"HeyBub" wrote in message
m...

Point is, once American strawberry farmers are out of business
because they can't find pickers, imports is all you will have.

You say that like you think it's a bad thing.

O course it's a bad thing. Those ex-farmers won't be buying American goods
and services, or paying taxes to several levels of govt.

First, in my example, nobody in the U.S. GREW strawberries that could come
to market in February!

So what about the domestic strawberries you used to be able to buy in
season? Strawberry farmers have had to plow under their crops in recent
years when immigration crackdowns have led to labor shortages. If those
shortages were to become permanent, they would either go out of business or
have to raise their prices to pay higher wages *if* they could find
Americans willing to do the job. So now you'd have cheap imports vs.
expensive domestic strawberries and we all know where that leads. So
another American industry disappears and we all have to hope the imports
aren't full of chemicals not on the label since Republicans in Congress will
ensure the FDA and USDA don't have enough funding to inspect more than a
tiny fraction of imports.

That said, assume a strawberry farmer grows enough strawberries to
satisfy, oh, 1,000 strawberry consumers. The trade-off seems to be one
farmer (and perhaps his family) vs. 1,000 strawberry consumers. Where is
the greater good?

You assumption is arbitrary and thus useless. The farmer is likely to supply
one or more large wholesalers who have their own employees, so eliminating a
U.S. grower would impact a lot more than just one farmer and his family (and
his employees).

Besides, if growing strawberries is not profitable for the farmer, he can,
in most cases, grow something else. Have you checked the price of arugula
lately?

That's the story they use when a factory closes down, the workers can find
jobs elsewhere--doesn't seem to be working so well these days.

More likely, some enterprising soul will develop a strawberry-harvesting
machine.

Which will be made in China.

Or artificial strawberry flavoring.

Mmmmmm, chemicals.