Would someone please address the question of if we close the borders what that would do to prices in the US?

Question

Intelligent answers only please? In other words, lets take the migrant workers who come and work for a meager wage picking produce. If those workers were no longer available who would fill that void? Americans? If so, what would that do to the prices of produce? These are tough questions that need to be addressed, someone please give an intelligent answer, no bashing please

Answer 1

I don't know if you will consider this an intelligent answer or bashing, but this is my opinion: Not only would prices go up, but availability would go down. I tried doing agricultural work in the 70's when I was a young and inquisitive hippie type. I cannot imagine that any of us spoiled Americans who could possibly get any other type of work would want to do that for more than a few days. It is NOT FUN.
I think that the produce would rot in the fields if there were no Mexicans available to pick it. Most of us would be unable and unwilling to go out there and do anything that is that uncomfortable and dirty and exposes you to the sun, and agricultural chemicals, snakes, etc.
It is my opinion that the hype over closing the Mexican border has more to do with making middle Americans feel insecure than it does with Mexicans really. I also believe that the typical Mexican working in the US would much prefer to be legal, would chose to be if it were easily possible.
I frequently travel from the middle of Mexico to the middle of the US by bus, the border has buses from Mexico lined up 24/7 all full of Mexicans, all going to every part of the US. You never hear about those people on the news, do you?
I have found travel in the US to be less easy, more expensive, and more hassle these last few years. What we need to be asking is why are our freedoms being curtailed? All of this hype over Mexicans is just being put out to distract Americans from the facts of lessening freedom for us.
Of course our country could not run without the Mexican work force. Take a look around your own town wherever it is, I bet you will find a whole section that is Mexican. Mexican groceries, clothes, Drs, all anyone would need, including buses that are totally run in Spanish and cross the border daily.
You needn't worry that the borders are going to be closed to Mexicans, what you need to worry about is are they going to be closed to YOU unless you are rich... The folks who are putting out this brainwashing have no real interest in the rights/abuses of Mexicans, they are after your rights.
I hate to put this out there, because it is probably just going to get me in trouble, but I think a lot of the stuff that is on the news is nothing but brainwashing.
Some of the people here in Mexico believe that there may be as much as 30% of the Mexican workforce in the US at this time, and I know for sure that the American retirees are here spending money like crazy, I spend most of mine here in Mexico.
There are larger issues of economics and social control here, you can count on it. We are not being told the truth, we are being manipulated by someone, I have no idea who, but I bet they are super-rich... And they have no intention of cutting off their own supply of cheap labor. They just want you to be too afraid to do anything but earn and spend money which is all they care about you for. Whew! glad I got that off my chest, hope you find my opinion interesting.

Answer 2

What is wrong is that, for the last thirty years, money has been concentrated further and further to the top of the income ladder, leaving the great majority of Americans struggling to keep their heads above water. We are becoming a third world country like Mexico, with a government that basically ignores most of their citizens and tells them to eat cake. There are millions of citizens who actually believe that birth IQ, environment, and upbringing have no effect whatsoever on how successful a person becomes. They honestly believe that a person born with a low IQ into a family that doesn't know how to read and write can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps if they just work hard enough. Never mind that they have no idea how to do that, it's still their fault that they are poor. We have a military establishment that is so entrenched and takes up so much of our economy that little is left for the ordinary citizen. It doesn't matter that we spend more than the next 15 nations combined, while fighting against no credible threat. We have become the bully in the neighborhood because since we own such a huge military, we just have to use it. And we feel free to tell people in other countries that we are the greatest country in the world and they should just go suck eggs. American exceptionalism has put us on a pedestal made of sand for years. That sand is crumbling now and we are suffering the consequences.

Answer 3

I'm not sure that the question can be answerd in any meaningful way, since the removal of illegal workers is hypothetical at this point.
We can assume that replacing the workers might force the employers to hire Americans, and thereby require them to pay real wages, which could drive costs of various things up. However, the opposite side of that would be the fact that our money is not going into a black hole where wages being paid are being sent out of country, our healthcare, and taxes would no longer be being paid to support a people who are not contributing to it.
Prices of things in our country are not as effected by illegal workers as many assume, especially since the majority of those illegals reside in only a few states. We are effected more by China owning the majority of steel manufacturing, and importing our cars than the issue with illegal workers.

