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Comment by _iyig | Hacker News Reader

They are essential to the economy because American employers can pay below-market wages for back-breaking labor. I'd prefer to make such practices illegal, rather than continually subjecting undocumented immigrants to awful working conditions with no healthcare or legal recourse in cases of abuse.

If a concerted effort was made to improve the lives of such workers, I think you'd be surprised how quickly Americans would be willing to do those jobs.

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I think you'd be surprised how fast the companies hiring all those workers would go bankrupt, leaving the United States without an agricultural industry (which is as critical to national security as the rule of law).

Americans are, on the whole, unwilling to pay the prices required to provide people with a living wage and proper labor protections.

>Americans are, on the whole, unwilling to pay the prices required to provide people with a living wage and proper labor protections.

I would frame it as, "Americans are, on the whole, unwilling to pay higher prices for ethically-sourced food when lower prices can be had elsewhere." The solution is to eliminate the cheaper, unethical alternative.

Labor is only a small percent of agricultural costs. They could profitably pay pickers far more without a substantial increase in food prices.

US citizens never stay past lunch at any of the farms doing picking. The work is too hard, nobody here wants it.

The work is so back breaking that no US citizens want the work. They get easier jobs. I heard interviews with a couple of farmers, no US citizens had ever come back after lunch.

Do you know if they were paid a wage worthy of destroying your back for? Or is it in our best interest to subject brown people to slave tier labor for little pay?

I think the job is for people without more opportunity. Paying more would help, but I still think it would mostly be immigrants doing the job. The other issue is that paying more would result in more automation for crops that can be automated.

If paying more money for back-breaking work is going to result in more automation, we should welcome it. There's no way that I will stand on the side arguing that unemployment is worse than slavery. But yeah, if they raise the wage for these slave-tier jobs and still only immigrants do them, why the hell not? (As long as they aren't here illegally of course).

I agree. A minimum wage for everyone, with no underclass, would be ideal. As would a work permit program.

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