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Colbert to Alabama: I Told You So

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Posted on Oct 27, 2011
colbertnation.com

What happens when migrant workers in Alabama decide that the state’s labor laws make it too risky to keep doing the grueling work nobody else is willing to do? Answer: They leave.

As Stephen Colbert put it on Wednesday’s “Colbert Report,” while noting how remarkably prescient and correct he had been about this issue but a year ago before Congress, “Yes, Hispanic farmworkers have fled Alabama, stealing yet another thing Americans would like to do.” Meanwhile, the tomatoes are rotting on the vine down in the Heart of Dixie. That there’s some good legislatin’!  —KA

“Colbert Report”:

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redteddy's avatar

By redteddy, October 29, 2011 at 11:04 am Link to this comment

@Reed Richards

Not to mention that the consumer cannot afford to pay more for the produce
which means they will not buy them. We’re in a recession/depression remember? 
Who is willing to pay more for these basic necessities?  The upper middle class
and the wealthy who area already buying high end specialized organic produce? 
You’re plan for higher pay doesn’t add up to reality.

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redteddy's avatar

By redteddy, October 29, 2011 at 11:00 am Link to this comment

@Reed Richards

And when you up the pay to 15 dollars you can no longer sell the crop cheaply
(this is a global market remember), and then the farmer cannot recoup a profit for
his labor and no one will buy the produce because there are cheaper alterantives
from abroad and then the farmer goes bankrupt and the workers are unemployed
no longer making 15 dollars an hour and then that’s the end of the story all
together.

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By SarcastCanuck, October 28, 2011 at 8:36 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Poetic justice.I love it….Why do the comedians seem smarter than the politicians these days?I guess those Brazilian tomatos your going to have to import will be more expensive now…

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By SoTexGuy, October 28, 2011 at 4:20 am Link to this comment

Oh the Humanity! .. those poor tomatoes!

And.. we’re probably already paying about $15 per hour for farm labor (hand picking tomatoes), but it’s society as a whole that’s paying, not agri-business. So everything is hunky-dory.

Yet I wouldn’t say the ONLY reason unemployed Americans aren’t lining up for those jobs is low pay. It’s hard work and America has become a nation of people who, in very many cases, just do not want that type of work.

Have fun.

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By Duphi, October 27, 2011 at 4:56 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

If Steve, gets out front of this and champions this cause, he could endup looking like a prince.

RR: If southern farmer had paid a decent wage 50 years ago they would’nt be having this problem now. D

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By Truthdigger, October 27, 2011 at 4:18 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

@Reed Richards. Slacker, Thank God, they pay you the
minimum wage.

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By REED RICHARDS, October 27, 2011 at 1:13 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

This is rubbish!  Increase the pay to 15.00 dollars an hour and I guarantee you that these crops would be picked!  The only reason why Amerikans won’t pick this stuff is because the pay is so lousy.  Increase the pay and you will see a marked difference in who does what for a living….......

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