Base level jobs pay base level wages. You can’t expect £40k per year picking strawberries.
I know I’ve told this one before but I struggle to get people to stand at the side of the road holding a sign. Ended up using an agency and 2 of their people gave up after 2 hours. £15 an hour…… That’s no shit wage, that’s £2400 a month. Any takes? 3 posts available for a week in Autumn.
Spoken like a true free-market believer.
Except quite clearly, under your beliefs, a market equilibrium ought to be reached. So which is it? Just because you consider it a “base level wage” doesn’t mean it is so to people, nor do they consider the tradeoffs worth it.
The fact that you consider it a “base level job” pretty much says it all about you as a person, really. I don’t see you clamouring to do this job either, so you plainly consider it beneath you. Why should anyone else do it?
Fruit and vegetable picking is hard work for crap pay.
It was my first job. I lasted a week. I got paid less than minimum wage (agriculture workers are allowed to be paid less), had equivalent to zero hour contract, had to start at 5 am, it rained every day, had unrealistic targets, and I was totally knackered (back, arms,legs all hurt).
I got a job soon after making fish and chips. Although most people would consider that a rubbish job It was a thousand times better.
I don’t blame people for not wanting to do agricultural work. The truth we have exploited cheap foreign labour.
I’d agree but I would caveat that by saying that there are many reasons why people dont have jobs. Being “lazy” is one of them but a million miles from being the majority.
I remember reading a report into last year’s attempts to get locals to do fruit and vegetable picking. The author of the piece actually tried it themselves, only to find out that not only were conditions terrible, many of the foreign pickers were essentially professionals, who had years and years of experience, building up systematic methods for picking this. And the main reason why they do it is because it still pays better than any other opportunities available to them.
Like your personal experience, why would anyone subject themselves to this when they have better-paying alternatives? Any self-respecting believer in the free market would say that the answer is obvious: employers have to offer better wages.
The same argument goes for another anecdote that I read about lorry drivers. The lifestyle is terrible, and thoroughly unsustainable. It’s something one would do for a few years to maximise earnings, unless one really enjoyed that lifestyle of solitude and long hours.
Can’t signs, you know, be made so as to stand up right without needing someone to hold them?
Quite obviously we need to stop paying the signs to lie around doing nothing…
I could write a very technical reply to this having both designed and built said supports for signs but believe me when I say that you are correct.
It’s a shame that many dont notice them. There’s lots on the side of the road which have a lot of useful information
Judging by what I’ve experienced, I’m going to go out on a hunch and say the information includes things like speed limits, road hazards, etc.
yup. Also useful information on where you’re going. Some really flashy ones can have messages that change. Those are clever signs that probably went to University under Blair’s get everyone into University policies.
For some reason, drivers of BMW’s don’t see them too well. Must be the glass they use in those cars I think.
If you want a £10k bill from the council, yes.
If by “fuck all” you mean ‘claim benefits’, it is probably worth mentioning for clarity that (according to the Resolution Foundation) about a third of those on Universal Credit are already in jobs and another third are unable to work due to health conditions. It is also estimated that a significant proportion of the remainder have learning difficulties.
Should we just leave that there?
All this talk about signs reminds me of…
I’m not sure what you mean?
It’s a street well trodden that never seems to end well. I usually take a kicking for my views. Harmony is better than a big forum fight 
There are an awful lot of issues with driver-less vehicles - one being that a computer cannot make ethical decisions at the point of an unavoidable collision. For instance does the vehicle crash into a young family, a pensioner on a bike or sacrifice itself and its passengers? A human makes these ethical calls in a split second.
They can be effective on a grid system atm - as long as humans are nowhere near them.
As you say it will be decades before they are commonplace.
Just a thought.
Maybe, maybe, strawberries are unnaturally cheap. Maybe, maybe, strawberries should be a bit more costly so that picking them is worth more.
if not just stop producing them!
This touches on many subjects such as;
There’s an argument that some foodstuffs such as certain meats, fish, perhaps some veg too etc. are too cheap. It’s too easy to buy while we decimate the planet producing them. Yesterday I saw an article that said that 5-6 companies that produced meat were responsible for nearly 15% of global CO2 emissions. That’s nuts.
There is a massive balance issue in the UK. Those at the bottom on Universal Credit etc. often struggle to provide the basics. Some would say they buy too much vodka 
where the actual truth is the costs of living are pretty high and you can buy crap that takes minutes to cook for less. IMO the food industry needs a good look at. There’s some stuff out there that if you deconstructed it you would honestly question how its classed as food.
I know the above points are contradictory but that only highlights the balance issue. Some pork is cheap but often out of the reach of some but at the same time many can afford it 7 days a week. At the same time a processed pepperoni pizza can be bought for peanuts.
Anyhow it’s probably worth looking at what Johnsons reforms that were announced yesterday really mean. I certainly know that some it is driven by house prices which suits the SE and a few other places better than others. Not sure that feels right somehow. I need to look more.
Also worth noting that while Starmer’s response was off to a good start it was yet again too weak and offered nothing other than some easy opportunities for Boris to shout down. I’m not convinced he’s the answer. UK will be screwed as the government seeks to introduce further legislation that will basically increase their chances election time.