[1] https://dairy-cattle.extension.org/dairy-robotic-milking-sys...
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdq1uBCI2Kw
[3] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2025/06/23/dairy-industr...
[4] https://tucson.com/news/national/article_fe9b9724-1526-557b-...
Your statement matches nothing listed in those linked articles. [3] Talks about how the dairy industry is concerned as it relies on immigrant labor. [4] only quotes an "official of the plant" who says they are against illegal immigration, a personal opinion.
[4] also amusingly paints the immigrants as tech savvy identity thieves which is laughable. Likely, it is whatever shady entity the employer uses to hire illegals allowing them to deny involvement.
US dairy operators needing immigrant labor. (Associated Press) [1] (Dairy Herd Management) [2]
Meatpacking plant raids, effects. (Des Moines Register) [3]
More available via Google. This is a major issue and there's lots of info available.
[1] https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-farmworkers-ver...
[2] https://www.dairyherd.com/news/business/impact-immigration-r...
[3] https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2025/06/11/ice-...
For these types of businesses, paying less for labor is a secondary goal and just having enough labor (human or machine) is the primary goal.
Lots of websites recruiting people with RVs to come by and work the 2-3 week season. Others stay in motels or live close enough to drive.
https://www.google.com/search?q=beet+harvest+working
https://www.theunbeetableexperience.com/sugar-beet-harvest-f...
Some places have/had the schools close for the harvest season (and in others, for the start of hunting season).
Offshore oil rigs deal in billions of dollars worth of hydrocarbons per day. The revenues make it feasible to offer high salaries and still generate massive returns. Many rural locations just aren't economically productive to justify the kinds of salaries necessary to draw people to them.
There's literally no such thing - I wanna see an example!
The given scenario is not an example, because you can simply raise the offering until people take you up on it!
I mean, you can ask people to work in high-risk life-threatening environments and people will take you up on that offer IFFF the offer is high enough!
Want someone to work on a seabed? In an oil rig away from home for 9/12 months? In arctic conditions away from home for 3 years at a time? That's all happening right now.
Hell, you could put out an advertisement for volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars and you'll still get those positions filled!
If you cannot get teachers to move to a rural area, you are doing something wrong.[1]
[1] Where I am right now, I'll take that offer given a good enough salary and long enough contract. Many older teachers, maybe 10 years from retirement, will happily sell up and semi-retire to teach a few more years renting in a rural area before actual retirement. If they aren't doing it, it's because the offer is too low.
fun adventure as a young man, for a year. but you couldn't get me back out there for $1 million AUD per annum now.
sure, there is a price that I'd eventually say yes to, but there is no reality where you can offer $5MM for teachers or hairdressers.
[1] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/L312041A027NBEA
Edit: re-reading my comment, I regret my word choice, "a huge chunk" is obviously incorrect.
Secondly, that 0.17% that is spent on food security has dramatically better ROI than the 1.7% of it that is spent on, to pick a random line item... maintaining 5 (of 11) carrier strike groups[1].
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[1] For contrast, the entire rest of the world put together has exactly 2 carrier strike groups. Somehow, I'd have to prioritize people getting three meals a day over nearly anything else the government could be doing.
I suppose destroying society for profit is top of the barrel for people like you.
I'm a regular Joe on the internet, with a regular job.
And regarding agriculture and your comment, that's how people with actual power think.
Think of almost all major advances we've had, especially in terms of reducing costs. The vast majority of cost savings (and therefore improving quality of life for the average person) can be summarized as:
* put plastic (and fossil fuel derived materials) in EVERYTHING: if you don't believe this me, go to Amazon (or any supermarket, really) and pick a random product category and see how much the non-plastic version costs, frequently it's much, much more expensive (kudos to stainless steel and aluminum products frequently still holding the flag; but coming with other downsides, obviously)
* (more relevant to our discussion): industrialize human suffering and/or general environment degradation (push production to countries where labor and environmental/sustainability laws are lax and abuses are rampant): if you don't believe me, go to Amazon (or any supermarket, really) and pick a random product category and try to research their supply chain to see if it's produced ethically and sustainably
Oh, for bonus points, a huge percentage of the world economy works on BOTH at the same time.
Wat. You really don’t see any technology that created win-wins?
I think the total elimination of smallpox was pretty one-sided, too; this remains the case even despite people who look at vaccines skeptically, because such skepticism isn't the fault of vaccines.
I also appreciate your point about the reality of agriculture, I think too often people miss just how narrow the margins there are and why farm life has always been so financially unstable. It used to be the weather that could make or break you, and it still is, but not world commodity markets, the price of fuel and fertilizer, and trends in a number of areas can all do it as well. Add in the top-down pressure to keep prices low and bottom-up pressure to target migrants and... what a rough mix.
There is no labour shortage, there is a salary shortage. And we, as the collective global community of serfs and plebes must realize this, and call it for what it is.
There is currently a massive teacher shortage in Ireland, with something like >1800 unfilled posts and we're approaching the new school term. There is no teacher shortage, there is however an abundance of catholic-church-controlled schools with overly restrictive hiring policy, with many newly qualified teachers not really interested in becoming involved in religious things. Teachers are paid well here, but clearly not well enough for many of them to be willing to subject themselves to draconic requirements such as needing to provide catholic teachings to kids taking fucking math.
I think they meant where labour costs are more than their ability to pay