Quote Originally Posted by SuperChuck
You know, it's kind of funny...

Currently Americans are whining about 2 things: the price of gasoline and illegal immigration.

Does it ever occur to anyone that the 50c peach you're eating was picked by Pedro for $3/hour?
If Philip takes over that job (and Philip's union believes he should get no less than $10/hour to pick peaches), that peach is going to cost $2.
Rant on:

Good Lord! Gasoline and peaches can't be considered equal. Everything in our economy revolves around petroleum. Look around your house and see how many items you can find that haven't been manufactured or transported by a machine powered by petroleum. You don't need peaches to manufacture and transport goods, nor do you need peaches to heat your house, get to work, make a living or defend the country. We don't have a choice with oil. We certainly have one with peaches. The free enterprise system is based on supply and demand. If peaches go up to $2 each, I will stop buying them. I also have the option of putting a peach tree in my back yard or picking some up at the farmer's market. If we don't buy peaches because they are too costly, demand goes down, supply goes up, and prices come down.

You could make a case that cheap labor is adding to the problem. If cheap labor goes away, technology will produce another method to harvest crops. As long as we have cheap labor, there is no incentive to do so.

So if I complain about the price of oil, it is because it touches everything we do, have or need. It is much further reaching than simply what it costs to fill your car. We can't as a country be dependent on a vital part of our economy from a hostile part of the world. We need to look within. We need to focus on alternative energy sources, and until that technology comes about, we need to drill for and refine more oil in areas that are not controlled by OPEC. With China and India increasing the demand for oil, the price is skyrocketing. Believe it or not, there is still plenty of oil to go around. Oil can still be bought for 80 cents a gallon in many parts of the middle east.

As for illegal immigrants, the issue to me is about securing our borders, not cheap labor or anti-sematism. The United States has always welcomed immigrants entering this country legally. But we need to know who comes in, when. where and why. We are, after all, at war. And no matter what your position is on Iraq or Afghanistan, the problem of terrorism will not go away if we suddenly bring our troops home. In my opinion, it would get worse. So I would like to see our borders secured beforehand.

By the way, the cost of harvesting any crop is a very small percentage of the overall cost of producing it. Bad weather will have more of an effect on the price of produce than higher wages for harvesting it.

Comparing the consequences of gasoline prices to peach prices is totally rediculous.

Rant off