm.
Either way, taxpayers pay – always have. We're either allowing illegals to quietly work (farmers pay a small fine per person) or we're paying convicts through tax breaks and other social programs.
People who call this slavery and prisoners should just be allowed to serve their time are a bunch of fools. Criminals work now on furniture, license plates, and other jobs already. They need to pay for the housing, food, education, and workout access they get while incarcerated. Most prisons have wonderful education programs and taxpayers are already fronting the bills for these criminals to gain college educations while serving their time now. So frankly making them pay for all the above is the least they should do! They committed a crime, not suck it up and do the time! I hope they take this nationwide immediately.
dang does that mean I might have to mow my own lawn?
Funny, I manage a full time job and I grow, and can enough to feed a family of four and two elderly for the year without exploiting cheap/slave labor on no more than 2 1/2 acres...Maybe its just time for everyone to get back to community and basics, Maybe its the cities that are not sustainable.
they are growing for 10's of thousands,not a family of four.The unemployed will not work for them.they believe the work is too hard for the wages,and below them.
Take away their Entitlements, Welfare, Food Stamps, etc. and watch them get motivated. FAST.
Truth.
Is your crop Labor Intensive? Apparently not, because you said you have a full time job. Some crops are different than others. This article is about those crops that are labor intensive, not those that can be hadled with machinery.
That reminds me – my family had a garden in our backyard for five years when I was a little girl and the whole family worked in it pulling weeds and picking vegetables. It was wonderful. I miss those days!!
Funny, I am reading a lot Liberals complain about slave labor, and a lot of conservatives saying how good it is to give prisoners a job and help them be productive. But why am I not hearing from the conservatives any comments about more TAXPAYER funds going to corporate welfare? Paragraph 12, starting with the 42 year old Georgia native also mentions the prisoner to work program has the farmers being subsidized for the cost (probably part of the cost) of using prison labor. Shawshank redemption anyone? SO not only do the taxpayers pay to lockup the prisoners, now we also pay to have them work at a corporate owned farm.
They get a break for hiring illegals too, no taxes, etc...Businesses seem to ALWAYS come out on top and the taxpayers pay for it.
Yep, it is called socializing the risk and privatizing the profit. What a deal.
Oh you have to love private institutions. Capitalism isn't just left to the businesses, it can also be applied to human slave labor in the penal system! God bless criminals for making the ultimate sacrifice!
If this practice continues as a success, this will prompt the state of GA (and especially TX too), to increase the rate of convictions on relatively small infractions. Yes racially profile certain people whom they would rather see picking crops at cheap rates.
Avoidable if they have to pay prisoners the same wage as anyone else. Which... they would probably choke on and refuse to have as a law... but it remove much of the incentive to just throw people in the slammer purely for this.
I understand your concern, but they also face a jury of their peers. Our incarceration rate is so high in this country, what are we doing wrong in this country raising our kids? They obviously don't think the laws apply to them, they keep breaking them. They are too good to pick crops but they can rob homes, steal cars and grow pot instead of taking pride in putting in an honest days work. It's hard to see inmates as victims but we as a society are doing something seriously wrong. There are too many of them.
I think it takes a real cynic to believe that they would purposely incarcerate folks just for cheap farm labor. And if they are going to, then they can start with illegal immigrants – how about that?! But seriously, this is a long time coming – we spend all this money jailing folks, when instead of "paying a debt to society" we are paying to give them 3 squares and shelter. I say put em to work!
Slave Labor is making a come back.
I'm not thrilled at the idea of prisoners essentially being one step away from slave labor. On the other hand, I'm not thrilled with the idea of prisoners watching cable TV and working out all day long. Harvesting crops would at least be USEFUL.
Personally, I would have no problem paying 3-5 times more for produce if it means a legal resident can get a job doing this work at a fair wage. Same way some people will pay more for "Fair Trade" coffee, I would pay more for "Fair Trade" produce. I acknowledge that not everyone would and even some who would just wont' have the money... but farmers, label it as a product that is harvested by legal residents for a fair wage, and you just might see some sales even if it's more expensive than your competition. There are those of us who will vote will our wallet.
This could actually be very helpful. I'd imagine after being in prison for awhile you come out and it isn't easy to get a job. If you have no options you're more likely to resort to crime again. However, if we have the prisoners doing work that gives them some experience at least and if the money goes back to the prison system it will be less of a burden on taxpayers.
I'm not saying it is a perfect system but it might just beat having them sit around in a cell doing nothing. While we're at it let's make it mandatory for everyone in prison to also take some general classes so that when they get out their communication skills are solid. It's of no use to anyone if they come out without any hope for improvement.
I don't have time now to read thru all comments so perhaps the point has already been made: problem is that tending to growing crops – weeding, etc. – and hand picking at harvest time may be hard physical labor but it's all skilled work. Migrants who've made this job their life's work know what they're doing or if they happen to be new at it they're working within a community of skilled workers who can show them the ropes and guide them. Growers don't have the burden of teaching newbies. This country used to be chock full of family farms. Labor needs were met locally – including letting children out of school to help – and we also had home grown migrants who worked regions or followed specific types of crops. When agri business started buying up family farms, the existing system broke down and agri business started bringing in cheaper foreign labor in great numbers. A great book on the subject is "With These Hands" by Daniel Rothenberg who conducted extensive interviews with everyone involved including growers, contractors, and workers. It's nothing new at all that in hard times people start screaming about migrant workers taking over jobs. I marvel at this considering I read over and over that the greatest number of illegal workers by far are people from all over the world who overstay their visas and work in offices, in construction, and in other non-farm jobs. A well defined well organized guest worker program would seem to be a must for agriculture at least for the foreseeable future. And cutting down on illegals who do take jobs that U.S. citizens are well prepared to handle should focus on locating and deporting people who overstay their visas. My understanding is that Pres. Obama is doing just that as part of targeted approaches to controlling illegal labor. We should support that effort. Illegal immigration is a multi-faceted problem. We need to face that reality squarely to deal with it effectively. Meanwhile, we should appreciate the invaluable contributions migrant workers make to our health and well being. Grains, corn and some other crops can be tended and harvested by machines. Fruits and vegetables need skilled hand work.
Really this is where we are going with this? Our country can't feed itself so we must have open borders or use inmates. Please, if that is true we have no business being a country. That is disgusting. I buy all organic produce so I'm used to the expensive prices. The majority of people who can't afford it buy food imported from other countries. No amount of slave labor can compete with those prices. We would have to not only allow slaves to go around labor laws but lower our environmental standards. That will never happen.
Watch a country destroy itself by deporting those who work the hardest. Too bad we can't deport the scumbags who passed the law instead.
In Malaysia they deported all the illegal immigrants because "they might be terrorists" "they are causing all the crime" "they are criminals, why can't they just come legally?" "they are taking our jobs" After they threw them out every factory nearly shut down. Malaysia ended up begging them to come back.
anti-immigrant folks are the whiners that can't afford higher food prices! Let them have it.
Here is your chance white people, you complain about immigrants taking your jobs. Now go pick your own fruits and vegetables. Oh wait....you can't you're all 400 pounds and on the verge of diabetes.
NO! NO! NO! No prisoners! That is slave trade! Make every legislator & voter that backed anti-immigration laws to get out and work in the fields. Every white stuffed shirt and racist peckerwood should be doing those jobs as they are exactly the ones who said immigrants were taking American jobs. There are American jobs in fields, go do them. The prisoners are paying their debts in jail. Make the White Hate Machine pay their debts in the fields.
well said !!
Yep, let's deport all of 'em. Then watch the right wingers whinge and moan about how food prices have skyrocketed (which will, of course be Obama's fault).
I totally disagree with the concept of paying prisoners low wages to harvest any crops. Untill the prisoners are paid the
wage any other worker would have received, I will boycott all crops farmed with prison labor. Unemployed people
cannot get the work because the farmers pay much less to prison labor, so prison labor is preferred.
How dare we treat criminals like criminals? You know what, I am totally with you and, in fact, until I get free room and board I am going to boycott my landlord. Until I get my meals paid for I am going to boycott the grocery store. Until I get free cable tv I am going to boycott my cable company.
Uh, which means I would be homeless and starving. Wow, its a shame not everyone gets a free ride like inmates. Seriously, how could Anyhoo think we actually make them work without being paid at least $8/hr?
Yeah, and I see a nation already with the highest per-capita population of offenders and ex-offenders, criminalizing even more – if big food gets the notion that they can make more money on the backs of cons. Watch, it'll happen.
Why should prisoners be paid anything at all for working in the fields? They have free housing, meals, unlimited healthcare, libraries, etc. It won't hurt them to do something productive. We should also reduce unemployment benefits and stop paying people to stay at home and watch TV; most are qualified to work on a farm and earn at least minimum wage.
Trololoolol
and while were at it, have the prisoners work for free to the highest donor for that senator, congressman, governor. whichever.
Sue do you have any idea what it costs to house and feed those prisoners? They are a big drain on the economy. If there are some prisoners that would be eligible and able to work these job by heck put them to work! I think it would be good for their moral to be closer to society and being out in the fresh air and doing something useful. I think my friends husband makes about 66 cents an hour in prison and 12 hours a day. I think those prisons are getting a good deal and it fills a great need for farmers.
It is slavery. If there is a financial incentive to put people in prison then fairness goes out the window. You are being short sighted like the people who ran off the immigrant workers.
It's funny how everyone were screaming about illegal workers, until they realized that they have to pick fresh produce under the sweltering heat.
Exactly. Uber conservatives love to blow smoke to hide their true colors, whatever color bigotry might be. What jobs are these illegal immigrants doing that 99% of Americans would be caught dead doing? ANY job some white bread American is going to apply for is one that could not hire illegals. Yeah, I am sure Target and McDonald's are really going to break the law and hire an illegal immigrant.
There is nothing random about these things. Folks definitely know what's going on here. This is bad for business – the illegal people we employed often had miserable lives but at least they made some kind of wage. Now we're resorting to prisoners – and when the first prisoners escape or whatever – the violent prisoners then what? What happens when ACLU folks file on the states for basically instituting slave labor practices. This is just bad policy. We need to find paths to legal immigration.
Hire more Americans and pay fair wages. It's ok to allow price of the produce to go up. I thought that's what every anti-immigrant wanted.
If you pay more in labor the cost of the product is not going to go up at all, instead we will just stop growing them and they will come from Mexico.
Well the way around that is for the government to set the prices for the crops and... oh wait, that's socialism, BUt it's cool, Newt already is pro socialism. ANyone remember when he promised to set gas prices at $2.50 a gallon?
Wait, hold on. You mean to tell me that getting rid of the immigrants not only doesn't free up more jobs for American citizens but creates one Hell of a mess since immigrants do jobs noone else will and without them it creates unforseen problems???
Who could have guessed? It's amazing when conservative bigots pass laws they ALWAYS end up biting them in the a s s.
Anything to keep from paying real workers a living wage.
Did you even bother to read the article? These farmers aren't making enough money to pay workers the minimum wage.
Libs don't read, they just regurgitate the same talking points depending on the topic.
No Walter. You want to deport immigrants? Fine. But if you expect to pay Walmart prices, you better accept the fact that you are paying for slave labor.
Oh, no, illegals are just taking jobs away from all the desperate Americans who are just lining up, hat in hand, for all those farm jobs out there.
Put them all to work in the fields. But make sure they have Total Recal type collars on them. If they run away it blows their heads off. Plenty of cheap labor for the fields.
Dude...come on. That's ridiculous.
You're talking about Running Man. Not Total Recal, or "Total Recall" as we English speakers spell it.
Too funny I just spit on my screen...really that's where you went with it! LMAO
CHAIN GANGS – Picking Cotton for THE MAN
I heard screamin' and bullwhips cracking How long? How long? Southern MAN better keep your head Don't forget what your good book said Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast Southern man
This is why we have 5% of the worlds population and about 80% of the worlds prisoners. It's called the industrial prison complex. You send a guy to jail for 5 years for a bag of marijuana and get 5 years of cheap or free labor out of him. We arrest 750,000 people in the United States for marijuana and it costs us $41 billion. If anyone thinks this work farm helps anyone but a few people get rich they are seriously out of touch with is really going on. If didn't cost taxpayers money and make money for a few wealthy people it wouldn't exist. Legalize marijuana and let the farmers pay what the employment market demands instead of using marijuana slavery to get rich. And we worry about what other countries do with their criminal justice system and slave labor. We have the one of the biggest problems in the world right here and we're doing anything about it. The private prisons push for longer sentences for drug crimes so they can make more money in their human warehouses. What a joke.
Hmmm...wonder why all the millions without jobs aren't offering to pick onions? Answer: it's easier to just collect that check from the "gubmint." That's why.