Answer 4

Grow your own damn lettuce. Get out there and rip out that Scott's Turfbuilder wonder-lawn, and put down some cabbages, radishes, carrots, and so forth. You may end up having to do some soil improvements to get rid of the years' worth of chemicals most people have been salting their properties with, but 10 yards of fresh dirt should take care of that...nothing like walking out to the garden and pulling an ear of corn right off the stalk and putting it in the cook-pot. People used to do home canning etc., but no more. That's 'work', and they've developed an allergy to it. A veggie garden can save you 100's off your grocery bill every year, and get you some exercise, too, at the same time. Mega-farms that only stay afloat by hiring people illegally are a dysfunctional business model, and if they can't get by hiring workers in america lawfully, then it's time for some of them to close down. Nationally, we eat too damn much already.
Obesity is a HUGE problem. Keeps the cardio people employed, but Madison ave. needs a boot in the *** on that one, too.
Previous generations are living so long because they HAD a lot of outdoor work, called 'chores', that were done without any mention of compensation. One of those 'chores' usually involved some light ag work, nothing serious, but enough to make your clothes smell funny, and your muscle tone and general fitness level stay high, unlike today where having an ELECTRIC (kind of defeats the purpose, there) treadmill in your house to 'run' on while you watch TV is very reminiscent of a hamster wheel, going nowhere, living a life of ease, for no real purpose other than to get up and do it tomorrow.

Weaning americans off of things like the easy life, and drugs, is going to be a bear. But, if ya gotta root, hog, or die, you'll do any job you can to get to the end of the month on your bills. WARNING: You may accumulate excuse-defeating knowledge during the process of 'work', so caution is advised against all types of jobs involving arts/crafts/building stuff etc. If you somehow become cursed with the 'can do' attitude, you'll have a spontaneous epiphany that a life of pure artifice and dependency on foreign labor basically SUCKS, then you'll start asking questions, and it's just the road to hell after that! LOL

Answer 5

Without illegal aliens, the price of agricultural products and other goods and services will NOT soar. The definitive study on this subject is the University of Iowa's "How Much Is That Tomato?" The study concludes that 'since labor is such a small component of the end-price of agricultural products (which includes price to the growers, transportation costs, processing /storage costs, grocers' profit, etc.), using minimum wage workers instead of illegal aliens would increase prices of agricultural products by approximately 3 percent in the summer and 4 percent in the winter ... hardly the making of $10 heads of lettuce, $25 hamburgers, $1,000 per night Days Inn hotel rooms like the pro-illegal alien lobby claims





The High Cost of Cheap Labor
Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget

http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscal.htmlAbout the Author
Steven A. Camarota is Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C. He holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the University of Virginia. Dr. Camarota often testifies before Congress and has published widely on the political and economic effects of immigration on the United States.




How Much Is that Tomato in the Window?
Retail Produce Prices Without Illegal Farmworkers.

The removal of illegal workers from the seasonal agricultural workforce would increase the summer-fall supermarket prices of fresh fruits and vegetables by about 6 percent in the short run and 3 percent in the intermediate term. During the winter-spring seasons, prices would rise more than 3 percent in the short term and less then 2 percent in the intermediate term. Imports would increase about 1 percent.

hardly worth the billions spent on keeping them here
The never-ending propaganda that we will pay $10.00 for a head of lettuce if we secure our borders and enforce our laws is examined by the Center for Immigration Studies…

Answer 6

What would happen? Well, the farmers would have to pay legal citizens a fair wage. Fine. Yes, prices would go up. Fine. That would be called a healthy economy. We would have fewer on welfare and unemployment because jobs would be available. Also, we wouldn't have to spend so much in taxes for social services, schools, medical etc. I think that all would balance out, some costs would go up and others would go down. Our country would not fold, that would be like saying if I quite my job today, my company would fold.

Answer 7

According to studies, the price of a head of lettuce would go up a nickle. The labor cost isn't comparable to the cost of water, land etc.

House prices would probably go up on the one hand, but on the other, absence of people would tend to drive prices back down. It would pay all of us except their employers well to stop the flow since it would stop the drain on schools and services, and would dramatically reduce crime. (The last based on the hugely disproportionate percentage of our prison population that is made up of illegal immigrants.)

There is no economic argument, these have been studied to death. The employer benefits from cheap labor and should pay the true cost of that labor in any guest worker program, including local impact fees to cover school and health care.

Answer 8

nothing will happen. our welfare system will bounce back like a rubber band and show a surplus, that's a gurantee, our hospitals will not be full and going under, that's a gurantee.
since the mexicans only steal and don't work, prices will more than likely GO DOWN due to us not having to pay three white guys who do the work, and fifty mexicans who take long lunches, and nap under trees while on the clock.

yeah, prices will go down.

your grandma must have been a very loud truck.

www.grassfire.org
sign the petition
stop the invasion

Answer 9

The result of having no illegal aliens is that wages would necessarily have to increase to entice some to work. However, this inflation, cost-push inflation, would not be detrimental because as these workers earned more, we would not have to pay welfare to support them nor for the welfare bureaucratic system. If the free market would only pay people a substantial wage, we would not have to pay for the institutions designed for transferring wealth to them.

Answer 10

Even if prices did go up, we would be alright. Look at the price of gas and we're still paying for it and Americans are still making it. Do you really care if the price of produce goes up if in the long run our country is better off for it? I say as long as the leaches (illegal aliens) are gone then the better off America will be.