Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Thursday, March 01, 2007 12:49:37 PM
This past weekend, a conservative friend and I had a discussion that was a bit more heated than I would like about the economics of immigration. I won't trouble you with it because to do so would require writing a long, thoughtful essay, something I don't want to do this morning.
One of the points I tried to make was that there were jobs that Americans wouldn't take almost regardless of the wages paid. Stoop farm labor falls in that category. If our welfare system weren't so generous, the situation might be different, but it is not. It is much easier to sit at home and collect welfare than it is to chase transient jobs that are pure hard work.
The Denver Post
reports today on a program to use prison labor to replace the illegals on Colorado farms. I guess that's one solution. Prisoners have little choice as to the work they are assigned and are not paid that well.
I'm actually in favor of this program. It is far better than letting produce rot in the fields, as happened last year. Even so, there is a certain amount of irony in what is happening. Hence the title of this essay.