WSJ nails the cost of mass deportations. With a surprising statistic.

Photo above - would you believe these guys make more than $40,000 a year? And they're worth it, apparently. Native born US citizens won't do this kind of work.

The link below (WSJ – Mass Deportation and Florida Jobs) appeared in the paper’s Saturday/Sunday edition (Feb 7/8). It’s now out from behind the paywall, so everyone can read it. And we should.

The jobs bonanza we were promised is nowhere in sight, and will probably never be. Crops are going unharvested, because migrant workers earning more than $40,000 a year are being deported. Auto factories cannot being built overnight to churn out affordable cars. There are hardly any Americans jobless, anyway. Unemployment was already near zero. The current 4% rate is what every Fed Reserve board over the past 4 decades has boasted as full employment.

Besides, who wants to move to Plant City, Forida (about 20 miles east of me) and pick strawberries, even if it does pay $47,000?

There’s a reason native born Americans won’t pick strawberries, even at wages that exceed what recent college grads (with humanities degrees) can earn. $47,000 is also more than teachers, police, and firemen earn to start.

About 30% of Americans are high school dropouts (or have worthless GED certificates). They don’t want to pick strawberries. Or to show up at 630 am to install power steering assembliesr, either. Some of the 4% not currently in our workforce are functionally illiterate. Some have drug and attendance issues. Some have police records, and can find waaaay easier things to do instead of picking fruit.

Tariffs on imports, and immigrants designated for deportation - these are election bait. Those things are never going to improve our living standards or tame inflation. They are fake issues which exist only to beguile someone who never picked a strawberry in their life.

If it’s not a job which you would personally do, then don’t cast shade on someone who IS doing it.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/florida-jobs-employment-immigration-e-verify-ron-desantis-5a9abb89?msockid=0dd62f13669a66411f7c3b8c67d567cd

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

My son is a pipefitter. He makes &60.00 per hour. If he works all year he makes $124,000 a year. However there are months at a time when he doesn't work so his actual income is closer to $60,000 a year. I would need to know how much the actual take home pay is in order to ascertain if the foreigners are legit or not. So a berry picker gets paid about $900 per week. How many weeks does he work in a year?

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@hippyjoe1955 you raise a good point. i know a crane operator who makes $120 an hour.

except when it's raining, windy, or some other part of the job site is on strike

hippyjoe1955 · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida Back in the late 60s my older sister became a berry picker for the summer. Brutal work and she was paid by the pound. The more fruit she picked the more money she made. She started picking strawberries but that ended after 3 weeks and then she picked raspberries for the next 5 weeks. She was a tough farm girl but she never went back. She went to college and became a nurse instead. She laughs about it now and said that it was good for a kid learning how to work but it was very hard on the body. By the time she went back to school the berry season was over.