Thursday, June 23, 2011

Georgia is short 11,000 farm workers

Slippytoad at Kos pulls no punches:

I can't be condescending enough about the emerging economic clusterfuck in Georgia.

Arizona's massively racist immigration laws were seen to be a major political bonanza, and states across the nation have rushed to emulate it based on the fake popularity of the teabagger movement (and its inherent racism). So in 2010 Georgians voted in a raft of racist, stupid teabaggers to their statehouse. That racist teabagger government promptly wrote up and passed a racist immigration law that in no way, shape, or form took into account reality. Us stupid hippies on the left kept saying that the problem can't just be solved with a stroke of the pen, and that a lot of economic activity is predicated on the cheap illegal immigrant labor. And we were routinely mocked and ignored by right-wingers with partisan blinders stapled right the fuck over their corneas.

Well, as events have now shown, Georgia's farm economy faces a crisis of 11,000 laborers short and food is rotting in the fields. Nathan Deal, who looked like such a smug asshole a month ago as he signed the new racist immigration law now looks like a fumbling imbecile who will probably never hold public office again since he just deliberately derailed his states' economy.
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I can't make it any clearer. I'm not happy that Georgia's farmers are currently hurting because they elected a racist fucknut to their Governor's office who then signed legislation that fucked over their economy. I'm just pointing it out for those who refuse to make the connection that these people are getting EXACTLY. WHAT. THEY. DESERVE.

I have zero sympathy for Georgia farmers. I hope it fucking hurts like hell, guys. You BLOODY WELL ASKED FOR IT.

It's almost too easy, but as ye sow, so shall ye reap. If there's little brown people to do your reaping, that is. The white farmers'd all have heart attacks and keel over in their fields if they tried doing that. I hope I am proved correct.

GA guv Fuckwad's got it all figured out:

Georgia authorities say there are about 100,000 people on parole in the state, of whom about 8,000 reside in the heavily agricultural southwestern portion of the state.

A quarter of the parolees in southwestern Georgia are unemployed, according to the governor.

Deal said that allowing parolees to replace the missing immigrant workers is an alternative which could at least partially solve the labor shortfall problem being faced on many Georgia farms.

"I believe this would be a great partial solution to our current status as we continue to move towards sustainable results with the legal options available," he said.

"Legal options available"? What? Round up parolees for forced labor at minimum wage or less if they can get away with it "legally"? I wonder what color the draftee farm workers will be?

And if the parolees don't wanta go, they can bust 'em for violating parole and put 'em back in the hoosegow. Then the state and private prisons can rent 'em out to the farmers at the minimum wage, pay the inmates a buck a day and pocket the difference. Sooner or later even the dimwit Georgians'll figure out how to skip the parolee middle-man. Look for an upswing of convictions for minor crimes come each harvest time.

There's an upside to this tho'! Good ol' nigger work songs!

6 comments:

Fixer said...

No shit. The prison industry has that state wired. It'd be nice if they'd pay unincarcerated Americans a living wage (as opposed to exploiting inmates) to do that work but that shoots the bottom line.

Gordon said...

Right-wing playbook: It's all bottom line and fuck everything and everybody to that end.

Fixer said...

Can't wait until the revolution comes. I'm making my list for those who should be first up against the wall.

Gordon said...

Our fingers will be sore from reloading. That's OK. I got lotion.

Arthur Mervyn said...

While I agree with everything, cheap labor is cheap labor, whether it's illegal immigrants, prisoners, or parolees. I don't like the racist immigration laws that states are passing; on the other hand, I also don't like to see farmers et al making a profit off of hiring illegal immigrants who are cowed into accepting low wages and probably abysmal working conditions.

In other words, I'd like to see (1) the immigration laws stricken from the books and (2) illegal immigrants and others in a similar position empowered to exact decent wages and working conditions from their employers. I know I'm just dreaming ...

Anonymous said...

Other states that pass such draconian laws can probably expect similar results.

I have worked in Florida as a consultant to agribusiness and I can assure you that attempting to replace migrant workers with local legal citizens just does not work. I have personally spoken about this matter with managers who oversee thousands of acres of vegetable crops in central and south Florida. They tell me that the typical local indigenous workers, whether white or black, typically quit after 3 or 4 days in the farm fields. They simply will not work day after day at the hard tasks required of them under the hot sun and in the humidity. One of them stated that it is not uncommon for a local citizen to join the work force for the purpose of selling drugs to the immigrant workers (mostly Mexicans and Guatemalans), but these guys don’t last long, since they are quickly discovered and fired or turned in to the local law enforcement authorities.

Like your fruits and veggies to be predictably available at reasonable prices? That might not be the case if legislators in farm states keep passing these tough immigration laws.

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