Thank you, Rotten
Rottenchester has a truly superlative analysis of the immigration debate, from the perspective of workers and employers; recall, that there was an essay about the AgJOBS bill in the D&C yesterday (here’s our post about this).
Rotten compares wages for agricultural workers with those of other areas and finds that agricultural wages are, indeed, on the low side, just as anti-immigrant types suggest. Thus, one could argue that they are held down by competition from immigrants (illegal and otherwise). He points out, though, that there are other reasons why it might be difficult to find enough ag workers among Americans — specifically, the work is hard and it’s seasonal.
Rotten then proceeds to eviscerate Bob Lonsberry’s claim that people would “get off welfare” and work on farms if we choked off the supply of immigrant labor.
This piece is the kind of thing our paid media should provide, but doesn’t. We are lucky that Rottenchester and others like him are willing to do it for free. Thank you, Rottenchester.
I recommend that everyone who is interested in this issue read Rottenchester’s entire piece.
Thanks for the kind words and the link.