Typical tea party response completely lacking of facts. "She wants to pay fair wages to her American workers, and she's unwilling to take on the compromise made by some other Georgia farmers, using inmates to process her crop." It's because they can get labor cheaper than minimum wage. This actually costs taxpayers more money. If you understood that private prisons get money from both taxpayers and the people their prisoners work for you would be able to offer a valid opinion in this discussion. You would see that the private prisons push for longer sentences so they can keep their legal slave labor force at a cost not only to the prisoner but to the American tax payer. You do pay taxes right?? Do you like giving wealthy people that own private prisons your tax dollars so they can get more wealthy using some guy for five years that got caught with a dime bag of marijuana? Probably you do like it. Sarah Palin told you to like so you'll just like it without having any information or an original thought that you actually produced without influence. That's generally what the tea party people do. Follow the words of the head of the party like Popeye following Alice The Goon.
Did you read the article - they pay minimum wages to the probationers.
If I ever go to prison, I sure as hell won't work for them. The guards will have to carry me everywhere because I'm more determined than any guard will ever be.
its treible to think that there are so many dead beat lazy Black and White people who think they are to good to do a real days work for a check. at least mexicans are willing to do just about any thing. to get a check.. not like the B trash dealing drugs and Robbing and killing to get money. imagine that
Then you are going to love solitary confinement.
The only way to get a job these days is to be an inmate. I'd rather they make a little more money and be able to take this job when they get out at a real wage but it's better than nothing and it's better than illegals.
It's not better than illegals. Don't forget that the illegals that you're talking about are the hard working, tax paying type. Terrorists don't usually come over here and pick crops.
It's also proving that this is a great way to run an economic system if you're one of the elite. Imprison the masses and force them into slave labor.
Employing illegals doesn't prove that we should all be put into prisons to work for free....so I support that over this solution.
If you receive unemployment or welfare payments and are able bodied, you should be put to work. It really is that simple. Pick crops, mow the grass at a park or clean up the streets. No free riders
Sounds a lot like FDR's work programs during the Depression... you socialist!
Exactly. No way the tea tards will go for that, no matter how reasonable it sounds.
yeah, and you can bring your three year old with you and tie his leg to a stake in the field since you can't possibly afford childcare on minimum wage because no one will take less than $10/hr to watch him in this country.
Well, the return of the chain gang. Boss Hog and the those good old southern boys farming out prison labor so they can line their pockets. Black men better find a job quick here comes the old vagrancy laws the old sheriff will be hitching you on to a chain gang.
Good to see slavery is alive and well in America, where it was supposed to have been stamped out all those years ago.
You see, what happened was we had Indians working, but the diseases that were brought from Europe wiped them out, to a large extent, so their labor was replaced by blacks imported from Africa. When slave-owners were told they couldn't own slaves anymore, and the slaves were "freed", they suddenly had no education, AND no job... so they either had to take jobs for a pittance, or starve. Not wanting to have to pay people they used to own, Americans turned to Mexican peasants (immigrants/migrant workers) for a source of cheap labor. As Mexicans took over parts of the US, and injected themselves into American politics, and started demanding rights, America turns to the NEXT source of involuntary labor, they can exploit cheaply.
That's prisoners. As it happens, the majority of prisoners are... you guessed it, Indians, Mexicans, and Blacks.
Nothing's new under the sun, friends. Slavery has metamorphosed, and evolved... it never really went away.
Actually their working for their room and board that the citizens of the state they are in provide. Toss in the color tv programs and the free continued education all payed for by the tax payers of the state. Don't see any slaves there.
You are correct Mike. It's (typically) costs approximately $40,000 per year to house an inmate... and, when they're released, they have nothing – no money, no job, no place to go. This program helps them resolve the first two of those issues, and also helps them pass time while serving their time.
Awesome. And the money that the state pays to the privatized prison- does that go back to taxpayers because the inmates are paying their own room and board in jail? Of course not.
Thank you Patiat!
It's always the same issue with conservatives/people who think conservatively. They are sooooo focused on "what they're losing" that they don't even consider what's actually happening, who's being hurt by it, who's profiting, what they'll do with their profits, how this could affect their children and morph into something else....
"I'm a taxpayer and I hate paying taxes for prisoners!....and that's as far as I'm going to think it through!"
No, they are not working for their room and board. The taxpayers are still paying it. now the taxpayer is also funding the farmers costs sooooo a corporate bailout to the good old boys club funded by taxpayers.
You are proof that stupid is as stupid does, and apparently a product of the liberal madrasas (public school system). I hope you'll seek help for your neurosis.
You do realize the fact is liberals tend to be better educated than conservatives, right? Tell you what, go to a colllege campus and carry a sign that says all illegal immigrants should be sent packing, gays are an abomination and Obama is a Muslim who wasn't born in America....
Good point TeeJay.
Strong communication (speaking clearly) always requires (needs every time) an explanation in parentheses right behind it (a subsequent translation appearing between two curved vertical lines).
Your assumptions....pardon me, your facts, are all accurate. Right down to your new spelling of "madrasah."
Good job! (Satisfactory Work!)
wait a minute... isn't unemployment around 10 percent? Why hire inmates when 1/10 of our population is out of work?
Oh, I know... because that 10% would rather not work and take money from the government than to work hard labor.
I have a nice office job now... but when I was out of work, I picked up a shovel and a hammer and did hard labor. Jobs are available, its just that people are too lazy to take them.
Actually they probably get to have the inmates at below minimum wage.
I sure you were doing that hard labor with all the other that lost their jobs and have fought back from the brink. I have been lucky and my job hasn't gone any where. But it is funny to see all these people saying they started doing construction.
The 10% unemployed would love to have farm jobs. The problem is that the farm owners are looking for slave labor – they want to pay minimum wage with no benefits, no retirement, for working in the hot sun all day. What happens when you throw out your back? The $80 you made working 9 hours probably isn't going to cover surgery...
Did you read the article. The farmers pay minimum wage or less and the state kicks in some money. Another words: subsidy. I'm sure you could get citizens to pick if you pay enough to cover the cost of transportion, clothes, laundry, etc. If it doesn't cover the cost of showing up NOONE is going to you up, period. But you would rather cut your nose off and have the harvest rot in the field. Good luck with that. I hope the peaches rot in Georgia and the oranges fall off the trees in Arizona. Prison labor: that sounds like communist China to me.
Reread the article. The answer is right there for you.
It's right there for you TeeJay!!!!!!!! It's says that they're subsidized by the state – your tax dollars pay prisoner wages!
"The farmers get a subsidy from the government to cover part of the cost." (of paying them minimum wage...if that's not absolutely clear to you).
How is your Tea Party brain ok with this??? You're out here accusing people not reading the article and of liberal bias and all this other stuff. YOU NEED TO RE-READ THE ARTICLE.
He is right Tee Jay. It says that it is subsidized by the state.
No big deal. They use prison labor in communist China and North Korea too
I live in the greaat central valley of California, we grow a lot of food crops, right now stone fruit is rippining in our current 102 degrees, yes we have a lot of illegals who get out there and pick the ripe fruit shipped all over the world/Locals out of work will not do the back breaking work.CALIFORNIA IS NOT LIKE ARIZONA OR GEORGIA , we in California welcome the workers and know they will bring in the crops, Remember that when you bite into that lucious peach or other fruit from California
What did we expect? It's not like we didn't forsee the problems with our food supplies & farming a huge crack down would bring. As we crack down more on immigration, we'll start seeing more & more issues arise that the public tried to ignore beforehand. It will affect our food supply & the price of our food first & foremost. It's why the gov't at the federal level has not truly tried to stop illegal immigration all at once. They are aware of the national crisises it will start. If only state & local governments would stop trying to pander to the public hysteria and try to educate the public instead.
Actually we'll have to just start paying a decent wage to farm workers and increased prices for produce. Won't be a food shortage unless we refuse to pay up for a days work..
why don't they just find all of those hard working unemployed americans
Lot cheaper to get the inmates now that the illegals and migrant workers are gone.
How about we indenture people who cannot pay their medical bills because they don't have proper insurance? Instead of them getting away with never paying or declaring bankruptcy, they can pick onions.
Unless they're dead from the lack of treatments.
What I've always said: the low-brow race haters will change their minds when they have to pay more for their food. Notice that good ol' white 'mericans aren't showing up in the fields? And they won't. Like the Nazi's before them they just needed someone to blame for their lack of education and work ethic.
It was only a matter of time before slavery was brought back to America and the south. This was the intent all along. Southern states to replace migrant workers with prisoner labor. It's been going on for quite sometime in Macon Ga and it's chicken processing plants. I don't mind putting prisoners to work as long as they receive incentives such as fair wages and reduced sentencings for their labor. But this I fear will take America back to the 1940s, '50s and '60s where American citizens, mainly blacks and poor whites, were routinely picked up and arrested on fabricated charges then thrown into jails and prisons to toil away at farm labor.
Figures, square off on the race issue. Did I mention one damn word about race? Get off the pity pot and back on task. The question is, make prisoners work, or not. Ok, make it fair, the non-working prisoner can have his 3 squares a day and a bed to sleep in, and he can serve his full sentence, not a problem there. The prisoner that chooses to work gets rewarded. Will he make a living wage? Hell no, and he shouldn’t. We, the actual tax payer are footing the bill for his crimes, not only in what he steals or who he kills, or any other crime; we pay the guards all the way to his electricity bill. He should be paid, yes, if he makes over and above what it costs him to be in the pen, sure. Just so you heard me right, I did not mention race, I did not mention religion, and I did not discriminate by age or in any other way. I said he and maybe I should have said they. Tough. Oh, to address the other issue you haters out there have, I am a product of the modern school system. Chang it, and so will I change. Enough said.
The point was getting rid of the illegals was supposedly they were taking American jobs. But now these jobs are going to prisoners. So how did this law help Americans get more jobs?
they did this b/c ppl were not stepping up and taking these jobs, and they still aren't
So these business owners who use prison labor save money... at the taxpayers expense... while putting the average person who is not a criminal out of a job? What the hell is wrong with people?????!!!!!!!
Not at the cost of the taxpayer, make him pay what he would have paid the ileagal labor force. And any american that wants those jobs can get them just by showing up. But we don't, so he has to have the labor somplace, and the prisoners want luxeries, time off, sounds good to me...
You are missing the part where they cannot find other people to do the work. Farmers are BEGGING for employees, they pay $15 a hour, but noone shows up and the crops rot.
They're not offering anybody 15 dollars an hour to pick onions...they're paying the inmates minimum wage, part of which is subsidized by the state of Georgia. This may be a solution to a problem, but just barely...
If you think that the farmers are paying out $15 hr in Georgia , I have NEWS......... No.
From a Washington Post thread:
j3hess
3:09 PM CDT
If the issue was only economic and the discussion was rational, we would have had a fix back when president G.W. Bush proposed it.
But the vitriol suggests this isn't an economic issue, it is a purity issue. It is about dark-skinned unclean lower-class people sullying our white middle-class society. (This is why Asians get to be white – the ones who make it here these days are middle/professional/business class.)
This is NOT to say that everyone concerned about immigration is racist. But this is where a lot of the heat comes from. This is why immigrants are accused of committing disproportional amounts of crime. Since it is socially unacceptable to be outwardly racist, the springs of residual racism find another outlet.
Reduce the wages of American citizens (Disclosure: I myself is an American)
Anti-immigration policies and high wages/cool lifestyle cannot go together The formula is simple: Close the borders, reduce American wages to bring them to the international standards, lower the American standard of living and enjoy the life in Arizona/Georgia way.
"Disclosure: I myself is an American"
Really??
Bring down the standard of living? To what, that of a 3rd world nation? We already are close to the bottom of the heap compared to the rest of the industrialized world.
If you reduce the wages to the international level there will be no need to close the border. May be you'll have to close it USSR style.
Golly! This slave labor idea is just what we need in the South! Rather than pay a living wage, let's just gather up a bunch of guys and make them work for peanuts.
I wonder why no one thought of this slavery thing before now.
This article is ridiculous. #1. No one s talking about immigration. We solved the problem of the harvest. Get out of jail in GA you get a huge lease on life to become a farmer. TADAH. The only thing the vidalia farmer is upset about is that the price of onions has gone down. Thats is again not an immigration problem. I can not even give a E for effort in this pile of crap article.
The lady is upset about low prices because she is being undercut by the competition who has immorally employed "slave" prison labor to create competitive prices. It is only a matter of time until your standard of living will be as low as the worst Chinese slave laborers. And the U.S. Government is all for it. Change you can see and believe.
@JO: "I can not even give a E for effort in this pile of crap article."
I just read this in the Website Disclaimer:
"Any reader who disagrees with the editorial lines of CNN or the Forum Policies, may go to Faux themselves:
http://www. foxnews. com/
Jo, it IS because of illegal immigrants that I bought 5 lbs of vidalia onions for $3.49 recently. You can't make money on them paying a decent wage. I would be willing to pay more for food if I knew that those workers were getting $12/hr – what the min wage is in France instead of our same-as-Greece min. wage. But they pay these workers by what they've picked and it often comes to $2/hr plus a shack to sleep in.
