So tell me what food prices and other prices have illegal immigrant worker

[cantstandbush]

kept low for Americans? The only thing that has been kept down is US wages for workers. Only the coportations have benefited, just check out the stock prices and the profit margins over the past 10 years.

[Minnesota Libra]

1. That's what you call "flooding the market" with workers nt

[bullimiami]

2. absolutely, they are lying.

most of the price of produce is in the markup. the farmworkers and even the farmers dont make squat. the distributors and businesses down the chain account for the majority of the cost.


there a many in this country making a profit from exploiting illegal workers. all workers pay the price for this, the illegals directly, the legal workers indirectly.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

12. When you pay $1.99 for a little box of strawberries....

12 cents pays for the labor. 12 freakin cents. I would pay 15 cents extra to be able to pay the bills by picking strawberries.

that's 3 frickin pennies. $2.02 instead of $1.99.

[EFerrari]

3. So, why do your posts always focus on undocumented workers

and not on criminal hiring practices?

Get it straight. Who benefits?

[cantstandbush]

5. I think you and I are on the same page, diff paragraph. n/t

[EFerrari]

14. You are probably right. Sorry. n/t

[Warpy]

4. Most foodstuffs are cheaper because of immigrants doing

stoop labor and working in slaughterhouses at or slightly above minimum wage, living in horrible conditions in order to save a few bucks for their return to Mexico.

However, construction, garment, and janitorial service workers are driving down wages while the companies still charge as though the goods and services were being provided by US workers.

[cantstandbush]

6. Actually, Warpy, my point is that food isn't really that cheap.

When you compare the rising cost of food to the dwindling wages of the average worker in this country, food is not cheap!

[Warpy]

7. The cost of food has been inflating far slower than the cost of

just about everything else save consumer electronics.

Consider that food used to take a third of the poverty level budget. Because the cost of food has inflated more slowly than that of housing, transportation, clothing, and (especially) healthcare, that food budget now accounts for only a sixth of that budget, something the government has yet to adjust their formula to.

So yes, those Mexican "guests" have been helping us for decades by keeping the price of our veg much lower. They may also be keeping meat prices down, although that is more debatable.

[Solon]

9. Actually, that argument is really weak...

You could use that argument and would have to factor in the rise of factory farms, the increased use of mechanization, and the buyouts of local farms into large(2 or 3) corporations with central managment structures. Those, combined, probably have a greater effect than any illegal immigrant picking fruits on these farms.

[Warpy]

16. Nobody's ever figure out how to factory farm stoop work

so that part holds up.

They've helped keep the price inflating more slowly.

Arguing they've had no effect on food prices is futile. They have.

[Solon]

19. Didn't say that...

I said that modern factory farming, mechinization, and centralized managment structures probably have a LARGER effect than labor costs alone would account for. Read what you wrote again, food prices are increasing much more slowly than other products, NONE of which are made in the United States anymore at any significant quantity, so why hasn't the cheapness of the labor from those translated to cheaper prices for us?

[doc03]

8. The labor cost in a $3.00 pint of strawberries is 12 cents

according to what I heard on Wolf Blitzer's report the other day. Today I read an article in the paper that out of a $1.00 head of lettuce the farmer gets about 12 to 18 cents and labor is about 6 cents. I wonder if those labor costs are coming out of the 12 to 18 cents the farmer gets, it didn't say? Anyway even if you would double the labor costs we aren't going to starve. Why is it people will bitch about paying an extra 6 cents for a head of lettuce so a person can live with some dignity, yet they will go out and pay $1.00 for a 12 ounce bottle of water. According to an acquaintance that works at a nearby dairy plant the company makes bottled tea, orange drink and water all from the same water and charges 75 cents for the tea and the orange drink and $1.00 for the water.

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. Bingo! We have a winner.

My father ran a little truck farm business for a few years after he retired. He said you could double wages, and the prices of the veggies should only go up a few cents.

[mistyeye]

10. farm corporations are some of the biggest corporations of all

Archer Daniels Midland is a multi-billion dollar company. Tyson Chicken is as well. These corporations could cut CEO salaries in half, still have multi-million salaries and raise the wages of their low-end wage earners without affecting profits at all.

[Solon]

13. None, mass production is what keeps prices low...

Think of modern electronics, CD players used to be 700 bucks, but are now FAR less than that, DVD players the same, down to 30 bucks for some brands. That is a result of MASS PRODUCTION and assembly lines, it doesn't really matter if the workers on those lines are paid one dollar an hour or 12 bucks an hour. Think of Henry Ford, thanks to the assembly line techniques, he was able to both sell cars cheaply and make sure he paid his workers enough to afford them. This is a simple idea, and one that has been proven time and time again, it doesn't matter if we are talking about clothes and shoes or automobiles, the fact is that the biggest savings is dependent on HOW MUCH of something is made, not how much the workers themselves are paid.

Think of it historically, all new products, especially in cases like creating whole new industries are dependent on the development of adjacent industries to support them. Probably the biggest thing that pisses me off is this, any savings that are made by shaving labor costs are NOT passed on to customers, the reason is that the sole purpose of selling something is selling it at the MAXIMUM acceptable price, rather than at the MINIMUM acceptable price. Nikes have always cost at least 50 bucks, and more like a hundred, for a pair of shoes that were made by people making, in some cases, 15 cents an hour. The only reason why Nike wouldn't open a plant here with workers making 12 bucks an hour is not because they would have to raise the price of shoes, but because they would lose their large profit margin if they didn't.

[doc03]

15. Here is a couple examples, several years ago

I bought a pair of shoes at J.C.Penney they were advertised as being made in the USA and were $55. After a year or so I went back to get a new pair and they were then made in China price $65, now it's obvious they weren't forced to move their operation to China because they couldn't compete in price due to labor costs. Where I work we use Philip's light bulbs and it's part of my job to change them we have maybe 25 in the building. The bulbs were made in the USA a couple years ago and maybe once or twice a month one would burn out. Today they are made in Mexico and at least 3-4 burn out each week. This is a win win deal for Philip's they move their plant to Mexico, dump all the US employees pensions and get their bulbs made with cheaper labor and sell 5 times as many bulbs at the same price. The difference PROFITS.

[Atman]

17. Try finding "legal" child care for less than a grand a month!

Actually, it's been a while since I've needed that market, but I recall it used to cost us a FORTUNE. It really toasted my cookied to hear Erica Jong on Real Time the other night, a "wealthy" woman by most American's standards, claiming she couldn't find a legal American to watch her children. BULLSHIT. She couldn't find one who'd work for slave wages like she paid her Mexican nanny, despite the fact that she was one of the lucky ones who can actually afford full, legal day care!

[QC]

18. Interesting article on the theme of child care:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sherman-yellen/esperanza-the-undocumen_b_18208.html

Here's the shorter version: Illegal immigration is good because it prevents self-righteous yuppies from having to take care of their own kids and clean their own houses.