• @MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    352 days ago

    “You reap what you sow” originates from farming wisdom. Just putting that out there.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      172 days ago

      It’s weird to think the agricultural workers, who can’t vote and don’t have legal status and are often living on subsistence wages, deserve to be snatched off the street and fed into a concentration camp system in order to deprive a few agricultural wholesalers of their profit margins.

      I don’t see that as reaping what you sow at all. Fascism does not fall heaviest on the fascists.

      • @MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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        122 days ago

        Supporters of facism and their narcissism. Specifically, they use their privilige to moan about their own challenges, seemingly without much thought for those taken into concentration camps. They will only ever understand what hurts them.

  • @RadioFreeArabia@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I’m surprised that they haven’t considered using prison labour yet.

    It is also ironic that people in the US criticize alleged slavery in other countries but ignore their agricultural economy

    • @Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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      172 days ago

      I’m pretty sure parts the US are actively using prison labor already. It varies by state, but I remember reading about one state where they were basically renting out prisoners to companies. I think they used the term “hiring”, but the money the company paid didn’t go to the inmate… The prison system has been one of the larger atrocities in the US for a while now.

  • @JcbAzPx@lemmy.world
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    633 days ago

    Well yeah. Turns out people who aren’t in fear of being deported won’t work for a fraction of minimum wage paid under the table.

    • @buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      52 days ago

      work for a fraction of minimum wage paid under the table.

      The real irony here is that a lot of immigrant workers were here on legitimate visas, in fact a huge portion of the “illegal” immigrants who the Trump administration has deported were here on legit visas that he wantonly revoked, and were therefore paying taxes on the shite wages they were being paid. Taxes that the U.S. is now no longer collecting. Anyone wanna take bets on the deficit increase under Trump?

  • @Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    753 days ago

    These red voting MAGA fucks were receiving grants to hire labor and they claim socialism is bad. I have zero sympathy for their problems and this is another classic FAFO situation.

    • @Kickforce@lemmy.wtf
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      213 days ago

      Yes but if the farm work doesn’t get done you are looking at the next thing which will be the great American famine, which I expect somewhere this summer. If the US food production falters and importing food is made very expensive though tarriffs, Americans are not going to have enough food.

      It’s going to be like post revolutionary China in so many ways.

        • @Sidhean@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Its actually Obama’s fault, still. I really don’t get how, but he (Trump) said he(Obama)'d nuke Iran. The deep state strikes again now is the time for peace etc all caps

          /s :(

  • @WanderingThoughts@europe.pub
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    603 days ago

    They’ll start calling to use prison labor soon enough. Prisons are commercial facilities anyway and could use some cash. And there are more African American in prison proportionally so that’s a bonus for MAGA. Police will get their cut for putting more people in prison. That way the new racist slave labor gets established.

    • @BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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      283 days ago

      That’s definitely the plan, and they’ll be using private, for-profit prison companies. One is a facility in Louisiana that has been closed twice due to abuse and torture of inmates, and has been reopened as an ICE facility they’ve been stashing the students arrested for pro-Palestinian protests there. The Columbia student who just got released was being held there.

      They are also building a 30,000 bed facility at Guantanamo Bay. The $250 million dollar contract has been awarded, and it’s underway. For context, the average maximum security prison hold 800-1200 people, with the largest in Angola, LA holding about 8400. So this new facility is nearly 4 times larger than the largest prison, which is already several times larger than average. Clearly, they intend to house MANY people there.

      It’s my belief that they will eventually take the position that if you can’t stay actively employed (due to AI, robotics, automation, discrimination, etc.) and require the help of the government to survive, then they will house and feed you in exchange for renting you out as slave labor. That way, they can say they solved the homeless problems, even though all they did was turn them into slaves.

      And the MAGA followers will go along with it, happy that the “parasites” are being forced to work. Besides, they’ve been hoping for slavery to return since 1865. The only legal slavery in America is prison labor, and like MAGA always does, they intend to exploit the shit out of that Amendment.

  • @Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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    312 days ago

    Importing workers to make 16.84/hr. Just what American is going to accept that kind of wage when the boss is getting grants of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

    The immigrant would have to work 11,876 hours to earn the 200k handout that the boss gets for hiring him seasonally for two years. How is this sustainable? Are we all going to be working to subsidize farmers by 100k/year to hire a single foreign farmhand?

    Not to mention the program for that grant has only 141 members… it just doesn’t make sense.

    • @Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      282 days ago

      OK, so, I live in farm country and there’s some problems with what your saying. 1. It’s actually good pay. In fact some farmers have tried raising the pay to attract more workers, it rarely works. Farms are in the middle of nowhere. There’s no city. MAYBE there’s a post office and a store that sells exclusively Croation gass station fare. MAYBE. It’s temporary work. You get a few months pay. So. Remote, physically demanding, and temporary. That’s what makes it a ‘‘no thanks’’ job for every American. We live hand to mouth, we live in a stack of cards that requires constant payments. That’s not a problem in Latin America for the most part, they live hand to mouth but they can save up money, they are maxed out on payments and debt, they just throw extra money in a jar and only live of what they really really need. So working a few months in the US, then Canada, then Mexico, it’s OK. That’s why they’re called seasonal farm workers. When you close to boarders you trap them out of their job and create insane problems. I don’t know why Americans can’t figure out how the food gets to the Walmart, but they have been failing up grasp this for a long ass time.