I would, I would...
What prevents you from doing it already?
Find an "honest" farmer in you area and start buying from him. Or better yet, open your own business and start paying wages according to your ideals.
All that talk reminds me of an old joke:
Two guys are talking:
- Why don't you buy a new car?
- There are 100 reasons. #1 – I don't have money.
momzna – if you don't have money, get a job as a vadalia onion picker.
It's about time. The farmers should pay the prison system minimum wage for the labor of the prisoners to help offset the cost of their incarceration.
No problem , by the way , those cost just get dumped in your (the consumers) lap anyway. I have a bushel of peaches here , it'll cost you $50.00.
The use of prisoners is an excellent idea. Get them moving and productive. Also another would be to combine weight loss (people looking to lose weight), nutrition (picking foods that one should be eating) and the exercise of having to pick the crops (bending, stretching, etc.) into a reality show or offer it as a "weekend warrior/alternative vacation" experience. I realize that there would be issues to work through like insurance, liability, payment, etc., but I bet if packaged correctly and find some willing farmers it would work. I would actually participate.
Maybe you should travel abroad and hear what people from other countries talk about us. You may change your tune about turning cheap labor into a reality show. We're a laughing stock already
Jeff: I have traveled abroad and am well aware of how some countries view the USA. OK, so the reality TV thing may be a stretch; however I was simply came up with an alternate solution to getting something done that could assist these farmers that need labor. Americans that apply want more money and undocumented workers are out. The unfortunate thing is with our (American) values continually shifting to an "all about me" society, we might as well play into it and frame this issue as one that will "do your body good, while doing good for someone else". I'm not saying it's THE solution, but one that can be explored so the farmers don't lose the crops they've worked so hard to produce. It's just an idea. What's yours? I bet some enterprising person (personal trainer, perhaps) will think this through and it will become the next fitness craze.
I've been abroad, quite a bit. We are laughed at, and justifiably so, but bear in mind every country and every culture has a lot of silliness in it, and a lot of the laughter aimed at America is thinly veiled jealousy. We can pretend they're not jealous, but America is still the land of plenty, in most respects. At three in the morning, I can jump in my car, run down to WalMart, and buy damn-near whatever I want, as a for instance... most other countries on Earth you can't say that.
Sure, there are some places where the AVERAGE stats are better than in the US, like life-expectancy, for instance, but that's an AVERAGE. Numbers may not lie, but people can lie using numbers, skewing them any way they want. If you're an American, and you are finding yourself constantly embarrassed and ashamed of America, there's the door. Find somewhere where you'll be happier, like perhaps France. Of course, you may have to learn French... America is one of those places where you can come and although it is in your best interest to learn the language, we don't FORCE you. Try moving, and getting permanent status in Spain, or Italy... have fun. Oh, btw... America will let you in under most circumstances, (or at least we used to...) there are not many countries as permissive as ours.
Maybe we're too permissive, but hey... somebody's got to be America, why not America?
I can't find anyone to work for me for 50 cents an hour. What ever will I do???
Non-violent drug offenders. The new slave class.
Yeah, just put them to harvest marijuana. They would do it for free.
AMERICAN farm workers... what a concept. Inmates facing a real penalty and doing something constructive instead of lounging around prison... what a concept. Maybe there is hope for America after all.
Yes, like the hope that eventually the government will put us all in prison and then we can all have low paying jobs. Think about the unemployment rate if this wonderful model works.
Even better for private prisons, who can get paid to service the prison itself and then take a cut off the top of the prisoners small wage for providing the labor. Think I'll change industries.
You work to live. You have to , at least responsible people do. Not any appreciable difference between slavery and employment. You just have the choice to not work , but the choice to not eat goes with that.
agree.. bring out the chain gangs. Keep them too busy to cause trouble.
This is what happens when you start flouting the law. Americans used to farm and worked the farms. For generations. Someone got the bright idea of hiring illegals because you can pay them slave wages. Then by the time you get rid of the illegals, you are faced with generations who do not know how to farm, are 'techies'. So now where are you? Personally, I'd rather see inmates farming than sitting in cells all day long. Pay fair wages. Invest in the little farmers. Get back to basics.
So you work on a farm then? For $6 an hour in the baking sun? Didn't think so.
We don't need inmates picking onions or any other crop, give those Mexican labor jobs to white people who wanted them and that takes care of the problem.
Did you see nimbles replies below? That's the reason your vegetables and fruits aren't $10 a pound. Nobody is going to pay $25/hour to hoe weeds.
You ever hoe weeds for 8 hours? I have, it is hard work!
Sure have , lol , and did it to keep from getting my arse beat. Sure didn't merit getting paid for.
Yup. But that was a few years ago . Today $25 an hour is on par with an auto worker makes. You'd do good to get $10 an hour for this. Kids around here will be de-tasseling corn soon , minimum wage. And they'll do it.
from the corn/bean farm lands.... kids always did the corndetassling/bean walking/rock picking... town kids who wanted to make more money than babysitting and farm kids did these jobs for minimum wage all summer. I guess where it's warm most of the year round there is work to be done like this when school is still on – but I'm guessing most of the harvest would happen during the summer. my friends and I were lazy as hell in some ways, but we did this work in the summer to get our partying money and clothes money.... there's got to be teenagers out there who would do this work – it's the perfect time of your life to bust your hump in the heat! nothing like bonding with your peers over some repetitive back breaking work. in my 40s now and people I used to detassle with will still talk about the fun we had practically killing ourselves for that min wage money... but when you have no bills it is enough.
Wait, first off, why is it only WHITE people. So just because someone is not white they are an inmate or illegal. Secondly, if Americans did this work they would demand significantly higher wages. You are clearly an idiot in economic situations.
The powerful in this country are able maintain their power structure with a perpetually misinformed, and uneducated, citizenry. Teabillies... you're doin' us proud.
I think people would be happy to pay a dollar a pound for onions if it meant Americans were being employed instead of illegal Mexicans, and being paid a decent wage to harvest them. That's how it always worked before this massive influx of illegals, and our country became strong because of it.
But Bob, America NO LONGER cares about America. Americans now worship the almight dollar, and money has no friends or loyalties. If people can pay 40 cents cheaper, even if it benefits Americans, most people will save the money instead of taking pride in supporting Americans.
I grew up in the mid-West. For as long as I can remember we had migrant workers come in and help the local farmers with harvesting the crops. From what I remember most of the workers were Mexican.
This will be a perfect excuse to keep the drug war going. To supply farms with slave labor!
Farm wages should rise. As the situation stands now, taxpayers are having to subsidize growers by picking up the tab for the public services used by illegal workers and their children, e.g., health care, schooling, welfare. Our "cheap food" isn't as cheap as we think. Higher wages would help attract American workers (especially kids who need to learn a work ethic), and in moderation wage increases would not drive up food prices a great deal. Labor costs are not a great percentage of retail food prices. Furthermore, we should explore ways to mechanize food production. Reliance on cheap illegal workers holds back the development of harvesting technology and other innovations.
Some of the scholl kids work during the summer. Back breaking work. Learning to appreciate an education.
I have never hired an illegal. I kow people that have. Actually you can get certain forms that let you bring people in to the country to work for the season. Give them free housing and very minimal pay. Our food is probably too cheap compared to what we spend on other things that we need. Heck look at what people are willing to pay for their phones, internet, TV and you need none of the to survive.
if labor intensive crop farmers raise wages and have to charge more money for their products consumers will simply buy a cheaper alternative farmed in another country. that is the way it works. consumers have alternatives, that is why high wages for farmers in labor intensive crops means that crop would just dissapear.
I've heard prison inmates like to urinate, and ejaculate, in things when they're bored, or not happy about what they have to do.
Or, I guess what they plan to do is arrest all the illegal immigrants, then force them to work for free.
Either way, it seems like they're still taking jobs away from out-of-work Americans.
So make certain you thoroughly rinse and clean your vidalia onions before you eat them.
No one appreciates the labor involved in growing things. Add on to that the weather. It's a wonder people farm anymore. I am 53 and just about ready to throw in the towel, but this is what I do!
It's a labor of love , thank you.
How about they hire the millions of Obamaites that can seem to find work since he became president so we can stop paying lazy bums to stay home and do nothing, while this country goes into massive debt. If they won't take the jobs then cut them off from all government aid.
As if the spending on the wars does not dwarf some welfare cheat.
I would work in the fields for $25 per hour!
And what did your first job pay?
How about you learn which states have the highest percentages on food stamps and welfare? Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, New Mexico are all at or near the top.
Since Obama took office my salary has gone from 60K to 120K. Granted, I am very good at what I do, but I was also very good when Bush was in office and I made half as much. I have great insurance and benefits now ,and it is all because my company got stimulus money to hire locally rather than outsource. I really can't complain and I will vote for the guy that kept us from slipping into an an economic depression. I will vote for the guy who got us out of Iraq and the guy who was at the helm when we found Bin Laden. So before you generalize about Obama supporters, you should realize that a lot of people are actually doing A LOT better since he took office.
Rather than double your wage, why did your company not hire another human being with a family that might need a decent job?
Pay the prisoners a small amount, that they can use to buy things or save up for when they get out.
This was done in the past – prison guards on horseback, with shotguns. Nothing cruel or unusual about it.
Since when does "paying your debt to society" mean sitting unproductively in a cell? I see no reason they should not be put to work doing something productive for the society they violated. Free labor (in the production stream) does mean lower produce prices. Perhaps minimal wages used to pay resttution to their victims?
I know this will paint a giant target on my back but when I was a kid in Jr – High and High School, I would crop tobacco, pick beans, bale hay anything else that would put money in my pocket. Word would get around as to which farmers needed help and we would line up! I made $9 a day back in the early 70's and that was big money to a 13 year old.My mom and dad both worked in the medical field so I didn't have to work but I chose to (with a little prodding from my dad). I did it to have a job, buy albums (and 8 track tapes) and saved up to buy my first drum set and other things my parents could have bought me. Instead, they instilled in me the desire to EARN the money for things I wanted rather than just give it to me. Also, it taught me that I would rather work with my mind rather than my back! What is wrong with kids having a summer job? How about those that cannot find employment? I know minimum wage will not support a family but it could certainly supplement the EBT cards and other entitlements that are provided.
We ran out of poor white people in America?
Not at all , just those who can make more from unemployment than actually working for a living.
There are so many issues at play here that it borders on the absurd.
Firstly, I think the vast majority of people have forgotten the definition of minimum wage. The idea of instituting a national or state minimum is to set a bar for the cost of labour. The fact that some are able to avoid that cost by using migrant or forced labor is damaging to the labor market.
Second, the fact that private prison firms can do this without using the funds to offset the incarceration cost to the taxpayer falls somewhere between poor policy and outright fraud. I know that it tends to come in varying levels so I don't want to stress that too strongly but its a point to consider.
Third, slave labor....... back to the dark ages we go. Prison labor should only be an option in emergency circumstances and the prison should not be allowed to profit from it, all monies should go directly to gov't coffers and prisoners should be "paid" in prison privileges for violent offenders and reduced terms (remember that reduces cost) for non-violent offenders. All else aside, it drives down the value of labor for the average American worker, is that a price worth paying?
Fourth, extremely low cost agricultural commodities destroy local entrenched farming operations and further facilitate the consolidation of the farming industry playing right into the hands of big agriculture. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing but the large corporation don't have a great track record when it comes to quality (not safety, the taste of the produce). Exhibit A: Taste a tomato grown in the US by a major producer and then try a vine ripened organic tomato, I think there was actually an article on CNN recently about that very topic.
very well said – i wanted to make the same points, but you did it so eloquently!
Very well stated indeed!
slavery. they already have a prison sentence. some people have a master slave mentality. they will try to make money off of vulnerable populations.
abusing and exploiting the mentally ill. if they want to pay them fair, fine.
Remember Nat Turner!
But I don't understand, the Republican right told me that getting rid of illegals would create jobs for Americans. Why are we using free convict labor? Where are the jobs?
They will not be free. The farmers will pay a fee to the state. Plus taxpayers, ie Republicans, are already paying for their incaceraton and should expect some return int he form of work.
Why are we willing to subsidize the oil industry making billions of dollars of profit per month and not demand that fairly people who work harder than most of us could bare. Why not make the national minimum wage $15.00 per hour and demand that agricultural workers get at least minimum wage? Why not build a national rail system where labor can move to work areas at a cost that is affordable? Why not implement a department of employment instead of unemployment? How about a national job clearing house instead of agencies that only place people in jobs if they already have jobs? How about national health insurance so people are not tied to a job for healthcare?
Yes, sometimes crops come in poorly. Weather, animals, various reasons. There are times when I can not afford health care premiums. Being a small farmer is difficult, even in the best of times.
