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Comment by ataturk | Hacker News Reader

Getting past the flowery writing style, I can't help but wonder why we Americans are all required to believe that immigration is healthy and important with this evidence that scarcity of jobs for people to do has made life a living hell for millions of people.

I also wonder what educational opportunities the author passed up. I am not a good judge, though. I grew up poor but maybe I was merely lucky to get where I am now. Hard to say. I do remember all the years of crap jobs and few prospects and all the idiots I had to work with--especially the stoners at the country club groundskeeping crew. Thanks for being interesting nutters, though, guys.

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Immigration is a divisive topic worldwide right now.

Internal political discord is occurring all over the world in the form of nationalist and populists movements including europe, india, south korea, japan, and america.

> Getting past the flowery writing style, I can't help but wonder why we Americans are all required to believe that immigration is healthy and important with this evidence that scarcity of jobs for people to do has made life a living hell for millions of people.

Here's one piece of evidence to help you understand why we believe it: https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/05/17/the-law-of-.... It's not the whole reason, but it'll get you started on your journey of discovery.

The summary: in 2011, Georgia passed a law to crack down on illegal immigrants working in farming jobs. Georgia's unemployment rate was still fairly high (just a few years post-recession), so "obviously" now that the illegals weren't taking those jobs, they could go to citizens right?

Nope. Georgia farmers' crops withered and died on the vine, costing hundreds of millions of dollars because even unemployed people don't want, and didn't take, those jobs. And Americans don't want to pay the kinds of food prices that would be required to pay wages at which Americans would take the jobs.

Amusingly, five years on and Georgia still hasn't figured this out: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-06/crops-rot... I wonder how many billions of dollars in crops have to die before they get the message.

Maybe Georgia’s farmers should try paying their labor more, and improving their working conditions.

How much of that work is seasonal, though? Barring some fancy hydroponics, you can't be picking fruit in the same town for 50 weeks a year.

Given that people can't just stop eating or renting during the off-season (and may not be willing to go out-of-state) perhaps the issue is that there's not enough gap-filling local work to make for a year-round career.

I guess the usual argument in similar situations is that the market will eventually adjust by raising food prices or that people don't desire food enough to pay the prices.

Or by sourcing cheaper onions elsewhere.

Only if the economy is anclosed system. The produce could also be imported from Mexico instead of Georgia.

That's true. And it would free Georgia farmers from unprofitable farmwork so they can do something higher value like programming :-). At least that's what people in other industries would get told.

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