      • @LordGimp@lemm.ee
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        162 days ago

        You’re not gaslighting anyone into thinking $17 an hour is worth much of anything. What the fuck does “some farmers have tried raising the pay to attract more workers, it rarely works” mean?? Oh no, farms are paying more, better not work there. Are you retarded? You don’t see rednecks passing up oilfield work because it’s out in the middle of nowhere. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the six figure paychecks those jobs have. Nope. Hell, I bet if you dropped their pay to $17 an hour, every roughneck in the field would sprint as fast as they could over to thank you personally. What a fuckin genius idea.

        • @Bluewing@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          So what amount of pay would YOU want to do that type of work for? And what would you be willing to pay for the food produced at that wage level?

          You guys were bitching about the cost of eggs being $5 a dozen not too long ago. And just a few years ago it was the cost of Doritos and cornflakes because of high corn prices. So make up your minds. Either you can pay the temporary fieldworkers $50 hr, or YOU can have cheap food. Which is it going to be?

          • @LordGimp@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            I’ve been running my own garden for three years now on a community plot. I don’t ask anyone to work for me, and I don’t pay anyone. I pick what I want and everyone else does the same. Sometimes they help, sometimes they don’t. It doesn’t change anything for me.

            I can’t fix your busted local economy for you. I do know that paying $30/hr will get a lot of people out doing something they don’t necessarily like, even if they have to drive for it. Even in a place with ridiculous cost of living like California.

            I knew guys who left their house at 1 in the morning to be 120 miles away for the start of work at 4. I asked one of them why they did it. They said “Where we live, you either go out and get a real job, or you work in the fields”. It’s not even about the money. It’s mostly about the benefits. How many farmers offer medical, paid holiday, or sick pay?

            These guys worked 10s and 12s every day. They work hard, and they want that work to mean more for them than someone else’s profit. That’s ALL you are offering.

          • @Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            The funny thing is that if they used the 100k/year for labor, they would be able to pay out $87,600 after 12.4% employer tax, this equates to ~$42.11/hr. I absolutely promise workers will line up for that wage.

            Course that still doesn’t provide healthcare. That being said, the farmer is pocketing more money by paying the employee so little than what the employee actually makes, and this money is not at all earned by the farmer, but a handout from taxpayers. The employer gets to profit from the fruits of their labor on top of making more money simply by paying them the legal minimum they can pay with the program.

  • @pleasegoaway@lemm.ee
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    593 days ago

    This is part of the plan. Small farms will be run out of business and then bought for a low price and consolidated by mega farms.

    Big Agriculture wants this and lobbies for it to happen.

  • @Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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    893 days ago

    You mean that the job isn’t worth what you pay to do. They always pretend it isn’t the money. But of course its the money. If I’m going to work my ass off I expect better pay. Those immigrants were working their ass off for minimum wage and the farmers knew they were exploiting them.

    • @CalipherJones@lemmy.world
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      253 days ago

      Literally everything in America is about how much money you have, but God forbid you ask an employer how much they’re going to pay you. Because at your job what really matters is FAMILY. It’s like, give me a fucking break.

    • @GooberEar@lemmy.wtf
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      173 days ago

      Any pretty much any physical job comes with copious risks to your body and health, yet these types of employers typically don’t pay for employee health plans nor do they pay enough for employees to comfortably afford their own. Why would anybody want to risk severing a finger, breaking a leg, getting bitten by a dangerous snake, a nail to the hand, etc if they don’t have to, especially knowing they can’t afford the treatment and it could lead to lifelong pain and disability?

  • @squaresinger@lemmy.world
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    283 days ago

    I thought that Covid would have been enough of a trial run for that.

    At least in my country it was that. You know, it was Covid, with the highest unemployment rate since quite a long time, and farmers ran nation-wide ads looking for workers. They increased the pay sometimes up to 2-3x. They promised housing in nice hotels. And still, nobody wanted to do the job and that year there was just no strawberries on the shelves.

    The only way working as a farm hand makes sense is if:

    • The workers have no decent other option
    • Working on a farm is safer than working at home
    • Money is worth a lot more where they are from, so that the meagre salary they make in the target country is worth multiple times of that back home, so that the €1000-1200 they make over here turn into the equivalent purchasing power of €4000-6000 back home.
  • @SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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    1253 days ago

    I wouldn’t mind being a crop worker…provided I get at least minimum wage, breaks, healthcare, and reasonable quotas that ensure my wellbeing.

    crickets

    • @Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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      383 days ago

      I’ve done a lot of seasonal field scale farm work, mostly in Europe - it can be extremely hard work. Couldn’t do it now, you have to be pretty fit.

      • @merc@sh.itjust.works
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        22 days ago

        Which probably means that it would have to pay significantly above minimum wage. But, farmers were getting that labour for below minimum wage because they had the luck to be able to use workers who had no other options.