And where are all the people who were complaining that the immigrants are taikng away their jobs?
What illegal aliens were gotten rid of? As far as I can tell they are all still here doing the jobs Obama followers are too lazy to do, but why would any Obama voter work when they can stay home and get paid handsomely for it. This has to be the only country in the world where our "poor" people are morbidly obese, have iphones, and turn down jobs that are "beneath" them.
And where are all the people who were complaining that the immigrants are taking away their jobs? I would think they would be rushing in to fill all those vacancies.
Where are all the people screaming that they are taking American jobs?
They ARE Americans MR. Brilliant!
SO___ why don't the American young step up and do these jobs??Oh they want to make $40 an hour at a desk job!
Because making enough to have a place to live and food to eat is kind of an important piece of the puzzle.
Because you can't live on minimum wage, thats why no one wants to do these jobs. In my state minimum wage is $7.15. Thats the equivalent of making $18,000 a year before you pay a single dollar in taxes or SS. The average annual cost of raising a child in America is $12,000 a year.
The onion on the right side of the pic is a 36C!!
You sound like a refugee FOX NEWS blogger.
Good catch! I guess it does bring a tear to my eye.
Isn't forcing prisoners into these jobs ...slavery ?
It is like, have a joint in your hand and you are committed into 10-20 years of slavery!
Yes that is the goal. We already have the largest incarceration rates in the world. Throw us all in jail so we can work for $1.00 an hour picking vegetables to be shipped out to China.
Thanks to all the privatized prisons were the bottom line ($$$) is enhanced with more prisoners.
Isn't requiring people to use money to buy what they need to survive slavery when the only way to make that money is by working ... ?
Now your being silly, Given a choice to work or sit in a cell most will work to get out of their cell, get away from the prison for awhile, and put some cash on the books for the commissary. It's obvious you've never been in prison which could be a good thing not knowing you and all.
No. They have the option. Be productive and earn some money, or hang out in a cell and hope your behind is safe. Some prisoners do try and be productive.
I am a farmer. Sometimes I only make $1/ hr. Other times much much better. i do not see why we try to make this kind of work out as something that no one will do. Weather is both good and bad [ the last few weeks were very bad ] . Fair wages for everyone!
In Georgia (or anywhere else), for a healthy person to accept welfare, they should have work 40 hours a week in the fields (or somewhere else) to get their welfare check. If not, remove their children and let them fend for themselves (with no government aid or money of any type.) Suddenly, they might find their hidden work ethic.
and tell me mr. cat food what is it that you do for a living ? do you pick crops or did you ever collect any type of welfare
Welfare check = pick onions, or strawberries, or whatever the harvest may be, i.e. earn the money
couldnt agree more. If you want my tax money to pay for your ability to live, provide some service for my community. There could be day cares, street cleaners, aides to the elderly......so much stuff that we say we have no money for, could be provided through the labor of those who use welfare to survive.......not sure how this isnt happening now......I'm pretty sure thats what we had t the end of the great depression with the civilian corps.....
You would be satisfied with having a welfare recipient take care of your children, your elderly parent? Yikes.
That would be a jobs bill. Like the CCC or WPA of years gone by. Republicans have blocked every Jobs bill that has come up. Thats why we don,t have one.
Instead of the prison volunteer program, why not have a school volunteer program? Give vocational schools and/or apprenticeships credibility by having kids learn a trade for the experience while they're still in high school. Not every kid needs to go to college...as long as they understand that there are other ways to learn a skill.
The solution is simple: Legalize the 'illegals'. Support workers when any violations of labor laws are reported. This is the definition of a 'level playing field', the formerly 'illegal' immigrants no longer can be exploited, but must be treated the same as others. The only basis for discrimination then would be actual productivity. The better worker can negotiate for a better rate. Free men and women voluntarily performing work for an agreed legal wage, with all pertinent benefits associated, paying appropriate payroll taxes, will be far more efficient than the labor of criminals almost universally unfamiliar with farm work.... The result is millions of dollars of production, accruing to all parties in the process, from farm owners and operators, to wholesalers, retailers, transportation providers, marketing vendors...everyone from the farm to the kitchen benefits. Expenditures by workers generate sales, license and excise tax revenues to the state and local communities.... Everyone wins.... everyone except the fear mongers and rabble rousers using anxiety, xenophobia and misunderstanding to benefit only themselves, at the expense of all others.
There's only one missing point to your argument that trumps it all...if you reward the illegals by legalizing them, why have immigration laws, processes, and borders to begin with?! With your argument, why not just do away with borders and let anyone and everyone come in...after all, they'll just get legalize anyway, right? And while you're rewarding law breakers...why stop there? Why don't you just reward all the convicted murders with freedom. Reward all the non-tax paying citizens with tax-refund. And on and on and on.
End the entitlement culture and watch how quickly we solve the unemployment problem and illegal immigration. End unemployment checks, TANF, and SNAP. It's enough that we provide free section 8 housing and Medicaid. Let people go to soup kitchens until the get jobs that support themselves. A hungry belly should motivate them to work.
Yup, There is 12 Million jobs out there just waiting for all thoes lazy poor folks. LOL
Way back in the early 70's (in Washington state) kids who were 12 -15 went out in the fields during summer break and picked a variety of different crops. No one thought of it as menial labor and it was expected of most kids (we were all from middle class families) and we did that until we were 16 and old enough to get our first "real job." You were a little tired and dirty at the end of the day, but it helped instill a sense of responsibility, work ethic and you learned the value of a dollar very quickly.
Here it was picking strawberries and cheeries. Don't know if it's labor laws or lazyness or both today, but most kids today have no idea what actual work is.
Thank you, the point is that Americans are not signing up for these jobs. They only want to sit back, watch FAUX talking heads, and complain.
Yes – every time someone complains about immigrants legal or otherwise taking jobs, I ask them if they have been seeking work as a farm worker or restaurant kitchen. People are taking these jobs because Americans won't do them.
If you read the article, it states that the farm owners are getting american applicants, but they want a standard living wage, partly because they pay taxes, and do not rely on legalized citizens to pay for all their services. If these illegals didnt have tax payers to subsidize their lives, you would find that they too would require higher wages
@cccc,
Interesting, there may have been a change. A while ago farmers did issue a challenge to the unemployed and virtually no one applied.
In my community many children spent their summers removing the tassels from corn. I don't think the average kid today would know what a tassel is.
My kids are trying to find the corn, No luck tho. Things change. NO CORN HERE.
Back in my day, we had to walk uphill to school both ways in the snow, and we were LUCKY if we got a plastic bag to use as a coat.
Of course, just because I had to do it doesn't mean I want my kids and grandkids to suffer in the same way. I guess that just makes me a dumb ole Liberal, eh?
How about giving those jobs to LEGAL AMERICANS that need work!!!
Because they're too damn expensive to pay, or did you not read the article? Oh that's right, you're part of the illiterate, idiotic, close-minded, and bigoted group that pushed for this law, and soon will be complaining when different foods double or triple in price. Immigrant labor paid for the cheap goods you became accustomed to, can't wait to see your ilk crying foul when they can't even afford a head of lettuce.
PRISONERS DO THE WORK FOR A LOT LESS THAN THE ILLEGALS.. LET THE PRISONERS DO IT.
Read the G** Da** article. Inmates are being paid minimum wage and government is using your tax money to subsidize it. Immigrants, on the other hand, work for less than minimum wage, KNOWN FACT.
YES! Use any means or anyone possible to undermine wages, we need more poor workers.
WHY ? WHEN PRISONERS DO IT FOR $ 1 DOLLAR AN HOUR.
That seems great, until the prevailing human condition known as greed kicks in. Eventually, lobbyists(business owners) will be pushing for more laws and tougher sentencing to ensure they have a cheap labor force. in fifty years, if you jaywalk in Alabama, you will be picking cotton for 2 years.
These Americans do not apply for these jobs.
A while back the farm community issued a challenge to unemployed Americans to take these jobs and guess what? Virtually no one applied. Seems these people would rather sit around and watch FAUX NEWS talking heads and complain rather than take those jobs.
Yeah, I believe it was in Colorado? Someone posted in the comments section – "they should plant the crops in raised beds so the workers wouldn't have to bend over." Absolute proof that not everyone should be allowed to reproduce nor to vote.
It's The FOX News channel which stands for The Full of Xenophonics channel
Good one.
Most wouldn't and you know it. I think it would cost an American more to pick than not to pick. I wouldn't live in a tent or a lean too 6 months out of the year. But I think a legal documented immigrant migrant worker might.
READ the article first....comments like yours should be moderated out
I don't agree with moderating this comment out.
1) that would be censorship and prohibited but the First Amendment.
2) leaving the comments out keeps these attitudes from "going underground" and out in the open for all to see and be aware of.
Oooops, caught by auto correct,
Should be ...prohibited by the...
Sorry for the repost in advance.
Seems as I might trigger the CNN filter.
Just in case here is the repost with alteration ,
ElmerGantry
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
My comment was with correction,
I don't agree with moderating this comment out.
1) that would be censorship and prohibited but the First Amendment.
2) leaving the comments out keeps these attïtudes from "going underground" and out in the open for all to see and be aware of.
July 9, 2012 at 7:13 pm | Reply
Because she can't afford to pay them you idiot. Did you read the article at all? You're so stupid. Why don't you go pick some onions you luddite. They could use more imbeciles like you for such menial tasks.
Not only that, but very few of them are as skillful and productive as many migrant farm laborers. I have seen migrant laborers harvest 5, 10, even 20 times as much product, with equal or better quality, than less skilled workers unfamiliar with the process.... For any number of reasons the simple fact is that few non-migrant U.S. citizens will take these jobs, and even fewer will actually persist effectively enough to be even minimally productive enough to meet the needs of owners and operators....virtually none will be anywhere near productive enough to actually make a decent living at it. Make no mistake about it, our agricultural sector needs the currently 'illegal' migrants, and it's in our best interests materially they be available to meet the demands of our farm sector. And we all can maximize the material benefits, not just today, but in he long-run...if we legalize these people, invite and encourage them to join us as U.S. citizens, and stay here to raise their families and become, like all the rest of us, fellow Americans. This is not just the right thing to do, it's also, by far, the most rewarding, both for us today, and for our children and grand-children tomorrow.
Any legal American is welcome to these jobs. They just think they're too good for it, so others come in to pick up the slack.
Ain't that the truth
It is absolutely absurd to have above 8% unemployment, multiple layers of entitlements but have to have prisoners to do farm labor. Americans refuse to do this work because entitlements allow them to refuse. Artificially raising farm labor wages will not work in a global economy anymore than raising industrial wages... the jobs/work will just move to where its cheapest to produce.... hence our 15 Trillion dollar debt trying to maintain a standard of living that has been unsustainable... bankruptcy for our farms, businesses, and nation is the only way people will figure this out... then people will have to work.... or thieve (which they already are doing when they live off government handouts when there is a job just down the road).
ILLEGALS GET ABOUT $ 5 AN HOUR TO PICK UP THE FRUITS...NO INSURANCE-NO BENEFITS.. WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE AN AMERICAN CITIZENS ????/ FARMERS DO NOT WANT TO PAY A LIVING WAGE..
A LIVING WAGE IN MY BOOK IS $ 12 AN HOUR WITH INSURANCE–401–K....WHY COMPANIES DO NOT WANT TO HIRE AMERICANS.
$12/hour? How much do you suppose that would drive up the price of produce in the grocery stores? I don't know where you are from, but I do understand $12/hr isn't that much in some parts of the country. While I would love for everyone in the country to be middle class or higher, I think we've got to get our priorities in order first. As others on this board have said, we should be putting welfare recipients (physically capable ones) in those fields. They could work, say, 20 hours per week, and be required to actively pursue employment the other 20 hours per week. They could be paid minimum wages for the work, with an additional subsidy from unemployment as long as they are looking for work. This would keep the grocery bill down, too. I don't see how this wouldn't be a win-win situation, with cost-savings in the unemployment program as well as a drop in the unemployment rate. I'm sure there are also other job sectors that could substitute for the agricultural industry in non-farming communities.
CAPSLOCK MAEKS ME LOK SMARET
You are funny and so correct.
"Artificially raising farm labor wages will not work in a global economy..." Actually, by having the prisoners step in and do the labor at a lower than market rate, aren't we artificially LOWERING the labor wages? If the pay was at market rate, workers would be there, no?
"Everett and eight other inmates will have a few more weeks working with the onions, pulling down a minimum wage paycheck." My question is why do prisoners get minimun wage.?
I concur. Memo to prisoners, their lawyers, and the nation's judiciary: tell the prisoners, if you want to eat your next meal work three hours or starve. The prisoner works nine hours a day for three meals -or- six hours a day for two meals -or- three hours a day for a meal -or- eventually starves. Don't like it Mr./Ms. prisoner, then do not commit the crime.
