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posted by martyb on Friday August 24 2018, @04:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.

NPR has an August 23rd, 2018 story about the original "A-TEAM" (Athletes in Temporary Employment as Agricultural Manpower), a 1965 project to replace migrant workers with high school kids on summer break.

The year was 1965. On Cinco de Mayo, newspapers across the country reported that Secretary of Labor W. Willard Wirtz wanted to recruit 20,000 high schoolers to replace the hundreds of thousands of Mexican agricultural workers who had labored in the United States under the so-called Bracero Program. Started in World War II, the program was an agreement between the American and Mexican governments that brought Mexican men to pick harvests across the U.S. It ended in 1964, after years of accusations by civil rights activists like Cesar Chavez that migrants suffered wage theft and terrible working and living conditions.

But farmers complained — in words that echo today's headlines — that Mexican laborers did the jobs that Americans didn't want to do, and that the end of [the program] meant that crops would rot in the fields.

[...] the national press was immediately skeptical. "Dealing with crops which grow close to the ground requires a good deal stronger motive" than money or the prospects of a good workout, argued a Detroit Free Press editorial. "Like, for instance, gnawing hunger."

[One group] got paid minimum wage — $1.40 an hour back then — plus 5 cents for every crate filled with about 30 to 36 [melons.] [Students] worked six days a week, with Sundays off, and they were not allowed to return home during their stint. The farmers sheltered them in... "defunct housing" [according to one student].

Problems arose immediately... In California's Salinas Valley, 200 teenagers... quit after just two weeks on the job... Students elsewhere staged strikes. At the end, the A-TEAM was considered a giant failure and was never tried again.

[Stony Brook University history professor Lori A. Flores] says the A-TEAM "reveals a very important reality: It's not about work ethic [for undocumented workers]. It's about [the fact] that this labor is not meant to be done under such bad conditions and bad wages."

The kids gave up their summer vacations, worked in 110 degree heat six days a week, slept with no air conditioning, and ate subsistence rations, for nearly no benefit; it's no wonder the program was not a rousing success.

In tangentially-related news, the U.S. Libertarian Party published a press release the day before entitled "Immigrants Benefit the United States" that makes the blanket assertion "Immigrants, almost across the board, are a net value to the United States."


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  • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:48AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:48AM (#725651)

    That means a major shift in demographics towards Hispanic immigrants is a major shift away from the founding principles of a small, explicitly limited government whose sole role is to protect each individual citizen's natural, innate rights, chief among which are the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (i.e., the pursuit of self-interest).

    There are major cultural facets of America at stake here. Latin American culture is not anywhere close to U.S. culture.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @08:25AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @08:25AM (#725694)

    ... is a major shift away from the founding principles of a small, explicitly limited government ...

    Dude, that ship sailed sank a long time ago. The latest example is borrowing $1T to provide tax cuts for corporations. That's not "small, explicitly limited government" in any sense of the word.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:50PM (#725935)

      Those numbers are from 2015 [oecd.org].

      Given the enormity of the United States in terms of population, diversity of population, diversity of climate and geography, etc., the U.S. has a spectacularly small government.

      Also, just because the government has grown doesn't mean it's OK to let it fatten even further. Those old American principles are still at play.

      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday August 25 2018, @06:29AM

        by anubi (2828) on Saturday August 25 2018, @06:29AM (#726158) Journal

        What would those numbers look like if both healthcare and education were folded in?

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @12:29PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @12:29PM (#725762)

    There are some differences, but they aren't as big as you think.
    As another poster has said, native American culture has already shifted away from what you are espousing! The real danger to our culture comes from radical Americans at this point (whatever their ethnic origin). It's too bad our social policies emphasize balkanization. Time for a pause to assimilate.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @03:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @03:49PM (#725858)

      Who the hell modded my post as Flamebait?
      Did someone see themselves on the receiving end? This just underscores my last point.