The Dark Side of "Cheap Labor" and Illegal Immigrants

       Cheap Labor. Serious oxymoron!  When someone is working hard or laboring for you then they are not cheap, they are valuable and should be treated honorably and with great respect, with pay that equals what you feel you would deserve to be paid if you were doing the same job. The only people that deserve the term "cheap labor" are the teenagers down the street just out of the blocks who need to learn the value of hard work mowing lawns or other odd jobs. I was working the soil in my garden today thinking just how hard of a job it is to work the soil and grow food for ourselves and to give away to others. Now, the cheap labor the news and government likes to tout is the illegal immigrants on top of roofs all over the country, in landscaping businesses and, the majority of which are working on America's farms. This last group is why the  Obama administration as well as the previous Bush admin pushes for the "amnesty" of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. My question is why are these people on one side of the border considered illegal and on the other a "cheap underground labor force?"

Listen, I love California strawberries in January just as much as anyone else but something in the equation does not play out. We are told lies...LIES that the entire farming industry would collapse if not for these cheap laborers. Keep in mind what that term means. It doesn't mean there is someone else who would do the job for cheaper. We all are looking for the least expensive way to get things done. What the term cheap labor REALLY means is that someone somewhere is not being paid a livable wage, one that the employer would want to be paid himself. When I hire something out that I cannot do myself, it's always important to me to not just find the least expensive but the best I can for my money. That is probably true for everyone but I also judge a job and when someone underbids to the extent that he or she is not being paid what they are worth, Michelle, mom, Uncle Jac, and I always make sure that we pay the person what they are worth.

This is not true for the farming industry. Now, many of us have seen the Farming Dodge Ram commercial. It shoes the epitome of hard work and farmers today don't want to underbid the people they hire when help is needed. However, farmers cry foul because they cannot produce a product without these illegal cheap laborers at the same price that their foreign competitors can. There is actually an answer for this. It is both Constitutional and American. It's called  A Tariff. We've all heard about these things in public schools. Here's a link that easily explains the different kinds of tariffs but the ones: Tariffs Explained

Our founders knew very well that in order for America to flourish we could not allow cheap products to overtake American made products. We would become the nation of exporters, not importers. Did you know  WITHOUT INCOME AND SALES TAXES, U.S. tariffs on imported goods and products till 1916 ranged from 10% to 30% (averaging about 28%) and supported nearly all the Federal Governments expenses until the 16th Amendment allowing Federal Income Taxes was passed in 1916.

Also, tariffs provided Government with money to pay its operating expenses and Federal debts and the debts the states had accumulated during the American Revolutionary War. Despite excise taxes on goods, such as, whiskey, rum, tobacco, snuff and refined sugar and sales of Federal land, there were initially no other significant sources of federal income besides tariffs. The excise tax on whiskey collected so little and was so despised it was abolished by Thomas Jefferson in 1800.

The Founding Fathers did not drink British tea as they camped in the mud, froze in the snow, or marched into battle. Yet we are afraid to be without grapes in December because we can't get a fresh supply from Chile because we're making money on the tariffs instead and our California growers can pay legal employees the wage they deserve. 

Farming used to be a way of life. In fact, the majority of Americans WERE farmers! Total population 1850: 23,191,786; farm population; 11,680,000 (est.); farmers 64% of labor force; Number of farms: 1,449,000; average acres: 203
As late as 1 1910
Total population: 91,972,266; farm population: 32,077,000 (est.); farmers 31% of labor force; Number of farms: 6,366,000; average acres: 138

In 60 yrs the number of farms went up by 6X!  Then, in the next 80 yrs it just shrunk to 

1990
Total population: 261,423,000; farm population: 2,987,552; farmers 2.6% of labor force; Number of farms: 2,143,150; average acres: 461; irrigated acres: 49,404,000 (1992)

Number of farmers/number of farms

Let's see these numbers up close: 1850: 11,680,000     1,449,00                                                          1910:   32,077,00        6,366,00
                                                          1990:     2,987,552      2,143,150



How is it that a man could get up out of bed and work his land from dusk till dawn and be able to put not just food on the table for his ample family but also provide for many of life's creature comforts in 1850 but now in order to make money growing food you have to be a large corporation?

The answer is simple and yet complex. Let's try the simple answer for the purpose of this blog as ya'll don't want to read a book on blogger.com. Greed. Greed for cheaply produced goods. Greed for food out of season. Greed for anything and everything. Not greed country wide. Greed up top. The top where government officials are supposed to be looking out for American's needs first. The top which says "bring on in the cheap goods and forget our farmers and woodworkers and cattlemen. Forget anyone in America who would rather work hard with their hands than sit at a desk with a phone to their ear collecting overdue credit bills."


