Americans warned of grocery prices shock
www.newsweek.com
"If you think your groceries are expensive now, wait until the farms are empty," AOC said on the "Latino USA" podcast.

Summary

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that Trump’s mass deportation policy could lead to labor shortages and higher grocery prices.

Experts say agriculture, construction, and healthcare will be hardest hit, with farm output losses estimated between $30 and $60 billion.

Deportations could cost the U.S. economy up to $88 billion annually.

AOC argued that immigrant labor is vital to economic stability, urging Congress to pursue immigration reform.

  • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
    5·
    3 hours ago

    100% this.
    I’m not a fan of the hamfisted way Trump and Musk are going about all this.
    But at the same time, I look at this and have to wonder the outcome…
    If agricultural corporations can’t hire cheap undocumented Latin American people to work the farms, they will have to pay more to hire Americans to do the same job. Yes that will drive up grocery prices, but on some level, if that means more Americans are able to afford those groceries isn’t that sort of maybe a good thing?

    Every time I see a company complain of labor shortage, it is obvious to me that the problem isn’t labor the problem is the company doesn’t want to pay what the labor market demands. You tell me you can’t find anybody to hire, so I ask if you offered $100/hr for this job would your inbox be overflowing with applicants? If the answer is yes, then the problem is that you can’t find anybody, it is the supply and demand of the labor market and your only problem is you don’t want to pay the market rate for labor. That’s not the market’s problem.