Stephen Colbert testifies before Congress

markin ball wrote:

The illegals are not taking our jobs, the jobs aren't even available to us because we (citizens) are required to be paid at least minimum wage by law. Let's enforce the labor laws and make these farms play by the rules and then we can answer the question "Are Ameicans willing to pick beans?" And if the answer is no, it begs another question: Is it acceptable to treat exploit any group of human beings, citizens or not, as an economic sub-class in our society?"

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Those jobs ARE available to you... you can ask for the minimum wage, paid overtime after 8 hours, company supplied safety equipment (gloves, back braces, etc...) and medical coverage... but, there is no guarantee you are going to get it.... not as long as there are people willing to do the same work... and more work.. for less than you demand.
If you were to get paid those wages and work only those hours... there would be multiple shifts required and the cost of beans would be about 10 dollars a pound. Do you believe Americans are willing to pay 10 bucks for a pound of beans... when they can get them from Central America for 79 cents a pound?
The economics of beans does not support the U.S. workers expectations of a days work.
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So... a solution to the Illegal Immigrant problem... move all of our bean fields to Mexico.