Let's take all the posters who say we should take all those prisoners amd make them work for 25 cents an hour and make the posters work along side the prisoners. Most or all of them are either unemployed or on welfare anyway.
George, did you drink all the beer? Careful or you'll get drunk and choke on another pretzel then slide your face across some carpet while passing out like you did 11 years ago. Remember that abrasion on your cheek, George? America does and they knew you were just a loser drunk.
Farmers complain about lack of labor, but they don't advertise for pickers. If they did, people would apply. When was the last time you saw an ad for strawberry, apple, cucumber, peach or any other pickers?
Good – that is exactly what they should be doing!
I use a lot of onions & I don't care who picks them :-9
We're housing them for free, and they're just taking up space. Damn right put them to menial labor!
This is necessary growing pains if we're ever to do anything about this immigration problem. Yes, some farms obviously got too big to be able to handle themselves without that kind of labor, and it's those kinds of operations that are going to have to learn the hard lessons about sustainability.
Don't hire more people than you can reasonably pay.
Don't plant more than that workforce can maintain and harvest.
What ever happened to kids? Don't teenagers need jobs any more? I'd rather harvest onions than work at a McDonald's any day. You don't need immigrants OR prisoners, you need to start teaching your kids a work ethic again instead of letting them sit on their rears playing games or on the computer or cell phone, and show them what it means to get dirty, work hard, and earn a paycheck. Otherwise, we might as well just GIVE the country to the illegals, because the next generation isn't going to even bother standing up for it, they'll be too busy on Facebook.
Wait, you'd rather spend all day out in the hot sun stooping to pull onions of the ground and hauling 50 pound crates of onions for less than minimum wage than work in McDonalds... McDonalds where you can often getter better than minimum wage while working in an air conditioned building? Really? Do you want to reconsider that?
Not even a little. Farm work is hard, but at least there's decency in it.
Some of us teenagers actually WANT jobs and end up sitting on our rears playing games because nobody wants to hire us. I have been looking for a job since March. The only job offer I got was from a fake "charity" that has been sued many times over labor practices, and seemed like a pyramid scheme.
Hey why not just throw all of us into jail? We already have the largest incarceration rates in the world.
They could throw us all into jail, then pay us $1.00 an hour to pick vegetables to ship out to China.
What I don't understand is liberals will say "see no Americans are getting jobs, stupid conservatives" and "don't cry when your food bills go up" and "even americans wont take these jobs". When you put these together, you get the feeling that liberals support having this poverty-wage workforce that is easily manipulate due to fear of being reported. Why?
No one should have to work for less then the minimum/market wage, and not be entitled to OSHA standards due to their illegal status. Why do democrats support/want this?
First, you're misunderstanding, or at least misrepresenting the "liberals." They don't WANT people paid poverty wages, they just know that the system is already in place, that people would (and will) rage and cry when the cost of food goes up to pay people a living wage…
…and then there's this. There are going to be people (farmers and consumers) who DON'T want prisoners out of their cells picking the food for your nation. The balance has to be struck, though. Pay a living wage, or pay a higher grocery cost.
If you support free market principles, you should be up in arms about the prisoner labor. Using it is interfering with the market and artificially lowering the labor wage. Once the wage comes up to market rates it will attract the labor.
If it costs more to farm them, why would prices be down?
Someone is making money off selling them, or the price would climb.
Prices are down to the farmers but up for consumers. I'd say look to the processors and grocery stores to see who is making the profit.
Take the Juvenal and let them work for their keep and it would be a good education for them.Let the people that are in the court system that are up for d.w.i. and let them over see them to pay their fine or community service work.Take the money paid by the farmer and put a portion of it in the bank for the Juvenal when he gets out and the rest toward his keep while he is in custody.
My woman just told me we already pay 3.99 lb and I love onions in most dinners.
Eliminate the NFL and the NBA and train all those ex players how to pull carrots and dig onions. Give them a one way bus ticket to the San Joaquin Valley for a full time job harvesting food products! I believe with the right training program they could be taught to do a good job.
There is something wrong with you.
What? You didn't make the draft, or something? Bit bitter?
We use prisoners at my place of employment here in the MIdwest. The guys always show up for work and do the jobs people off the street don't want to do. Their empoyment works great for slack times in the business year as a prison employee does not need to placed on unemployment for lack of work. The men have the opportunity to come back and work for us after they get out of prison if they had good work habits.
I was going to comment that this would be a great way for FORMER inmates to get back into the work force and earn a little respect and credentials for getting other jobs later. Don't we have problems getting this population back into the work force? I like the sound of this plan where they work as an inmate and are rewarded with a paying job at the same place later when they have proven good work habits. Seems like a pretty great idea to me!
Arizona has had prison labor gangs for many years, and I think it is a good idea. The only problem is when prisons are
owned by private companies and are making a profit on the prison labor. Having to pay higher wages to American wokers
will only drive out all the US farmers and most of our produce will come from central and south amercan farms. California
used to supply most of the produce for american stores, now even the farmers markets sell products from outside of
the US.
I have an idea. Let's get all these people on welfare and food stamps, especially those multi-generational abusers, and have them pick her onions. That way she doesn't need government subsidies since her profits will be high enough to afford crop insurance.
You're painting with a wide brush. Not everyone is an abuser. In fact, statistically speaking, those folks are a very slim minority. Just like the witch hunt for those on drugs in Florida. The struggling people of this country, which are often Veterans and unemployed middle class workers trying to find jobs aren't slaves. If you'd like them to work full time on a farm, when do you suppose they should be out looking and applying for jobs?
You're missing the point. These farmers were paying people less than minimum wage. Now, when they have to pay the minimum, the Gov has to subsidize it. We can't have it both ways. If you don't want illegals and want a fair wage, we all have to pay way more for food. Simple economics.
Agreed. I don't mind paying $4.00 per pound for onions!
Folks, the general consensus is that we need Americans to work. If there is high unemployment, why do we need illegal immigrants to pick vegetables? The answer: the work is hard, and Americans want a high wage for hard work. Okay, pay a high wage and charge more for the product–simple economics. The next problem is that we (the U.S) are competing with other countries to produce and sell food. These other countries have very low labor costs. If we pay high labor costs, our farms go out of business–they can't compete with countries paying a few dollars a day for labor. The next problem is our low-wage labor force. I do landscaping every day; I try to hire americans, but the majority of them cannot physically hold up to do the job. I'm forced to hire people (immigrants) who can do the work or charge a fortune to to comple the project using slow Americans–dooming myself to going out of business because my competition is bidding jobs with an Hispanic labor force, which will do the job well in half the time. I've studied this problem quite a lot; your SIMPLE solutions won't work! Spend some time thinking about how to compete with countries that do not have a minimum wage, and you'll see that there is not an easy answer–tarrifs seem to be the only viable option, and I'm not sure that will work.
Prisoners doing field work, you're kidding me!!
But, but, but the GOP and T-Baggers said that these jobs would be taken up by hard working legal 'muricans!!
Most of them are 'muricans, and when Boss man is around they will work hard or else.
I know, that just cracks me up. We're going to see a lot of changes because of this, prices will go up on produce and crops will rot because they'll be no one to pick them. The teenagers today won't do this kind of work and everyone will think it's 'below' them, so the positions will be hard to keep filled. Some may work for a few days, then they'll realize how hard it really is and will quit on the spot.
That's totally an opinion. I think you're wrong though. If the pay was 50K/year + benefits to pick fruit, you honestly don't think there would be enough takers?
But you're right, for $3 an hour, many will quit on the spot when the realize how hard the work is. If you can pay guys 50k a year to clean the crap out of porta-potties at truck stops (city workers/caltrans), don't kid yourself, they will have no issue picking fruit.
If the pay was that high you'd get plenty of people working farm jobs. The problem is that the pay isn't that high and never will be.
The pay scales with workers skill level to accomplish job and availability of workers. I agree, wages will never be that high, because you'll always have people willing to do the work for minimum wage. If no one will work for 30k/year picking fruit, either two things will happen (1) consumers will no longer buy fruit (2) farmers will pay workers more. It's the same with every job. This is the reason why say undersea welders make much more money then welders on land, there are less people qualified for the job and less folks willing to take the risk.
The real problem is the farmers and consumers want to keep going on with UNREASONABLE WAGES, this needs to stop.
Publicize the costs (subsidies) and privatize the profits. And they accuse Obama of being a socialist.
I can make a lot of money selling women, but wait its against the law so I have to find another way. Illegals are breaking the law by living here, so no company should make money off of them. Too bad for those companies but for not being able to make money legally. They keep cost down but not living in some Mexican graffiti gangland is priceless
The majority of Latino immigrants become solid members of society within a generation or two of entering US. You are taking an image of inner city poverty and extending it to an entire race of people. How is that not racism?
Soooo, when do you wake up?
If they are illegal, then they NEVER become solid citizens period. They remain scum bag criminals. There is nothing racist about that whatsoever.
So for the fifty years they're here we have to put with their 3rd world ways. California has over 100,000 Mexican gang members. Their kids are going to be gangbangers. 8 i in 10 will need welfare till their kids have kids and go on welfare. Most are always going to be 3rd world so get them out and save my neighborhood or soon when illegals take over we'll see shaved head gangsters and their welfare families cram 15 people into a house cause they can't afford housing on their own. There's enough Mexicans here to gut fish and pick crops or be janiitors. Enough save American and get these 3rd world people back to their horrible country.
we could use those jobs we have people right here that need those jobs and are willing to work ;there was a time when the growers came here for workers but they stopped coming .COME TO MERIDIAN,MISSISSPPI AND GET SOME WILLING WORKERS!!!!!!
You must have missed the part about US citizens requiring higher wages than a farmer wants to pay. Maybe if our food costs go up we won't be so fat from eating too much.
thank you terri for being the only person here who took econ 101. why should farms be any different than any other business? if mcdonalds has to pay higher wages to attract workers, then the price of a big mac goes up. they don't get to lobby the govt to be able to hire undocumented workers. they certainly don't get to use slave labor. they are a business and they have to re-work their business model. why in the world would farms be any different? why should we undermine the entire american way of life to get vidalia onions for 60 cents a pound? You could triple that price without it making a dent in even the poorest family's budget, and pay workers a living wage that would make the harvesting job attractive to american workers... in turn, the people paying $2 a pound would not see double digit employment, their homes surrounded by vacant foreclosures and the public schools deteriorating as students' parents succumb to the pressures of long term unemployment and underemployment.
I just don't understand how no one seems to see the price of cheap stuff.
You want this lady to move her farm to your state? That seems like a lot of relocation costs for a farmer.
Correct,
In addition to the relocation costs, the soil and climate would be different and may not be conducive to different crops?
Whole foods charging couple of bucks for same pound of onions ... injustice !
It’s a slippery slope when we start using prison labor. The US has more prisoners that any other country in the world. Our penal code incarcerates an enormous amount of people with counter-intuitive and selectively enforced laws. Our poor education system provides little opportunities for some than a life of crime. If prisoners are being used as labor and we run into a shortage, than what’s to stop us from incarcerating more people. We are looking at the very early stages of becoming more of a police state. What surprises me is that other Americans think this is a good idea. What would John Adams think who helped write the Massachusetts constitution in 1780 and helped to end slavery in that state?
waaaa, waaa, waaaa, about time they learn how to work!
It is indeed a slippery slope and not an easy spot for anyone to be in. I see people every day who are released from jail and unable to find work, I wonder if farmers could afford to pay them a living wage? This is a very difficult situation for everyone involved. Raise food prices so citizens can work the farms and we create another hardship for people already struggling to buy food.
Exactly. A lot of these inmates will be drug possession offenders - low violence, poor, uneducated types. They won't let out rapists and murderers.
The war on drugs is a great way to create an army of low-cost slaves.
I am forced to agree with you, and a slope of this nature, once on is a bugger to get back to the right. It took our forfathers changing continents and then fighting several wars to stop it the first time. So leave it voluntary and make sure the "police" don't take over. Wake up america. We are giving our country, our rights, and our civilization away.
Biff™ and Bitty™ are always so concerned about those who aren't quite up to their level of understanding. They're especially concerned about those "low-information voters" who just don't understand:
A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them.
“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.“
Gawd, it's tough being Biff™ and Bitty™. All around them there are nails ladies and babysitters who just don't understand that the black guy in the White House is out to get them, each and every one. And he has disappointed them so. Here they stepped up and donated and stuff in 2008 because he was a black guy full of hope and possibility, at least as far as possibility meant bowing and scraping to their demands, and yet. He passed that Republican socialist health care plan and ZOMG, Dodd-Frank! How will they survive another four years of THAT?
Biff™ and Bitty™ are fearless, too. They aren't afraid to stand up for their principles, unless those principles would cost them business. Can't have that!
A money manager in a green Jeep said it was time for Romney to "up his game and be more reactive." So far, said the donor, who declined to give his name because he said it would hurt his business, Romney has had a "very timid offense."
