The sky is falling. - Reader comments at The New York Sun

Recent Editorials

Reader comment on:
The Labor Shortage

Submitted by Mike, Aug 14, 2007 11:37

Lobbyists for farmers and roofing contractors and others will soon be screaming bloody murder. But Congress and the media would do well not to take at face value the squealing of firms losing their cheap-labor subsidy. When the end of the last big guestworker program was being debated in the early 1960s, California farmers claimed that "the use of braceros [Mexican guestworkers] is absolutely essential to the survival of the tomato industry." Instead, termination of the program prompted mechanization which caused a quintupling of production for tomatoes grown for processing, an 89-percent drop in demand for harvest labor, and a fall in real prices.

The same sort of thing happened half a century earlier, when the textile industry predicted disaster if child labor were ended. At a Senate hearing in 1916, one mill owner said that limiting child labor would "stop my machines"; another said "investors would never receive another dividend"; while a third said that ending child labor would "paralyze the country."

We're going to hear a lot more of this sort of thing — the White House is counting on it. Standing up to the coming lobbyist onslaught will be the final stage of the battle against amnesty.

Mark Kirkorian

http://article.nationalreview.com/

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.

Other reader comments on this article

Comment	By	Date
The theory suggests that the more skills that are involved, the higher the gap between primary matches and secondary matches.... [MORE]	contract	Aug 12, 2008 00:29
Consider the government economic statistic Average Weekly Earnings. Average Weekly Earnings are the "earnings of production or non-supervisory workers... [MORE]	jhm	Aug 17, 2007 22:59
Lobbyists for farmers and roofing contractors and others will soon be screaming bloody murder. But Congress and the media would...	Mike	Aug 14, 2007 11:37
Congress and the media would do well not to take at face value the squealing of firms losing their cheap-labor... [MORE]	Joe	Aug 14, 2007 09:02
Well this editorial is really something. You argue in defense of Chertoff that cracking down on illegal Mexican immigrants will... [MORE]	Douglas Johnson	Aug 13, 2007 23:46
Your article points out one of the problems. After recruiting in NYC for a short while in a desultory manner... [MORE]	Diego Wayne	Aug 13, 2007 15:27
As anyone who's walked around Manhattan and seen the anemic workcrews at the city's construction sites will attest, we need... [MORE]	Scott Baker	Aug 13, 2007 10:33
The workers they need are right here, where they have always been. My profession, IT, was devastated by imported foreign... [MORE]	Barb	Aug 13, 2007 09:42
CEOs are complaining that immigration law enforcement is creating a labor shortage. Is there really a labor shortage, or just... [MORE]	Bill Dienstag	Aug 13, 2007 05:52
Diane Alden in Newsmax has written a piece posted last Friday, I believe.It reveals and explains a Senate and a... [MORE]	CS Goldstein	Aug 14, 2007 01:57
CS is right, it is a scandal that our elected officials spend so much time playing footsie with India, Inc.... [MORE]	Barb	Aug 14, 2007 12:13

Comment on The Labor Shortage

Would You Like to Become a Sustaining Subscriber of the Sun? Sign up now

* Inquire about the Sun Seminars

Sustaining Subscriber Login

Follow The New York Sun

Buy China Wholesale Products on DHgate.com

For Vegas Show tickets, shop ShowTickets.com

Hamptons Estate Agents

Made-in-China.com

Make sure your dresses are beautiful

Planning an Orlando Vacation? Visit Best of Orlando!

© 2002-2012 TWO SL LLC, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.