The threat of federal agents raiding orchards is forcing a labor shortage that has caused some Washington producers to leave cherries unpicked or delay their harvests until fruit gets over ripe, which means they are getting paid less for the fruit at processors.
Americans cannot afford to do these jobs.
That job won’t pay my mortgage, my bills, support my family, or provide health insurance for us.
And even if it did, jobs like that are seasonal so if by some miracle it did provide all I need, it wouldn’t do it year round and golly, would you look at that, my bills don’t take the growing season off.
At one point I knew someone from a small town in Northern California where most people in the town worked for an industry like this - picking, driving, processing the stuff that was grown (I don’t remember what the crop was). The only people who weren’t directly involved provided services to those who were, working government or retail jobs in the town.
When it wasn’t picking season, most of the town was on welfare.
You made a good case for welfare, basic income, and social security. It gives us the slack we need to produce goods that aren’t necessarily profitable all year round, but which we would be worse off without.