Ooooh, brave Biff™! Giving Mittens that advice while living in fear of losing business for having an opinion! This is Your Republican Party, folks. Step up and look close.
Replying to your self under a different screen name to appear as if coming from some one else?
Sure looks like it.
Dont know if you did, but if you did then you are pathetic.
Only you know the answere, but if the shoe fits, wear it.
Nail. Head. Hit.
Especially since you have different screen names but both screen names have "trademarks" on same words.
If there are two people then some one may want to pursue a trade mark violation, bit I doubt it.
Seemslike fair statement to say BUSTED!
Farmers put out a challenge for people to work the jobs of the migrant works and what did they get? The sound of crickets chirping, aka no applicants!
Now farmers are appealing for prison workers.
So where are these people who were complaining that immigrants were taking THEIR jobs.
Of course sitting at home, watching FOX, believing everything FAUX talking heads say as only the credulous can and complaining that the migrants are taking the jobs that they want (but do not really want, shhhh).
Todays tea party driven GOP is so ridiculous that it would be funny if not for the fact that this GOP = Greedy Obstructionist Party aka the Party of NO, is deliberately blocking any chance of progress in this country. All for the openly stated purpose of making Obama fail and be a one term president.
This is not compassionate conservatism nor is it patriotic. It is simply conservatism.
Copying my comment and pasting as your own, eh!
Did you think you would not get caught!
Funny thing you made an oooops aka error. You missed the bold text.
If you are going to copy some else's work give credit for it!
You plagiarized,
My comment was,
_______________________________________________________________________
ElmerGantry
Close the borders, close the borders, build a double walled electric fence, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, fear, fear, listen to FAUX, listen to FAUX.
They are taking jobs from Americans.
Now migrants are vanishing, we should have more Americans employed right?
NO!
Farmers put out a challenge for people to work the jobs of the migrant works and what did they get? The sound of crickets chirping, aka no applicants!
Now farmers are appealing for prison workers.
So where are these people who were complaining that immigrants were taking THEIRjobs.
Of course sitting at home, watching FOX, believing everything FAUX talking heads say as only the credulous can and complaining that the migrants are taking the jobs that they want (but do not really want, shhhh).
Todays tea party driven GOP is so ridiculous that it would be funny if not for the fact that this GOP = Greedy Obstructionist Party aka the Party of NO, is deliberately blocking any chance of progress in this country. All for the openly stated purpose of making Obama fail and be a one term president.
This is not compassionate conservatism nor is it patriotic. It is simply conservatism.
July 9, 2012 at 5:43 pm | Reply
_____________________________________________________________________
Yours is the same without the bold text.
Caught you.
Looks totally different to me, just similar thoughts. You think you're the only one who thinks that way?
It is word for word.
I am not silly enough to think others do not think this, but it is word for word and in my personal syntax or vernacular,
sooooo yes it was copied.
Who in their right mind would do backbreaking work for poverty level wages? Even the Mexicans and Asians are turning these kind of job offers away.
Any business that pays a fair and livable wage has zero problems finding workers. Maybe farms should start doing this. Instead they are the worst employers on the planet. You don't get paid overtime if you work more than 40 hours in a week and now they are exploiting prison inmates. Disgusting.
Backbreaking work for poverty level wages and no health care to boot!
What is disgusting is our prisoners sitting around all day, watching tv, working out, rotating in and out of jail because they never learned how to work for a living so three meals a day and a place to hang out sounds great; jail is not so bad a deal for them. What is wrong with using them to work off some of the taxpayer money going to support their illegal butts? After all only 50 percent of Americans are paying taxes the rest are living off of those tax payers. How long do we go on giving free rides to people who break the law for a living?
That 50% not paying taxes earn so little they are below the poverty level, how much worse off do you think they deserve to be. How about employers paying a living wage so that they make enough to pay taxes? I don't hear anyone crying about the huge percentage in interest the wealthy charge those who can least afford it. It is fine when the wealthy rip everyone off though.
No kidding! LOTS of job opportunities and employment options in the poorest areas of our country. Tons of choices for advancement when schools are underfunded and are forced to pass kids through like an assembly line. Want kids who are smart, and driven enough to get jobs? Try investing in the schools you force them to attend for 12 years.
Sorry Pinhead, you are wrong about the taxes. The 50% (+/- a few points) number you erroneously bandy about refers to the number of households that pay federal income tax. That does not mean that they pay NO taxes. There are plenty of other taxes that they DO pay on a daily basis.
Watch food prices soar when they begin to pay a living wage. Not that I am against it, it is just a fact of what would happen.
So, what this article says to me is that before the Georgia law passed, farmers were taking advantage of illegal immigrants and paying them far below minimum wage. Now that they have to pay workers the legal minimum, they discover that they can't afford to stay open at the previous prices. Well, good. Let's pay an honest rate for our food. Let's pay a fair wage to our workers. And let's stop taking advantage of people who lack representation. If anti-illegal immigration laws are what it takes, let's do it. Force the farmers to pay fairly. The abuse of migrants needs to stop.
Migrant worker is a documented temp immigrant, not an illegal alien, two different categories, FACT.
You mean there are NO migrant workers who are not "documented temp immigrants". Are you sure about that?
And I don't mean just one or two, but likely very many are not "documented temp immigrants"
Are you really sure about your claim? The burden of proof is on the claiment, care to share your sources documenting your claim?
I get it-you like to bold your words. It doesn't make your argument any more compelling.
@MarileeBob,
Wrong, your point is correct for people who excessively use all caps, exclamation points (see Internet rules) or all bold, which I have not yet seen.
Using bold or caps in small selected text to hight light or bring a point more to the forefront is valid.
Nice try.
Your right if your given a limited work visa your documented if you don't then your an illegal working illegal hired illegally.
Oh the ignorance... a migrant worker is someone who works on farms moving from place to place doing only that type of work. They could harvest onions in Georgia and then they move to another state to harvest berries. They could be LEGAL or ILLEGAL. I come from a family of migrant farm workers so I know that some are legal and some are not. Before these laws the farmers didnt care as long as they were getting their profits. I for one am glad these laws are in place. We need to give the migrant farm workers the wages they deserve. It is the toughest back breaking work Ive ever done
Jenny no argument here, but there is a legal way to be here and then there is the Illegal aliens way. I pay 6.39 per cantaloupe, 3.99 lb for onions, 3.99 lb for grapes, etc. Cheap if you compare the cost incurred a state to support the illegal, low pay or not.
The point is to stop allowing Farmers, or anyone else, to make profits by paying unreasonable wages. What ever it costs to raise and market onions that is what it costs. stop trying to justify mistreating workers with the price of onions.
We have been mislead by cheaper produce; Pay a fair wage and the rest of us will have to get used to the REAL costs of a Valdalia [or a Grand Canyon Sweet!] onion.
We have half the linemen we had 15 years ago," says IBEW Local 1900 Business Agent Jim Griffin, whose union represents 1,150 Pepco workers. "We have been complaining for a very long time. They have relied for a long time on contractors. They are transients, they don't know our system, and we typically have to go behind them to fix their mistakes. It's very frustrating. We take ownership in our work, we make careers out of this."
Griffin says that starting 15 years ago, Pepco stopped hiring workers to replace retiring electrical workers and offered incentive-laden buyout deals to get electricians to retire. In order to address understaffing problems, Pepco has at times hired non-union temporary contractors, instead of hiring new workers. Griffin estimates that Pepco currently employs 1,150 union workers and approximately 400 non-union contractors. The understaffing has led to problems that the IBEW warned about years ago.
"Everything is keyed on dollars and cents profit," warned IBEW Utility Director Jim Hunter back in 2005. "Storm outages are longer, and utilities are asking for more and more help from other utilities. The problem is that other companies are in the same boat. And they are still not hiring."
Despite having a negative -57% tax rate from 2008 to 2010 and making nearly $822 million in profits during that period, Pepco has not hired a sufficient number of electricians to properly maintain the system. Griffin claims the insufficient number of linemen causes Pepco's system to go out more often not just during storms, but on hot summer days when electrical grids are maxed out from air conditioners and fans. When big storms do hit and knock down the system, PEPCO hires outside contractors from far-away states to help in repairs.
"When we have a major storm like this we rely heavily on assistance from other utilities. We have crews coming from Quebec and Oklahoma," says Griffin. "If we had more linemen we wouldn't have to wait three days for some of these crews to arrive. These extended power outages have to do with number of workers Pepco has on their payroll."
Griffin says the understaffing is a "philosophical move" by the company. "It was easier to deal with the contractors than the employees. They can fire them at a moment's notice. Contractors don't get paid very well and they come and they go," says Griffin. "The problem becomes the quality of work. We have story after story of us coming out after contractors and fixing their work."
Close the borders, close the borders, build a double walled electric fence, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, fear, fear, listen to FAUX, listen to FAUX.
They are taking jobs from Americans.
Now migrants are vanishing, we should have more Americans employed right?
NO!
Farmers put out a challenge for people to work the jobs of the migrant works and what did they get? The sound of crickets chirping, aka no applicants!
Now farmers are appealing for prison workers.
So where are these people who were complaining that immigrants were taking THEIR jobs.
Of course sitting at home, watching FOX, believing everything FAUX talking heads say as only the credulous can and complaining that the migrants are taking the jobs that they want (but do not really want, shhhh).
Todays tea party driven GOP is so ridiculous that it would be funny if not for the fact that this GOP = Greedy Obstructionist Party aka the Party of NO, is deliberately blocking any chance of progress in this country. All for the openly stated purpose of making Obama fail and be a one term president.
This is not compassionate conservatism nor is it patriotic. It is simply conservatism.
Although this story is about Pepco, these union-busting practices are common in the public utilities. Seems like it would make sense to demand better service in light of the tax exemptions and hefty rebates these companies make, doesn't it?
On Thursday, 15,091 Washington, D.C.-area residents were without power for the sixth day in a row, according to utility company Pepco spokesman Marcus Beal. As D.C. residents face record heat waves, many are upset and attribute the lack of power to incompetence on Pepco's end. However, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 1900 members claim the failure to restore power outages is due to chronic understaffing and Pepco's shift from hiring union utility workers to non-union temporary contractors.
IBEW Local: Pepco Power Outages Due To Chronic Understaffing, Hiring Of Temp Workers
It looks like a lot of jobs are now available for all those hard-working US citizens looking for work. You have your wish, the illegals no longer have your jobs. Go now and work!
Right? I'm waiting for all the people who were loudly complaining about how the migrant workers were stealing all the good jobs to start lining up!
Illegals bring down wages illegally.
Sure... they're taking our jobs... Well now the inmates are taking "OUR" jobs too?
Farmers and slave labor have always gone together well. Looks like they have found another source of slaves.
No. They don't compel anyone to work, It's strictly voluntary, and in fact there are a lot of things you can do to screw up your chances of being able to participate in the first place.
Nice try, though.
Send me to prison 2-5 years I'll do it for 8-10 hours a day out of the cage and cash for the canteen count me in, though I'm not in prison.
I was really getting at the fact that the pay and working conditions are too poor to induce anyone to do the work who has a choice in the matter. Desperate illegal immigrants have limited options; even prisoners have more, it seems. Two hundred years ago a lot of farmers paid good money up front and bought a lifetime of work from the unfortunate, and bred more of them to increase their fortunes. "We can't grow cotton any other way" they lied. Descendants of those farmers and like-minded farmers in other parts of the country still pine for ways to get the work done at minimal cost, no matter what it costs their unfortunate workers. Some day perhaps they will grow a heart. They have none now.
So you think the farmer should pay top wage for someone to come out and harvest the crop or cut weeds out of the fields. I am from the farm belt originally, i did this in the summer during high school. The job requires no skills at all, except to have a strong back and be able to tell the difference between ripe and not ripe (or weed and non weed). That is it.
This is one reason politicans from the borders statea never wanted a strict immigration laws. Goes all the way back to the 1940's.
Reagan, Goldwater, the Bush's, LBJ, etc never wanted laws passed. The comes Obama,and messes everything up.
He got strict with the immigrates.
I found someone who was convicted of serial rape working at a Border's bookstore.
Convicts are already working cooking and serving food in chain restaurants.
This is an idea that is not only long over due, it has been uesd for years prior before we got to be such nice people and treated our inmates as honured guests of the state. Screw them. They want cable TV? I want a 40 hour week at labor. Want to make a little money for expences in the prison shop? Work for it. Want to use the librairy? Fine! Pay to keep the thing open! Donations required! Nothing is free for a person in the real world, no prisoner shoud have it free. Work a 40 hour week, get cable. Work a second week, get somthing else considered a luxery. Make the prisoners harvest the foods that the ileagals did. Do the jobs no one wants. If they want time off for good behavior? Sure! Sive them a point system, make them earn a higher rate at time for work! Just my two pennies...
...Two pennies that are worth nothing.
