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comment by coffeesp00ns

Okay, we need to address this wall thing, because it's legitimately crazy.

    Russia had walls to keep people in, and it was pretty darn effective.

... is this really the comparison you want to be drawing? I can't help but think one would want to distance themselves from a despotic dictatorship with literally tens of millions of dead and displaced people. But let's put that aside, it's not really what we're here to talk about.

I'm not even going into the fact that a wall that covers almost 2,000 miles is expensive. Nor will I mention the same of the also proposed 3,900 mile Canadian border wall. I will, however, mention that you guys tried it in 2006 in Texas, and it turned out to be an over-budget nightmare that was only sort of completed and doesn't even work. This video (though from a documentary with an obvious slant) shows people getting over the border wall just fine.

2000 miles is completely indefensible from any realistic standpoint. You don't have the manpower or the money to make it happen - no one does.

However, that's not even the biggest problem. The biggest problem is the people you're trying to build a wall to keep out.

Because they're refugees. The only reason they're not classified as such by the US government is because it means that they would have to actually deal with them you guys also don't want to take many Syrian refugees, and are shirking even in that duty). Don't believe me? I have sources. Atlantic {UN Refugee Agency](http://www.unhcr.org/5630c2046.html). They're also not just Mexican, they're from all over "central america" ( a political term, not a geographic one).

So you're basically saying that you want to put up a wall to prevent all of these people who are often fleeing for their lives just so that you don't have to deal with the monetary consequences. If that's fine with you, then I can't really argue with you, i guess.

There's a reason why your border to the south is so porous btw, and it comes down to money again. Your entire food production system is based on the use of illegal immigrants and migrant workers. You like cheap food? Sure, everyone does. If you took away all of that cheap labour with little to no safety standards then you would be looking at a SERIOUS increase in the cost of your food. Strawberries would become incredibly expensive, for example.

    Immigrant workers aren't a "cheap labor" alternative, as so many Americans think. They are the only labor available to do many unskilled jobs, and if they were eliminated, most would not be replaced. Instead, whole sectors of the economy would shrivel, and with them, many other jobs often filled by more skilled Americans.

    {...}

    Just raise the wage, you say, and an American would take the job? Not necessarily, and very unlikely if it's a farm job. Farmers have been trying that — for decades. They raise the wage. They recruit in inner cities. They offer housing and transport and countless other benefits. Still, no one shows — or stays on the job, which is outdoors and grueling and must get done, no matter how hot or cold or otherwise unpleasant the weather. And of course, at some point, there are limits to how high a wage a grower or dairy farmer can pay before he is forced out of business by a farmer who produces the same commodity in another country, where the labor actually is cheap.

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/08/17/could-farms-survive-without-illegal-labor/without-immigrant-labor-the-economy-would-crumble

An example of what happens when you don't have cheap labor - You get undercut.

So what I'm saying is that a wall is not only unfeasible and indefensible, It's also a human rights violation and a recipe for potential economic collapse.

Now, I feel for you, your political situation in the US right now is a real disaster. However, you gotta be real with yourself about both sides of this picture.





snoodog  ·  2906 days ago  ·  link  ·  

To your first point: The wall in Texas is expensive and poorly thought out - no argument there. A better wall could be built but possibly not in the current political climate

    So you're basically saying that you want to put up a wall to prevent all of these people who are often fleeing for their lives just so that you don't have to deal with the monetary consequences. If that's fine with you, then I can't really argue with you, i guess.

Isn't that what EU is doing by making a deal with the Turkish dictator to keep the migrants out and not letting non Syrian economic migrants in. Unlimited flow of people into your country just is unreasonable and creates way too many problems and is a net drain on your economy and standard of living. There aren't enough jobs as it is for both skilled and unskilled laborers in this country so more people will just make the problem worse check out the labor participation rate (% of people employed) Its also costing Europe 15K per person per year so its a huge resource drain.

As for farming you are right. We may loose strawberry farming in California. Its unfortunate but they probably don't have the water for it anyway. Farmers will have to switch to less labor intensive crops, some farms will close.

I'm sure the Southern states before the end of slavery made the same argument that the author of the article made that if plantation owners had to pay the slaves they wouldn't be competitive. As a country though we have to enforce labor rights and standards as failure to do so will cause a huge decrease in quality of life for most people. For me American workers being too expensive is not a good justification for allowing farmers to smuggle people in and treat them like slaves with no legal protections. If the job cant be done when paying people a fair, and legal wage then the job shouldn't be done.

Per your last link farming for export in Hawaii probably isn't realistic, being that the price of land is insane and transpiration can fuel and labor costs are insane. It will be replaced either with a new housing development or lower cost/impact farming for local consumption. Similar things will happen in California. Either more automate crops will be sown or land will be used for other things. Plastic tasting strawberries that are available all year may become too expensive but they will still grow in many regions and be available for you to go and pick them ripe and delicious in season.

coffeesp00ns  ·  2906 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Isn't that what EU is doing by making a deal with the Turkish dictator to keep the migrants out and not letting non Syrian economic migrants in

hey man, I've put the EU on blast before about this too. Their actions are totally unconscionable, IMO.

I'm working with a Syrian refugee at the moment. He's working two jobs to try and bring his family over, while also studying for his AZ (transport license) so that he can get a better job. Dude's salt of the earth, and is just trying to provide a better life for his family.

As for there not being enough jobs, we're going to run into this problem eventually - consider this a practice run of what's to come. (he goes into more depth here:

)

    It will be replaced either with a new housing development or lower cost/impact farming for local consumption. Similar things will happen in California. Either more automate crops will be sown or land will be used for other things.

What I'm trying to tell you is that if this happened, we would be royally fucked, me up here in Canada included.

snoodog  ·  2906 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Im curious why lack of strawberry harvesters in California would royally fuck you up there in Canada? Seems unrelated unless you have a big plant that builds strawberry harvesting equipment.

I guess were all fighting for a piece of an ever shrinking pie (actually the pie is getting bigger but 1% of people get more and more of it) so jobs are getting more scarce and that's why I don't feel like the US should take any more economic migrants. Talented people sure, we should take more but low skill workers are loosing their jobs to robots on a daily basis and if we keep giving those jobs away eventually a lot of people will have to get basic income or there will be rioting in the streets.

dingus  ·  2906 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Or maybe, just maybe, we could make the loss of jobs a good thing. Who actually likes work anyway? Why do we need to do it if robots can do it? Why do we allow the Capitalists to reap enormous profits at our expense, then blame the migrants(who, let's be clear, are also shafted by the Capitalists)? Why do we hold on to this insane idea that the "free" market is a sacrosanct entity that can only be nudged one way or another, never defeated?