        • @SabinStargem@lemmy.today
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          33 days ago

          Wasn’t joking. Still, I would much prefer a living wage, like what we see from old-timey videos, where a single person can support a household and feel happy about their fiscals.

  • @CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago
    • Farmhands deported, can’t find replacements
    • $200k labor grant suspended indefinitely
    • Lost subsidies, making less money on product
    • Tariffs jacked up equipment prices and repairs
    • Depends on Medicaid, no insurance if it’s cut

    Oh boy, way to seriously fuck yourself from every conceivable angle, smart guys. Sumo wrestler lookin leopards after this one.

    • @FoxyFerengi@startrek.website
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      1223 days ago

      Add that any products grown for trade are sitting unwanted in fields, or for aid rotting in warehouses because the government canceled the contracts for them. Food is often held in special warehouses where the oxygen is pumped out, but there aren’t enough of those to hold all the excess that was expected to be sent elsewhere

      It’s a colossal mess, with an incredible amount of waste

      • @CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        3 days ago

        That’s just good old fashioned republican efficiency. These boys better get their bootstraps and figure out which conglomerate they’re gonna sell the farm to.

      • @unphazed@lemmy.world
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        183 days ago

        At least during Covid the farms were transporting food to churches/communities at lower prices. They literally have no one now to pick up the produce. Waiting on farms to start pick your own systems like blueberry farms.

        • @Kalysta@lemm.ee
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          22 days ago

          This won’t work for orchards and tree based produce. One idiot falling off a cherry picker will ruin a small farmer

  • @Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    603 days ago

    What’s that? Southern states running on cheap labour can’t cope with the loss of that labour? Where have we heard that before?

    Fool me once and all that, but they actually voted for it this time round…

    • @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      673 days ago

      Its truly incredible.

      Their response will just be to fold, to literally sell the farm, and also at the same time never even be cognizant of the fact that they got exactly what they voted for, that Trump repeatedly said he was going to do exactly this, that lefties screamed about Project 2025 and the resounding response was basically ‘pff, he’s just bluffing,’ and then making up a fan fiction version of what Dear Leader will actually do.

      They’re just gonna revert back to the ‘no one wants to work’ mantra untill we just literally put our incarcerated prisoners to work in the fields, going full circle all the way back to slavery.

      These idiots didn’t even realize how dependant they were on so many massive subsidy programs untill they poofed out of existence, again, 100% in line with Trump’s platform.

      Has any nation in history fucking autolobotomized as hard and as fast as we have?

      Literally the world’s sole super power 20/30 years ago, and in a single generation we have destroyed ourselves in almost every way possible, short of just nuking ourselves.

      • @grue@lemmy.world
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        303 days ago

        Has any nation in history fucking autolobotomized as hard and as fast as we have?

        Well, the Khmer Rouge killed everybody who wore glasses because they were “intellectuals,” China killed millions trying to force city kids to become farmers during the Cultural Revolution, and I’m pretty sure other autocratic totalitarian governments have fucked themselves in similar ways. Usually when societies become illiberal, people with brains are the first to be put up against the proverbial wall.

      • @BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk
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        123 days ago

        Just to add a point - if the farmers do end up folding and selling off, who’s going to buy the land? My money would be on large corpos.

        • @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          113 days ago

          Yes, it would 100% be large corpos that more or less run and own many farms that same way large landlords run 10s or 100s or 1000s of apartments / rental homes.

          Sorry, I had thought this was so obvious it didn’t need to be directly stated, but yeah, it’s not a bad idea to be more explicit and more clear.

      • @Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        73 days ago

        they tried it with prisoners already, they arnt doing it because they are already in jail, why work when you have all the ameneties provided for you, and it barely affects your sentence.

        • @sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          93 days ago

          Much like how it is very easy to pass laws and ordinances that fuck over the homeless, it is also easy to pass laws and ordinances that fuck over prisoners.

          The US Constitutional + Ammendments explicitly allows slavery as punishment for a crime you’ve been convicted of.

          The Supreme Court has now repeatedly just thrown all prior existing legal case precedent out the window and just made such nakedly hypocritical rulings that its fair to say they are a completely biased and arbitrary institution.

          The rule of law in the US is dead, is a farsical joke.

          Some state will just pass a law that says uh hey, if you’re a prisoner in a facility in our state, and the state has some kind of extraordinary need, we can force you into involuntary labor.

          Then other states will copy this once it passes one state’s court, then in 6 months-ish it’ll get to the Supreme Court who will say yep, checks out, carry on, and then every other red state and half the blue states will do it as well.

          I am not 100% sure this will happen, but it is very, very plausible. 95% sure something like this will happen within 5 to 10 years, possibly less.

          Also… its illegal to be homeless now, and the economy is crashing. Get foreclosed on, can’t pay rent, end up in the streets, living in your car?

          Yep, why not crack down on that like ICE is cracking down on migrants, now you’re convicted of being homeless, the punishment is a few years of forced labor.

        • @prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          3 days ago

          Dude what? Our Constitution literally allows for us to continue slavery as a punishment. Why the fuck would you ever think they had a choice?