Sorry if you don't like it, but you can't make someone pay for their imprisonment.
Why not? thier very existance in jail costs the taxpayers money. I don't want to pay for thier comfort. The are the ones that choose not to live by the laws of the majority. in this country that means incarsaration. Why should i pay for them to lay on thier ars, watch cable tv and do nothing to contribute to the society in general. The other side of that, is we can excicute the criminals. The middle east doesn't have much trouble with theft, the punishment in many countries over there is still to loose a hand. Hence, no theft. adultry? kill the woman. Now i know you won't hold with that, and neither would I. Make Prison a place to fear, make it unpleasant, very much so, and criminals won't want to go back.
Yes, you can. It's a little thing called restitution. FindLaw can help you figure out the details. I might also point out a little thing called the 13th Amendment.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
So yeah, you can. Sorry about that.
Someone who cannot spell "library" should try and visit one – to check out a dictionary.
or luxury.....
Before you jump on this band wagon too soon, read the book "Parchment Farms". This would be a wonderful thing if we lived in a fair and just society. We have imbalance in the judicial system today just as they did 200 years ago. Sentences for non-whites in this country are double what they are for whites. There are people sitting in jail, innocent until proven guilty, that are serving unjust sentences, that would have to labor like slaves did. Would the farmers pay a just wage for the work they are receiving? Would the prisoner receive a just wage? Come on, this is taking us back to the age of slavery and we all know this.
Yes, it is wrong to commit crimes. Yes, a person must pay their debt to society when they have committed a crime. But, working for some farmer, being sold out for work you will never be paid a fair wage for, brings corruption on the highest scale. There has already been an article on CNN about the warden underfeeding prisoners, so that he could pocket the savings.
This country has enough corruption in it as it is. Who would police this program?
No, I don't like my tax dollars going to house drug dealers and pedophiles. Will I get the chance to pay less taxes because the farmer is paying a proper wage for the inmates labor? How many inmates would run, as they did from the labor farms of 50 years ago; only to harm families living near by for shelter?
No dice, send those that want to be gangbangers to fight in the military. Those that have fines to pay to the states, should receive a reasonable wage from these farmers, so they can pay what they owe.
I DO NOT feel comfortable having hardened criminals in a field picking nothing to earn his/her prison rent.
Another way to expoit a certain segment of our population. Rehabilitation has been thrown away all we want is free under paid labor. for a country that is to be so EXCEPTIONAL I find it funny we are always looking to capitalize off of the next mans demise. Are they there to serve their sentences or to help stimulate a company that does not want to pay NORMAL wages. When the federal government increases COCAINE mandatory sentencing to EQUAL crack then I can believe the system wants to work for society Until then this is just another form of modern day slavery towards minorities. No different than Unicor in the Feds or Corcraft in NY state prisons. TAXPAYERS fund inmates and jails not private coompanies so they shoud not be able to profit from our costs.
Wow – are you ever uninformed and naive – most prisons are privately run by companies as profit centers.
Tax dollars of 35-45 thousand dollars a year, per inmate is being paid, by American working people each day, to house criminals.
Uh – offering paying jobs to inmates is a form of rehabilitation.
You know why we turned to illegal aliens??? because America's are too lazy to do the hard working jobs... If we are turning to the prison inmates, It means they didn't have enough people apply that weren't aliens. We have such a high unemployment rate and we are turning to prison inmates... This is exactly what America Exceptionalism means... We (Americans) think we are the exception, we don't need to put in the work, we are above working in a field, we are too good for the jobs illegal aliens do for us... All we need to fix the problems in America is some hard work...
So, you missed the part where it says that they can't afford to hire Americans?
Your post is so far off the mark, it's ludicrous.
It's not the hard work people take issue with. It's the low pay.
Many figure "why work?" – we make it so easy for them to collect free rent, free cable, welfare checks, food stamps, free daycare and free hot lunches for their many children. Their "pay" suits them just fine – they sit around and collect.
Well that's certainly one way to look at it. The other way you can look at it is that citizens are protected by labor laws, will not work this job for a non-living wage, and aren't as easy to exploit. So basically what your saying is "Americans are too lazy to be exploited by farmers". Fact is the farmers don't want to pay a reasonable wage to people, so they get people they can exploit; prisoners, illegal aliens; what's next? Children? Then will it be "jobs that adults are too lazy to do"?
It's not that Americans can't or won't do these jobs, it's that the employers don't want to pay realistic wages, they want people they can exploit, if they can't even speak the language, EVEN BETTER!
You are not quite correct here. The problem is that as a consumer we wont pay a fair price for the product. This article points that out. $0.60 per lb of onions is not enough to pay minimum wage to harvest them. Since the price for food has skyrocketed in the past year, and the price the farmer gets is falling, that means that the middle men are getting the money. But again there is another catch. Fuel costs at $3.50 for diesel fuel to transport them to the store takes its toll as well. So once again, the large corporations (oil in this case) are taking the money from the farmers and working class.
Most of these problems can be overcome, at least seasonally, by buying produce at local farmer's markets. Cut out the middleman, buy direct from the farmer, and minimize transportation costs.
Not so workable in the northern tier of states during the winter, but even a partial solution only accomplishes good.
The only reason it's 0.60 LBS is because some farmers use cheap/free labor. If everyone was on a level playing field, as the woman in the article says the price is more like $1 LBS. The consumer will always buy the lowest price, therefore the $1 cannot compete. But what your saying is that if the price goes to $1 LBS, the consumer will stop buying this product? I don't think so, they may buy less, but they will have to pay more. They won't be happy, but do you really think consumers will never eat onions again?
WE TOLD YOU !!
Juan<< what you said is not well thought out like when japan bombed pearl harbor, by that I mean an illegal will work for pennies but our farmers are making dollars and they cost the states millions. This will limit the illegals, inmates by choice will make at least a buck or two more which can off set the cost to house an inmate and limit the funds illegals bleed out of the system.
Go home Juan You are needed there.
So you support having illegal aliens on the job, so that they can be exploited? Rather then having the farms pay a living wage. I bet your a Cesar Chavez fan, read about him sometime, you'll find he didn't like immigration either because it drives down wages, breaks unions and exploits workers! It's funny how the same crowd that celebrates Chavez also encourages the one thing he was against, EXPLOITING LABOR. Do you support the old south plantation slave owners too? Or do you draw the line at indentured servents?
LOL! So wait. First we were hollerin' that illegals were stealin' jobs, so they passed laws to drive them away. Then we start cheerin' because now these jobs can had by Americans and lower the employment rate.... only to find out that we are shoving one group of low paid workers for another group of low paid workers, and the job openings still aren;t there for the LAWFUL American citizens. How...incredibly.... IRONIC.
Which is the EXACT prediction given when the Republicans started their witch hunt. Gee what a shocker the GOP were WRONG AGAIN!
Even the illegals don't want to pick vegetables when they can work construction under tha table or other occupations under false pretenses for twice the amount that is a fact.
Aparently you don't remember history folks, the term was chain gang. Remember the song? We got soft on inmates and quit giving them hard labor for thier crimes, and in came the ilegals to fill the bill. So lets see, criminals repeat because they ain't afraid of the system, the system can't punish efectivly due to the liberal government and no one wants criminals to be exploited. Umm.. Thier criminals, they for what ever reason have gone outside the laws of our society and are now banished to the penitentary for whatever time that so fits. Make them afraid to go back, make them work for it, no countryclub rules and when they get back on the street, they are less likley to bounce back.
So, it's still the "illegals" that help the farming. Just that they are not immigrants but inmates, I guess people forgive. Good idea though. s
Good, inmates need jobs if they would have had jobs in the beginning they may not have gotten into jail to the first place.
there are 3 million people in this country that need a job so they can stop living off the work of others.
I've been unemployed before, and have never even thought about stealing or doing anything that would land me in prison. You are either the type of person who will commit a crime or you're not-just because they're out of work, then it's ok that they chose to be criminals? "The poor guy had no choice but to shoot that lady and take her purse, he couldn't find a job!"
F*** the inmates give the homeless jobs and get them off the street!
End ALL Farm Subsidies, including free prison labor.
I agree that subsidies should be ended or drastically reduced, but prison labor, under the right circumstances, has at least some rehabilitative value.
That is a fantastic Idea, use the convicts to pick, pay a wage and bill them a monthly charge for incarceration. States will save millions and convicts will love, really, getting out of their cells and off grounds a few hours a day.
That's funny, I thought all these illegals were taking our jobs. Now that they're gone, it's only exposed that NO ONE WANTED THOSE JOBS IN THE FIRST PLACE!
NOT TRUE! People are willing to do the jobs, for fair pay.....
Fair Pay is the what the market offers. Take an Economics class and tell your neighbor to do so, as well.
Fair pay is what the MARKET offers, not what the employer offers. If they have to resort to state subsidized prison labor then obviously they aren't playing a fair market rate.
Economics also dictate that when the value of the labor does not exceed the wage people are actually willing to accept to work the job, the position will remain unfilled.
Yes, but if the farmers pay what legal Americans feel is a fair wage, Americans will be paying $5. a piece for tomatoes. Americans don't want to pay $5 a piece for tomatoes. Hmmm, Low income people can hardly afford fresh fruit and veggies now, what happens when the prices go up.
Tammy define fair pay. This job does not require a skill, it requires a strong back.
So, it's still the "illegals" that help the farming. Just that they are not immigrants but inmates, I guess people forgive. Good idea though.
What are people complaining about ? Can't hire undocumented immigrants, then hire Americans. And if Americans aren't interested in back breaking work for minimum wage then farmers will have to offer more in wages to attract workers. That's capitalism of labor supply and demand. It will of course mean that staple food prices go up. But anti-immigrant Teabagger tax anarchists shouldn't have a problem with that, right ? It is their fantasy policies and choices that are pushing the country down this path, instead of addressing the problem in the real world.
I'm fine paying more for my food if this reduces the exploitation of workers. If illegal aliens are all made citizens tomorrow, guess what? The price of onions will go up! Just like if you give the job to citizens. When you take the "illegal" out of the equation, people won't be so easily exploited. Therefore, prices will adjust to the fair market value. And folks will get to work an 8-hour day and be protected by OSHA standards.
Georgia farmers and Republican Politicians can choke on their Vidalias.
I'm glad we are getting rid of those illegal aliens that are stealing our jobs so that those farm fields are being populated by American workers again! Oh wait, they aren't. Typical American conservative BS.
prisoners cannot be as productive as the undocumented people working for farmers. Even if they are, they will not last too long. I've worked at the cotton fields in Arizona, and the work was extremely hard. Many people would rather get unemployment checks than working under these poor conditions. I'm sure some of the prisoners working at the farm will file a lawsuit against the state for making them hard. We'll have to see how this ends.
Could this be an income source that would partially help offset prison costs?
Sure can, even though part of that income comes from the government, which also pays for the prison.
I would think so too. Prisoners might get time towards good behavior and prisons take their salaries. Makes sense to me.
Didn't you see in the article that the farmers are actually getting subsidies? GA government? US government? Taxpayers are actually paying for the opportunity for the inmates to be there.
Typical....
WAH WAH WAH Unemployment is high, I blame the Illegals....
Ok u scared them away go grab that job!
WAH WAH WAH that job is too hard I rather sit home and cry.
Pulling weeds can wreck a $60 manicure in 5 minutes!
Pay a fair wage to workers and raise the cost of your produce accordingly. Let the free market balance this equation. Government should then tax/tariff foreign foods that compete with US produced foods.
I would gladly pay $7-9 USD for a standard 3lb bag of Vidalia onions.
Yer crazy! Ain't no way Americans will pay that for onions.... You must be among the 1%, aren't you? That being said, I find it hilarious that farmers are now hurting b/c for sooooo many years, and probably generations, they've used CHEAP, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
how about $7-$9 of a standard Lb of tomatoes, or carrots or maybe even lettuce???
Yer crazy! Ain't no way Americans will pay that for onions.... You must be among the 1%, aren't you? That being said, I find it hilarious that farmers are now hurting b/c for sooooo many years, and probably generations, they've used CHEAP, ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS to do their farming, now that we as a nation are tired of the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, farmers profits aren't going to be so high. Let the inmates work on farms and get paid what they would get paid what they would should they have a job within prison walls. If they get paid like free ppl, then let them start to pay for their health care, food, room etc etc in order to off set what tax payers have to pay if they're just existing in prison living off our money.....
I'm defenityl not in the 1% ( I make 25,000 year)and I would pay the money (less than $10) for a bag of onions that would last me for a while, its a better buy than 2 fast food meals, or crappy pre-made freezer food.
I also have a very small garden that suppliments my veggies, so I don't have to buy onions, tomatoes or potatoes. I grow my own herbs. And this is in a small apartment patch, not some huge back yard garden. I'm a working lady, and I know how to stretch my food dollar.
