re: #76 Targetpractice

There was an attempt in rural states during the Great Recession to force those on UI to take farm jobs or else lose their benefits. The farmers ended up regretting that, since most of those who showed up found out that they got paid by output rather than an hourly wage, that the labor was more intensive than moving stacks of papers or putting data into a computer, and the pay they did earn wasn’t enough to justify driving from the burbs out into the middle of nowhere.

When Alabama passed their version of the “papers please” law, tomato farmers were left having to plow under their crops. Even offering large sums per hour could not entice people to come out to the fields and do that sort of work.

Aside from foreign migrants, American migrants move around the country as different crops come in. No one is going to give up their regular job to pick tomatoes for three weeks.