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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."
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 24 2018, @06:17PM (4 children)
Slaves was item 2. There is a reason America didn't fall into ruin when we freed the slaves . . . Item 3 immigrants.
You fail to mention item 4 . . . who will do the job if we don't have immigrants? Are American employers going to pay Americans an actual fair, let alone a livable wage to do what was done by servants, slaves and immigrants? Are we going to be willing to pay more at the supermarket and restaurant?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @07:50PM (2 children)
We may have to. But the cost increase will drive automation and tool development. Just like it has in every other industry where they were forced to pay a living wage.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 24 2018, @09:29PM (1 child)
I'm all for automation and robots putting people out of work.
Now, what we do with all the people whose jobs are replaced by machines?
I'm saying this problem is insurmountable, nor that we shouldn't have more robots. But it is a problem we need to solve. One idea I heard is a "robot tax". Like everything, any idea put forth is going to have pros and cons creating arguments.
Just sayin'
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 24 2018, @09:30PM
Typo: I'm NOT saying this problem is insurmountable.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Friday August 24 2018, @07:54PM
First off. Their is a long and well documented history of discrimination. While I cannot simply state, "America is ready and willing to harvest its own food 100% by itself" we know for a fact that American agricultural workers have been covertly harrased and prosecuted for a long time. Change that, and put projects that encourage people to do farm work instead of the constant ridicule and denigration of the practice and I know we would do orders of magnitude better than any studies would predict.
But even then, slavery can be a rather efficient beast. Working conditions probably would need to improve to some level that would be considered not a human rights violation. And prices increased accordingly, luckily American food is about 1% the cost the global average. if it increased in cost 2 fold it would still be a miniscule percentage of the total expenses. You also have to remember that the Food Cost Percentage is a very small percentage of the final purchase price, and regardless of if the farmer sells his crop for 30 cents a lb or 50 cents a lb the consumer is paying $10 a lb, so the difference is hardly noticeable.