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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   9203 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 6, 2025

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The conservative view seems to be that if we got rid of all the illegals farmers would pay more and Americans would do it, of which I am skeptical.

I mean, at some point one of three things is going to happen.

  1. The price of farm labor will climb high enough that Americans will do it.
  2. The price of farm labor will climb high enough that it will be cheaper to automate it, unless 1 happens first.
  3. The price of farm labor will exceed the price people are willing to pay for the food and the farm will go under, unless 1 or 2 happen first.

A more complete account of (1) may look like: the price of farm labor will climb high enough, and American living standards will sink low enough, that Americans will do it.

Not everything can be automated, and as farming labour gets more expensive, Americans (who buy things downstream from farms) will need more money and hence higher wages to sustain the same lifestyle.

Before 3 happens you get "the price of food rises enough that the voters get unhappy, and unhappy voters are bad for reelection chances".

The price of farm labor will exceed the price people are willing to pay for the food and the farm will go under

This is what happens. Western wage demands and a global food market cannot work together, full stop.

America could import a ton more food, every agricultural exporting country would love to sell more avocados to America.

America doesn't want to give up food security, which is the right choice.

So then you can:

  1. tariff food imports until for prices rise such that the wage cost can be met

  2. go full socialism and subsidize farmers even harder than the USA already does to make up the wage cost without impacting food prices which would be hilariously expensive

If the automation existed it would already be in use all over the world

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