If you haven't read my blog called Why I Want to Marry A Farmer, read it now Why I Want to Marry A Farmer. Don't let the title fool you, it's all about how Jefferson and our other founders believed the VERY BEST job in all of America was to be a farmer.


“ Cultivators of the earth are the MOST VALUABLE CITIZENS. They are the most VIGOROUS, most INDEPENDENT, the most VIRTUOUS, and they are TIED TO THEIR COUNTRY, and WEDDED TO IT’S LIBERTY, by the most LASTING BONDS.  As long, therefore, as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them to mariners, artisans (any regular job), or anything else.” -Thomas Jefferson

The answer is so simple. You cannot stop other countries from producing the same goods we can here in the United States, but you sure can tariff their little rear ends to high heaven. We need to put a lid on government spending. How do we do this? Do what our founding fathers did. Don't tax your citizens, tax foreign imports  and then make that your budget you cannot go over, period!  Ever wonder why, if the Constitution grants the power to tax, our founders shied so far away from it?Everything we will ever need is RIGHT HERE! If there are goods we cannot produce, allow them in but if allowing products in hurts Americans, hurts our farmers, you've got to financially shut the door. 

As for these so called "cheap laborers," these "illegal immigrants," well, they have to go back home. When you take away the flawed reasoning- ie that American farms NEED these cheap laborers- then your sound minds come back and you say "Wait a minute, we are a country open to all kinds of immigrants, but the rules have to be the same across the board." Some people wait for years for their family to be able to move to the United States when 11 million golden tickets are being thrown around to those who skipped the process? This is not the American way. Ha! Okay, so cheating has become the norm in America, but it shouldn't be.

WE NEED EVERYMAN KIND OF FARMERS, those whose blood, sweat, and tears, on his OWN LAND, produces the food we consume. We cannot allow underpriced goods to wet our appetite for illegal behavior, and the illegal behavior I'm talking about is not paying a farmer what his goods and labor is worth. 

And one more issue needs to be addressed- LAND. I supposedly own a little over an acre with my sister. This provides us with enough land to have a hobby garden and room for dogs to play. However, I am taxed and will be taxed every year for the rest of my life for this privilege. If I want to add a barn, I am adding nothing to my income but I will add to the supposed "value" of my property and therefore will own more money to my county, a majority will go to fund a public school system that, while professing to teach civil liberties, omits the teaching of where these liberties originate. 

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights..." You cannot teach the rest of the Declaration without teaching who our Creator is and you cannot teach evolution without first denying the awesomeness of a God who Created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th.

This land issue, as well, has to be addressed. You cannot tax someone on something for the rest of their lives. It's laughable. You also cannot take money from childless people or people who do not have children in a publically run school. If people want to get together and combine their resources to hire a central teacher, that is their free will, but do not go knocking on your neighbor's door. If people want to hold community wide events, that is wonderful, encouraged. Again, please, if you come knocking on my door for a donation, I may or may not donate, but that would be my free will. You cannot make people participate in  things of convenience. Yes, every child has a right to be educated, to be able to read and write so they can understand their rights under our founding documents but ultimately it is the parent's responsibility and duty to educate. Catholic churches for years have opened up their doors to the poor but I say educate the poor AND their parents. Teach the parents so they can teach their children. I daresay, if there are evil parents that do not care about their children that is another issue of child abuse. 

Some would tout the low illiteracy rate as praise for the public school system. Ha! In the past 100 yrs has shown the exponential rise in children being born outside of marriage. Yay! At least they can read. In the early 1900's a black child had about an 18% chance of being born without 2 married parents, which means they had an 82% chance of being born in a home both an mom and a dad. Now, stats show over 70% of black babies are born to a single parent home. For white babies, the chances were a mere 3-4% of being born out of wedlock, now it's over 35% or much higher. Everyone knows how hard it is for children of a single parent home to develop strong. There is a reason why it takes two to make a baby- nature says that it also takes 2 to raise a child. 

Cut the public school strings. It causes nothing but harm and is illegally funded causing neighbors to steal from neighbors. Additionally, as long as God is shut out at the front door, it's duty to educate children properly cannot be fulfilled.

When tariffs and other legal measures are employed to allow our farmers to grow and earn a decent income, when the income tax and social security are abolished and government is funded through tariff taxation on imports, when the public school is dismantled and the truly poor are helped with family education through churches and good Christians, then our country will be on par with the original intent. Then, and only then, will the blood shed for our freedoms cease to cry foul for what we have done to the system they worked so hard to create through the power of God, their Creator!