$10 lettuce! $50 strawberries! Two artichokes for a benjamin!

Believe it or don't, some supporters of illegal immigration are still trying to scare grocery shoppers with fantastic tales of overpriced veggies should illegal immigration ever stop.

Shoppers are encouraged to support corruption or be forced to spend $10 for a head of lettuce or be required to fork over $100 for a pair of artichokes. Soon, according to these illegal immigration supporters, a bushel of corn would cost more than a bushel of gold.

But, isn't there the possibility that grocery prices might even go down if there were many fewer illegal aliens? Wouldn't we increase imports of labor-intensive crops like strawberries, and wouldn't those crops come from countries with much lower costs of living than the U.S.?

Since many of the supporters of illegal immigration also extol the wonders of globalism, perhaps you could encourage them to think globally: instead of importing workers, let's just import strawberries.

Comments

Our local farmers market here in Blacksburg sells lettuce for slightly more than the local grocery stores and you have to get there early to get it because it goes fast. We are happy to pay slightly more for lettuce that was picked several hours before we buy it. A lot of it is also organic - which doesn't matter to me but does to some others. A few cents a head would not halt the market for lettuce. High gasoline prices probably will affect the cost of produce more than higher wages for farm workers.

Illegal immigrants are not a factor here. One farmer has a masters degree in biology and used to teach. He decided that "doing" biology was better than teaching it. Some farmers or their wives have other jobs.

As I have noted here before, we are paying $5 for a head of lettuce, but we are not paying it at the grocery store. We are paying it in taxes, higher health care costs, crime, deterioration of our schools and neighborhoods, etc.

Quote: "Exactly; if labor costs reached 10 or 20 % of the retail price, imports would take over that category."

Actually we are already starting to import food from Mexico and anyone who says labor determines the value cost of good is an economic moron who needs to stop reading Marx and his long refuted labor theory of value.

The cost of labor has nothing, nada, an not a thing to with retail prices. Why? Because any idiot day trader knows the price of commodities are set in commodities markets NOT in the labor market.

Its a economic catagory error. As for theories about round-about effects labor has on the cost of production and this leads to influencing retail price setting.

Pure stupidity. The cost of production has never ever affected the price of any good on the market only the volume of production affects price and we don't suffer for lack of lettuce.

What determines the price is proportional to the demand for it.

Think about it...If you work on making a product for your business and you put in and extra hour of labor and use double the materials because mistakes on a bad day does your employer immediately start jacking the price of his goods?
Does he redo the the prices catalogue when one of the low wage workers gets promoted from 10$/hour to 15$/per hour?

No, No, and No. And if you are working for such a boss I pity you. Prices are determined by the what your employer thinks he can sell in the current market i.e. under the currunt demand level for the product.

When will the BushBots and "Free Traders" actually learn about economics instead of the mindless slogans of "our economy runs on immigrant labor" and "if we deport them how will we deal with the labor shortage."

I'm sick of it....I want to grab my Econ 101 book and bash them (Bush and Company) in the skull with it in the off chance that they will teach economics better than their MBAs from Harvard which evidently didn't inform or educate them at all.

I think this sort of thing is not difficult to refute.

Exactly; if labor costs reached 10 or 20 % of the retail price, imports would take over that category.