WatchTo crib a post I made on the housing forum, more and more we are hearing that Alabama's economy is being hurt by its new anti-immigration law. Yes, more undocumented immigrants are leaving the state, but so are documented immigrants, because they don't want to deal with this nonsense.
State governments are still using this ideological BS to attempt their own immigration enforcement, which is hurting their economies. Just today, there was another report on NPR about how Alabama's new regulation has resulted in undocumented immigrants leaving the state, and farmers are now having trouble harvesting crops and sowing the next crops. Without migrant farm workers, Alabama's agricultural economy is being destroyed, and with it the suppliers of seed, fertilizer, and farm machinery.
Here's an article from a couple weeks ago:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/08/141183030/can-the-u-s-economy-really-function-without-undocumented-workers
Here's the update from today's Morning Edition:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/24/141638999/labor-worries-rise-as-planting-season-nears-in-ala
Peturis says he's tried to hire through the state unemployment office before, but didn't have much success.
"Two of them left in 30 minutes; didn't even tell us they [were] going to leave," Peturis says. "One worked an hour and says it was too hard on his back."
The Impending Planting Season
In Baldwin County on the Gulf Coast, strawberry planting season is just a few weeks away. Farmers are wondering if they'll have the crews to get the plants in the ground.
"We need help doing it and we need help that's going to come back every day," says Mark Krupinski, whose family farms about 900 acres in Foley, Alabama. He says the work is hard, and when local people ask him about a job, they want to drive tractors, not labor in the fields.
"That isn't the kind of job most of us want to do," he says. "I don't blame them for not wanting to do [it], but somebody's got to do it if we're going to keep eating for the price that we are eating at."
You heard it -- Americans just want to drive around in tractors, but undocumented migrant farm workers are the ones who are willing to do the real work.
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corntrollio says
I think that this is the key here, pay... what are they paying to do this work?
It is not so much that Americans are afraid of doing back-breaking labor, but they don't want to do it for what amounts to minimum wage.
If we are going to get rid of illegal immigrant labor we need to motivate Americans to take the jobs by either:
1. Paying more to do the work.
2. Impoverish and starve Americans to the point where they, and their families, will starve to death if they don't take the work.
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ust today, there was another report on NPR about how Alabama's new regulation has resulted in undocumented immigrants leaving the state,
Of course an extremely liberal news source is going to take what's essentially a temporary situation and try to portray it as a catastrophe. They will find Americans to do that type of work, they'll just set up a bus system to do it. The TV clips I saw said that's what they were planning on doing.
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zzyzzx says
Oh, has some new information become available about NPR? Did they have a sudden shift in their programming? Because in-spite of allegations NPR has never been actually shown to have a "liberal" bias.
I can understand how a FOX news junkie, or even a CNN-head would become confused when confronted with actual relatively balanced and fair reporting of the news. But, whenever NPR/PBS programming content has been analyzed/studied no significant bias, liberal or conservative, has been found.
So, please if you have evidence to support your claim (other than a Bill O'Liely comment) please do post it. I would be more than willing to adjust my view given actual evidence.
P.S.- NPR has also been accused of having a conservative bias.
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America should just make their Army do the work like every other Third World country.
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MarsAttacks! says
Oh, so you are saying that you have evidence of NPR's "liberal" bias? The anticipation is killing me, why didn't you just post it with your flippant reply? I can't wait to see it!
***Hmmm... now why wouldn't shrek just post his evidence and prove an NPR bias... Hmmm....***
Oh, wait... I get it... you, like every other conservative/liberal who accuses NPR of bias, don't have any actual evidence to support your position. You are just upset that NPR/PBS does not shovel the same swill as your favored propaganda outlet. Hmmm... yes it all makes sense now.
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leoj707 says
Yeah, exactly. It's just a BS accusation.
iwog already posted the same issue about Georgia with tons of evidence, and Shrek/Mars offered not even a shred of evidence in response.
