October 7, 2011--Keeping 'em Down On the Farm
Crystal is very smart and always tells it like it is. So, yesterday morning, when over coffee we were talking about the economy--up here in Maine and nationally--she said, "Don't tell me there are no jobs. I can tell you about five right now."
"And the problem is?" I asked.
"The problem is that to consider any of them, people have to get over their egos. Sure times are very tough and there are few ideal jobs, or even highly desirable ones, but there are jobs as long as you can manage to deal with lowering your expectations."
She also said that during hard times many of us have to make all sorts of compromises. That that's the way it is. While waiting for things to turn around or the Occupy Wall Street folks to become a powerful force for structural economic change--just as the Tea Party members have--we have to suck it up and do the best we can.
She is the opposite of unfeeling and so I didn't take what she was saying as insensitive or mean-spirited. Just that she was being ruefully realistic.
Later in the day, catching up with my reading, I saw a front page article in the New York Times that reminded me of what Crystal was saying. (It is linked below.) It's about a government program that was designed to enable farm owners, when needed, to legally hire non-American seasonal workers.
The H-2A program, when unemployment was low and it was difficult to find American workers to pick crops, made it easy to "import" documented workers.
Farmers such as John Harold, who is portrayed in the article, owns a 1,000 acre farm in western Colorado and for a decade made good use of the H-2A program. Onions are among his best and most profitable crops and they require many field hands when they are ready to be harvested.
This year, thinking that because times are hard and thus it would be possible to hire many unemployed citizens--the work pays $10.50 an hour--Mr. Harold looked for fewer than usual H-2A workers. But he found it difficult to find enough Americans, even at this decent wage, to sign on. Since he got a late start in hiring locally, he had to scramble to get all the workers he needed from Mexico or risk losing much of his crop.
And, he found, most of the locals he did manage to hire began quitting after only 6 hours on the job. They said the work was too hard. John Harold says that "They wanted that $10.50 an hour without doing very much." He mused, "I know people with college degrees, working for the school system and only making 11 bucks."
Another farmer, Kerry Mattics had a similar experience. He said he couldn't retain most of the American workers because the work is outdoors--"So if it's wet, you're wet, and if it's hot, you're hot."
I know we have all sorts of problems with many government program,s but H-2A doesn't appear to be one of them. The problem may be closer to home. Later today I have to ask Crystal what she makes of this. I think I already know.
"And the problem is?" I asked.
"The problem is that to consider any of them, people have to get over their egos. Sure times are very tough and there are few ideal jobs, or even highly desirable ones, but there are jobs as long as you can manage to deal with lowering your expectations."
She also said that during hard times many of us have to make all sorts of compromises. That that's the way it is. While waiting for things to turn around or the Occupy Wall Street folks to become a powerful force for structural economic change--just as the Tea Party members have--we have to suck it up and do the best we can.
She is the opposite of unfeeling and so I didn't take what she was saying as insensitive or mean-spirited. Just that she was being ruefully realistic.
Later in the day, catching up with my reading, I saw a front page article in the New York Times that reminded me of what Crystal was saying. (It is linked below.) It's about a government program that was designed to enable farm owners, when needed, to legally hire non-American seasonal workers.
The H-2A program, when unemployment was low and it was difficult to find American workers to pick crops, made it easy to "import" documented workers.
Farmers such as John Harold, who is portrayed in the article, owns a 1,000 acre farm in western Colorado and for a decade made good use of the H-2A program. Onions are among his best and most profitable crops and they require many field hands when they are ready to be harvested.
This year, thinking that because times are hard and thus it would be possible to hire many unemployed citizens--the work pays $10.50 an hour--Mr. Harold looked for fewer than usual H-2A workers. But he found it difficult to find enough Americans, even at this decent wage, to sign on. Since he got a late start in hiring locally, he had to scramble to get all the workers he needed from Mexico or risk losing much of his crop.
And, he found, most of the locals he did manage to hire began quitting after only 6 hours on the job. They said the work was too hard. John Harold says that "They wanted that $10.50 an hour without doing very much." He mused, "I know people with college degrees, working for the school system and only making 11 bucks."
Another farmer, Kerry Mattics had a similar experience. He said he couldn't retain most of the American workers because the work is outdoors--"So if it's wet, you're wet, and if it's hot, you're hot."
I know we have all sorts of problems with many government program,s but H-2A doesn't appear to be one of them. The problem may be closer to home. Later today I have to ask Crystal what she makes of this. I think I already know.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:51 AM
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