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Originally published in the February 13, 2005 issue of the Alamance Independent

OUTSOURCE FARMING, NOT HIGH TECH

By Mark Andrew Dwyer

Thursday, a week ago, I was listening to the "John and Ken Show" (KFI AM 640, Los Angeles) during which the hosts thoroughly and eloquently criticized President Bush's "State of the Union" address in the part that pertained to illegal immigration (see an excerpt below). And, I must say, quite justly so. Since the president was apparently unavailable to answer their critical questions (and they had quite a handful of good questions) they interviewed Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Tamar Jacoby, instead, who, in lieu of the president, was defending his immigration proposals, particularly those expressed in the "State of the Union" address and in the earlier announcements. What a glib gab was she.

She did not attempt to deny the fact that millions of illegal aliens were illegally employed for substandard wages in an underground economy with no or little taxation of their incomes, which drove the wages of American workers down and contributed to growing budget deficit that the legal workers would have to pay for. She even acknowledged that a vast majority of American citizens and immigrants were staunchly opposed to legalizing these aliens and wanted our borders and the immigration laws fully enforced, instead. But with this kind of certainty in her voice as if she had an oracle of truth in her purse, she kept repeating that these millions of migrant laborers were good for the economy, and that the farming industry would have practically collapsed if it weren't for the "cheap" labor they provide. So, we have no choice now but to legalize them and to pick up the tab for their "cheap", albeit unable to pay for health care, education, subsidized housing, and other social services for them and their families, labor.

I was really astounded hearing such nonsense from a supposedly well-educated economist that was arrogantly dismissing the will of some 80% of Americans, telling them in their faces "I am right and you are wrong". Did she really believe that what she was saying was true, or she just thought that we are not smart enough to tell a lie from the truth if it's stated with confidence and by someone who claimed to have science on her side? Because the idea that letting millions of "migrant" laborers is a good deal for the American people just doesn't wash.

Let's see.

Jobs that leave the U.S.
(Image by Werner Krutein)

American corporations have been outsourcing well paying, clean, and highly productive middle class jobs to Third World countries, together with the advanced technology (developed mostly by the American middle class) that is necessary to perform them. Companies that manufacture consumer electronics, computers, state-of-the-art communication devices, and other products of high demand, are moving their production facilities, as well as the high profits that they generate, overseas and in a frightening rate, so that hardly anything is left here in the U.S. (Can you name one American manufacturer of plasma TVs or computer memory chips? Neither can I.) Ms. Jacoby didn't seem concerned that manufacturing of these products in the U.S. would have been much better for the American economy and for the American workers, even if (which I personally doubt) it required temporary importation of highly skilled workforce from abroad. She and other economists would like to make us believe that this exodus of technology and well-paying jobs is going to make us rich.

Jobs that come to the U.S.

If that is so then why didn't she postulate that American farming industry, almost entirely monopolized by big corporations, be outsourced as well? Farming is notorious for being inefficient and not generating much profits, for otherwise the wages there would have been high and the prices low without federal subsidies and underpaid illegal labor (reportedly, four out of each five illegal laborers work on farms). The century-old farming technology spells out discomfort both for workers (harsh working conditions) and neighbors (you should feel that terrible smell of cattle feces and natural fertilizers that spreads from big farms to residential areas in places like Norco in Inland Empire in Southern California). In the modern world of space and information age, 19th and early 20th century farming is an anachronism (which is not to say that there are no farming companies that utilize modern technology, but these usually don't depend on illegal laborers). And the farmers keep complaining that there are not enough Americans willing to do the farming jobs (I wonder, why?).

The criterion for outsourcing is easy and straightforward. If an industry relies heavily on unskilled, lowly paid labor (that we don't have to much to spare in America), if it's so unprofitable that it cannot offer comfortable working conditions or pay a decent wage to its workers, if it needs government subsidies without which it cannot compete with foreign competitors, then, by all means, do outsource it. And President Bush, instead of promising to match willing employers with willing foreign workers right here in America, should try to match them in their country of origin, instead. After all, this is where the cheap labor is. Unfortunately, President Bush doesn't seem able to understand that.
"Guest workers" not happy with the American government

You see, sending computers manufacturing to China while leaving the growing of strawberries in the U.S. (and the mass importation of rebellious lower class labor that is needed to pick them) is an idiocy that only morons or those who profit from it may entertain. We are shipping out things that we should keep, while at the same time we are letting in millions of unskilled but highly prolific migrant laborers from Mexico who bring with them drugs, disease, crime, and contempt of the American government. If this process continues as it does, with President Bush and his administration's blessing, it will make of us a strawberry republic. China (or other developing nations) will take our place as the world supplier of the high tech goods. And Ms. Jacoby will claim that it has been a xenophobia-driven lack of sufficient supply of foreign meat packers that deserves the blame for the collapse of the American industrial might.

AN EXCERPT FROM PRESIDENT BUSH'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

Thursday, February 3, 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/02/sotu.transcript.2/

"America's immigration system is also outdated -- unsuited to the needs of our economy and to the values of our country. We should not be content with laws that punish hard-working people who want only to provide for their families, and deny businesses willing workers, and invite chaos at our border. It is time for an immigration policy that permits temporary guest workers to fill jobs Americans will not take, that rejects amnesty, that tells us who is entering and leaving our country, and that closes the border to drug dealers and terrorists."

MY EARLIER COMMENTARIES ON THE SAME SUBJECT

[1] Wasting American Minds
http://americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/WastingMinds040108Dwyer.html

[2] The Damage Has Been Done (3)
http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/DamageDone3-040127Dwyer.html

[3] Do We Owe Farmers?
http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/OweFarmers040330Dwyer.html

[4] It All Depends On Who Is On Your Team
http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/DependsOnTeam040601Dwyer.html

[5] Rosenberging America
http://www.americanpatrol.com/GUESTCOLUMNS/DWYER/RosenbergingUS040907Dwyer.html

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