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I think Alabama should appeal for Federal disaster aid.
None of their Teabaggers could have seen this coming.
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MarsAttacks! says
Ah, shrek --er... I mean Mars-- thanks for bringing up that you think "the sky is blue", as an analogy example! It is just like someone saying that the color of a prism is "rainbow".
That is indeed something that would be said by someone who is uninterested --or perhaps intellectually lazy-- in ascertaining the "truth", and remains content with relying on unsupported answers based on ill-conceived notions.
Now it is more clear than ever why you would refuse to provide any actual proof of bias by NPR.
FYI - Speaking of "clear" the sky is actually clear, yet it appears, at times to be blue because the short wave length of blue light (coming from the sun) is more easily scattered by the atmosphere.
Ah, ha ha... and I suppose you would think that the color of the night sky is "black", ah ha ha, your so funny!
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MarsAttacks! says
How did I mix the two up? By writing about them in the same post?
Now you're just trying to deflect because you have nothing here.
Again, show us why this is biased, show us that NPR is normally biased, and show us your evidence of both of those and evidence that it's not the case that Alabama farmers are having problems that would either require them to shut down their fields or for people to pay significantly more for produce. Otherwise, it's a lot of hot air, shrek.
After all, I'm sure the Alabama Agriculture Commissioner is a flaming liberal commie pinko socialist:
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You did offer no evidence to iwog's claim, and you've offered nothing here to dispute the facts (just like zzyzzx's nonsense). I made two independent points in my post above, but you're trying to conflate them as part of your game. Not buying into this nonsense -- talk about the substantive points, or go home.
It's certainly not libel to say what I said, in any case, and in your recent post, it looks like you just misquoted me, but I'm not about to poop myself about it:
MarsAttacks! says
MarsAttacks! says
Possibly -- certainly farmers will need to adapt. But in the meantime, those farmers will suffer because Alabama passed the law. Everybody gets what they deserve. That's the nice thing about having 50 different laboratories in the US -- Alabama can fall on its own bad policy here. Of course, now they'll probably get all kinds of federal compensation, so the donor states will pay.
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MarsAttacks! says
Ah, classic shrek, still stuck on the absolutist comments I see, and still no evidence to show NPR bias. Nice try distracting with an old conversation you had with Iwog.
Ah, ha ha, thanks for the laugh buddy you always know how to brighten my day.
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MarsAttacks! says
Yes, if you want to wax philosophical all news(and other) organizations will have some bias. NPR is just the news outlet with the least amount of bias, and has been show at times to have both slight conservative and slight liberal biases. Hmmm... perhaps the lack of bias is only coincidental that it is also not a wholly corporate owned entity like other news sources are.
MarsAttacks! says
**sniff** *wipes tear from eye*
Ahhhh... fond memories...
I remember when you... er... uhhh... I mean shrek got booted. Shrek's loss of civility, that accompanied his ban was preceded by frustrated accusations of libel.
Mars, perhaps you should take a deep breath, and maybe a break from the keyboard, before you head down the same road that "shrek" traveled. The way you seem to get so emotionally invested, and wound up, I would not even suggest taking it outside.
Just looking out for your best interests buddy.
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corntrollio says
Um, yeah that was a quote from me. I think I will follow corn's lead and not poop myself over it either.
However, just to clear some things up, Mars seems to attribute my quote as a response to his comment here:
MarsAttacks! says
Actually I more or less agree with this comment. In order to attract Americans to agra jobs they need to pay more, and one way to do this would be to increase automation. And, yes, any "adjustment period" will probably be "wrenching".
When I said "...someone who is uninterested --or perhaps intellectually lazy...." I was responding to Mar's avoidance at providing any evidence of NPR's bias, by using his silly "the sky is blue" analogy. Not at all having to do with the discussion of farm workers.
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Interesting how the liberal media conveniently forgets about all the unemployed American construction workers, restaurant workers, hotel workers, and janitors who will be able to get jobs in Alabama now.