I don't ever buy fast food, I buy the fresh fruit and veggies that I don't grow from the farmers market, and use a lot of dried beans and legumes which are super cheap if you buy them dry and cook them from scratch. I made a veggie and bean soup this weekend, it cost me about $7 and will last me all week for dinner, and I'll even freeze half to keep for later. You just have to know how to spend your money and cook things from scratch.
The free market will balance itself by closing your farm down in foreclosure!
Prometheus, the fact that you mention the free market and then go on to talk about tarrifs makes my head want to explode. There is nothing free market about tarrifs. Tarrifs are the antithesis of free trade and if anything are protectionist. Also there us nothing free market about creating an artificially inflated living wage. If you really want free market, leave the industry alone and let the market determine the cost of goods and labor based on supply and demand.
I would think there would be a THIRD OPTION... what about unemployed corporate America?
Not an option in the real world Skippy. With the lack of labor some farms are going unpicked (I knwo a farmer going through this). Prices might be low on onions but they are going up on so many other products. And Americans in general don't show up for these jobs. They just don't. Too hard work for little pay. They can do nothing and make almost as much on welfare for a time.
The idea that you'll see jobless Amricans going for these jobs is delusional.
it was mentioned. She can't afford to pay for what the workers will work for. Americans also will not pay more money for fruits and vegetables. All you idiots who think having illegal immigration is a problem. Its an even BIGGER problem if you don't have it. $5 tomatoes anyone? Apparently $75 million in lost revenue and 5200 lost jobs isn't enough for those of you who have no idea what it takes to run a farm.
In addition to requiring more pay, most Americans have no clue how to do the work. Farmers in Alabama found out that it takes three Americans to do the work of just one Mexican.
Right. What's sad is that these hard working Mexican agricultural workers can't even apply for permanent residence in the US because they aren't considered "skilled."
The solution is right under our noses. With so many unemployed Americans working on a farm could be a "condition" to receiving unemployment benefits. The farmer could pay what they could afford, and uncle sam could kick in the rest. This would;
1. Lower unemployment insurnace payouts
2. Give the unemployed something to do, and give them good healthy work.
3. Lower unemployment insurance premiums on employers which will inevitably put more money in the pockets of the average american.
This is so simple it would never fly.
Add those on welfare and food stamps ... even part time work is better than nothing.
You're tooo right ... it would never fly.
Add those on welfare and food stamps ... heck, even part time work is better than nothing.
You're tooo right though ... it would never fly!!
If you read this story correctly that is already a given solution, albeit a costly one.
Or just let the migrant, undocumented workers come back to do what they are excellent at, farm work. The rest is just another bong dream. Especially, wanting Uncle Sam to continue pitching in..
i'll give you some credit...your idea is not a bad one, but it does overlook the real problem. the solution to our high unemployment and shrinking middle class isn't to provide low-wage, service-type jobs. i'd rather the unemployed person continue to collect their UI while searching for a job that pays them what they're qualified to do rather than spend 8-10 hours a day picking crops while their education goes to complete and utter waste.
@nick: The reason we are not using the unemployed to work on onion fields is because we do not have compulsory soviet style concentration work camps in this country. The unemployment benefits are part of the fiber of a civilized society and can hardly can be considerate a luxury. Working on Georgia fields in 100F heat is hard work and only few people are physically capable to perform under such conditions. I would like to see the insurance company willing to insure a farm where middle-age and older unemployed with all kind of medical conditions are being forced to harvest from sunup to sundown onions all summer long as a condition of receiving unimplemented benefits.
I don't like the fact that child molesters, rapists, murderers help to procure the food that I eat.
I think Cheech and Chong would make excellent farmers.
How do you know that your food doesn't come from people like that already? Not everyone who has comitted a crime has been caught. Just give your produce an extra wash.
Well you know where it is, put on a hat ,get a bucket and go pick it yourself.
Rather ignorant statement you make. I doubt that the jails are full of just those type of criminals. The one inmate interviewed is in for burglary, far cry from what you state. Instead of rumor and fear mongering why don't you get some facts. Better than that why don't you think of ways to help people turn their lives around instead of assuming the worst.
I don't like the fact that an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT is touching my food and me not knowing if they raped, murdered, kidnapped, molested in a country that doesn't keep records that can follow them here b/c they are ILLEGAL. At least with the prison inmates we KNOW what they did! There's a bunch of I. D. 10 T's in this world, don't be one yourself
Amazing. You have no idea how hard these illegal immigrants work for the little pay they receive. You wouldn't last 10 minutes trying to do what they do. They are hard working and don't ask for much if anything. I'll eat their pickings any day of the week because they are willing to do work I won't. They take pride in their work and they do it well. If Americans keep picking up your attitude, you can expect your produce bill to double in the next few years.
I love it. An idiot telling people not to be idiots.
What the heck are they going to do to your produce, rape it first? Trust me, food safety issues in our country do not come from people picking produce. E. Coli outbreaks are linked to manure fertilizer. Salmonella outbreaks are linked to processing facilities. There really isn't too much a picker could do to your food that isn't being done everywhere else in the process of getting it to your precious mouth.
Decent wages mean paying minimum wages at least, or if you want to have high performing onion-toppers, you pay them by the bucket. Soon your field will be all picked out and ready for the next cycle..
If you want to make $100.00 a day for picking up one bucket of onions you are delusional...Those state legislators and city fathers really shot themselves and the farmers in the foot by voting to harden things on migrant workers.
They pay by the bucket, but you don't make much if it they pay 8 dollars a basket, and it take you 8 hours for 5 only to make 40 dollars. That's why a lot of people who try farm labor quit after the first week
The American agriculture labor market has be damaged. I'm glad they are working to fix it finally.
So let me get this straight. If we need these people to work in menial low paying jobs they are called migrants, and if we are ready to get rid of them, they are illegal aliens . . . . .
That would depend on whether they migrate back to their home or stay past their visas.
The cost of that process needs to be adjusted.
BINGO
BINGO TIMES TWO!!!!
The Wall Street Journal says employers should pay more if they can't find employees. On the other hand maybe these "farmers" should do some of their own work.
Spoken like someone who has never spent a day of their life outdoors on a farm. Don't parade your ignorance on CNN. It's embarrassing.
Well Said!
Exactly!!
Agree. I worked in the fields in high school to earn college money. Do not want to do it again.
Good. Now the crooks can start paying for their food and medical care. With Eric Holder as AG, the fields will soon be filled with Wall Street crooks all pick onions.
Fat chance of that happening. Too many of the Wall Street people that need to be imprisoned, own private prison stock and they are being protected by congress, which of number of those inept employees also own private prison stock.
Sounds like a plan.
About time these convicts start paying for their crimes, we need to bring back "chain gangs". Use them at farms, this way freaking illegals can go back across the border and stop sucking our tax dollars for their anchor babies. Start using prisoners to clean up trash on the road side, use them any way you can.
BWAHAHAHAHA
Welcome to cnn mr fox viewer. With comments like that, It's easy to tell which villiage is missing their id iot. It's the Fox villiage
I don't eat onions, but I do have a pool that needs cleaned when I'm out of town. Maybe I could get some of that cut rate prison labor for that?
Great article about prisoners working... AND....learning job skills
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diane-dimond/can-prisoners-help-us-sav_b_848051.html
Why don't we just bring back slavery and be done with it? In other news, Texas is challenging the Voting Rights Act....
With all of the Wall Street crooks that Holder has convicted, the onion fields will be awash with bankers and the like. The price of onions will drop and the bankers will all lose a lot of weight. Thank goodness for Eric Holder, Crime Fighter !!
Excellent, we are moving backwards into antebellum.
You right on the mark. I'm of an age where I came from the fifties. Those years were far less barbaric than times are now.
The 50's were great... unless you were a woman or black.
or gay or Asian or Latino or of any faith beside Christian really
the 1850s?
traded cheap labor for cheap labor.
With the amount we pay to house prisoners... it's not cheap labor.
How many immigrants are making 45,000 per year to pick vegetables? That's what it costs on average to house a prisoner for a year.
That's a very disingenuous argument. You're going to pay that cost whether they're picking onions or playing hoops in the yard. The real issue is we're trading one cheap labor issue for another. People scream they want a good wage, but lack the understanding that it will show up expensive product in the store. If consumers will pay that added cost, great, then all is well. Chances are they won't, or we'll start importing cheaper product from somewhere else. If you need to see this in action, look to Walmart.
Exactamundo!!
The real cost of prison comes from the insane wages earned by prison guards and prison staff. They are among the highest if not the highest paid civil servants in the country. I understand they have a dangerous job but you can't have a huge pension and receive 100k+ a year, it is not sustainable. Give them a choice, high pension or high salary.
Where are all the out of work Americans whose jobs, the illegals were supposedly taking? There's work in GA, go get it!
They must be "over qualified" for the job.
We should change our immigration laws to make it easier for farm workers to come to our nation legally to work.
If it was easier to come legally we would not have to crack down on illegal immigration in the states.
OOPS
I'd like to see those rich young boys cut their teeth on harvesting crops. Ain't gonna happen but don't let those illegals do the job. The great GOP???
PAY SOME DAMNED DECENT WAGES AND YOU'LL GET SOME WORKERS DAMNED GREEDY GOVT SUBSIDIZED FARMERS it's all because of greed.
@Chris. You do realize to do what you're suggesting, we would all pay more for onions. Greedy farmers. That's a good one.
Don't be stupid. I've been around farms my entire life, and the guys work very hard and make good money, especially considering the fact that they often have very little formal education. Why do you think they come here?! But Americans on the other hand are lazy and don't want to break a sweat to earn their money. And more than that, they definitely don't want to move from farm to farm starting in February through October, following the work season from South to North. Don't oversimplify the problem just because you are ignorant about it.
I'm all in favor of this. In fact, I think istead of just feeding inmates, they should learn how to cultivate and harvest their own food.
Shuddup... you are an id iot.
Apparently no jobs were being 'stolen' from Americans. I don't remember the last time I saw an american begging to pick onions and potato's from a farm.
Nothing but a bunch of racists.
I am not an idiot, just practical. There is no reason why an inmates can't earn their keep. As an added bonuses, not only will they learn the value of a hard day's work, but violence will be reduced because they will have spent all that pent up energy pulling weeds.
It's about time.
About time a sensible approach !
"She just plain likes doing it, she says." So what's the problem? Get over yourself, use the cons and quit complaining.
Q: What's cheaper than migrant or illegal labor?
A: Free prison labor!
and it should be illegal
Using free prison labor drives the price of onions down and makes it hard for those using legit "paid" help to compete.
It's the same principal as American labor trying to compete with cheap Chinese labor and it's a blatant example of the term "uneven playing field"...
"Everett and eight other inmates will have a few more weeks working with the onions, pulling down a minimum wage paycheck."
Reading the article helps.
Yes it does, "The farmers get a subsidy from the government to cover part of the cost. "
but if the goverment pays you back a portion of what you pay out (in the article), you are going to do exactly what "JustLikeStealing" says.
Why should it be illegal to use prisoners to work? It shouldn't go to private companies though. They should only be able to work on government land. I see no problems with prisoners farming their own food.
I agree that prisoners should be used for labor by private enterprises. The positive benefit exhibited with Jim Crow chain gangs and Nazi Germany is undeniable. There should be a sign above all U.S. prisons that say “Work Sets You Free.” Wisconsin has taken true step in this direction by considering the use of county and state prisoners as replacement for paying government employees. If I mayor needs a secretary, simply arrest a highly skilled administrative assistant for an infraction and sentence the person to 180 days or as needed. While we are at it, we could also have the administrative assistant serve 2 years probation and hire the person out to a private company for minimum wages. Both the government and private business will benefit. And society will also benefit with the reduced cost. Using prison labor creates a win for government, private businesses, and the consumer. Lets us enable all echelons of the penal system to use prison labor for government and private business pursuits. In all seriousness, this is a dangerously slippery slope.
No No No. Is this where we headed?? Using prisoners for private industry. Sounds a bit like slavery. Now all we have to do is put more people in prison and we can have plenty of labor. Most of them are in prison for these crazy drug laws we have instigated since Reagan was president. Whats next? Don't forget it started with the drug laws, went to smoking, tried guns, now its obesity, and to top it off local government wants to tell what and how much you can eat and drink. Soon they may be telling when you can go to the bathroom, go to sleep or push other personal desires on you.
From what I heard while stationed in Greece they had a policy that allowed non-violent criminals to work on the prison farm. It is hard work, but by working on the farm they cut their sentence in half.
Yeah, because we have all those americans breaking down the doors to farm.
Think about what your going to say before you actually start hunting and pecking.
I agree. Almost nobody even has a vegetable garden anymore.
y are inmates doing this? I thoguht unemployement was high...
If u want to collect then get out their picking..... get fired and lose your check. after a reviews shows its your fault not a farmer abusing the privilege....
please go back to school.