I want to point out that this is not unique to the U.S. - farming in Europe and the U.K. suffers from the same problem.

Actually, it’s a worldwide issue that has existed pretty much since the beginning of society. Today it’s undocumented labor. Back then it was just outright slavery. Pretty much every economic system throughout civilization’s history has relied on slave labor to maintain its food supply and infrastructure. There has never been a period of human history where people were paying for goods and services based on the workers who created those goods actually getting paid a fair wage, particularly not in agriculture, construction, or infrastructure.

I wonder what the effect of raising wages for farm labourers would be?

Check my post history. I gave a couple of examples in another thread on the same subject. In a nutshell, if undocumented immigrants were getting paid a living wage + benefits and that cost was passed onto the consumer, it would likely cause the price of food to double, if not more. The wage gap between undocumented workers and even low-paid union workers working above board is fucking enormous, and society at large does not have a grasp of how much impact that has on food prices, and for that matter, goods and services in general. We live in a society where we have become accustomed to high quality goods and services that we think are created by people making a fair wage, without realizing just how much of that work actually is being done by people making barely a fraction of what they deserve. You’d be amazed at how many people think that the fair cost of labor is already baked into the price.

In another example, I discussed the fact that this is common in construction as well. If just one or two undocumented workers were replaced with union construction workers at a competitive wage, it would probably add anywhere from $30-$50,000 in extra labor costs to the cost of a house. A house worth $150,000 today would probably start at $200k+ if it weren’t for undocumented labor.

You’d end up with a whole bunch of people making what we would think would be a “living wage” until you realize that the cost of everything has gone up and you’re right back to being barely able to afford the basics. You started off making $400 a week and having $500 worth of expenses. Then your pay was raised to $500 a week, but that caused the price of goods and services to rise so now you’ve got $700 worth of expenses. So you demand a raise and now make $700, but this causes the price of goods and services to go up to $1000. So you…well, you get the idea. You don’t actually end up making any financial headway. All you do is essentially devalue the buying power of the money you do have while wondering why your financial situation never changes even when your pay does go up.

And then when people stop spending money on tourism and electronics and luxury goods because they can only afford the basics now, that’s when you start seeing job losses. And more people unable to afford things, which causes more job losses. And the ripple effects just keep going on, and on, and on, and on…

And the reason for this unending loop is because our entire economy is built on the idea of cheap, exploited labor. Take cheap, exploited labor out of the mix and the entire system becomes unsustainable and quickly collapses. Why do you think we so heavily rely on shit from China and third world countries that wipe their asses with safety standards and pay their workers less than what a homeless man would make begging on a street corner, if they pay them at all. Because if we tried to make that stuff here while paying our workers a competitive wage, 95% of that stuff would be completely unaffordable to all but the wealthy. There’s a reason why, like I said, every President before Trump has done exactly nothing to address the problem outside of paying it some political lip service when they’re campaigning. Because they know that if you fuck with it, the entire thing comes crashing down.