Iamsemisweet -> RE: Want a tomato with your salad? Get a bank loan (10/12/2011 11:51:15 AM)
|
You are missing the point. First, I don't think the whole agricultural system of the US is going to pack up and move to Brazil. Second, "rain water" is rarely enough, alone. For one thing, even in areas of plentiful rain fall, there is such a thing as drought. Too much rain, or rain at the wrong time is also damaging. Farms in this country, particularly in the west, are only viable because of the availability of cheap, federally subsidized irrigation water, where delivery can be controlled. The real point here is that you evidently believe that if farmers are forced to use something other than illegal immigrant slave labor, then farming operations will pack up and move to, well, somewhere. At first you said Mexico, now you are saying Brazil. I say bull shit. There is far more involved than just labor. Subsidizing the social costs of illegal immigration is just another cost the ag business is trying to foist off on the public. It needs to stop. quote:
ORIGINAL: xssve quote:
ORIGINAL: Iamsemisweet I think there is one thing you aren't taking into account, and that is that agriculture requires more than just cheap labor. It also requires plentiful and cheap water. At least in the western US, this required expensive and government funded infrastructure, such as the dams and irrigation delivery systems. The Imperial Valley would still be a desert if this hadn't happened. This is all heavily subsidized and required an enormous investment that I somehow don't see Mexico being able to pay for. quote:
ORIGINAL: xssve But like it or not, this is unregulated capitalism at it's finest, and if you don't let Mexicans in to it here (regulation!), the farms will simply move to Mexico - where the labor is, and it's already largely a feudal economy. It depends on the economics, they get a lot of rain in Brazil, America isn't the only country that immigrants go to, a lot of countries compete for them - we compete with China for scientists for example, and lately, we've been losing.
|
|
|
|