I can only speak to the farm workers that I personally know. The ones that worked for my Dad had a house on the farm--no need to drive to feed themselves. They had access to a translator on-call. They had access to van service that would drive them anywhere they wanted to go, including shopping or entertainment. Several of these guys felt the need to buy a car, didn't know how to drive it, crashed it through a neighbor's fence or into a field (this happened a few times with different employees), then walked away and abandoned the vehicle.
They also would subscribe to cable, the internet, and get memberships at health clubs. Then they would move on to another job or back home, and the bills would continue to show up after they'd left. These are not things that are necessary for life like health care.
How do you justify the outright fraud over their income taxes? It was routine with these guys to report several children that they did not have (if they have work visas, they do not have to provide proof that the kids exist the way you and I do), and they would file taxes several times each year under several IDs and they would get tax refunds totaling tens of thousands of dollars each year. I know this because I saw the checks, and one of the guys laughingly told me the scam. In fact, tax refund checks would come to the farm under different versions of these guys' names even after they'd moved on. Somehow, I never caught on how, it was tied into the car purchase. I couldn't understand if the car dealership was selling the fake papers or if buying the car gave their IDs legitimacy, somehow. Anyway, they used to take trips in huge carloads to the city and go to the "car dealership," come back with a car, and that would also set them up for tax fraud somehow.
I just want the same rules that apply to you and me to apply to immigrant workers. It's frustrating to see those refund checks coming into the farm mailbox. It's frustrating to see their bills show up after they've gone. It's very frustrating to have to deal with the collections calls coming into the farm phone number (they all had cell phones, but gave the farm number instead). The problem I have is not with the people--goodness knows, most were nice enough guys and we need them in the US to make our economy run--it's with the culture that, at least in our area (multiple large dairy farms with many workers) was all about scamming as much money from the government and as many free services as possible, before they laughingly went home in a few years. I don't know if the more migrant workers do this or not. The jobs in our valley were all permanent jobs, not seasonal.
I know lots of Americans scam the government and that a lot of Americans skip out on their bills. But there are more safeguards against that for those with SSNs. When I declare my dependents, for example, I have to prove they exist with a SSN. When I sign up for cable, they have my SSN and can better track me down. I have no problem with as many immigrants as want to show up coming to work here. I have a problem with a "system" that's so rife with fraud and abuse that it encourages everyone to participate in the fraud, even if they are basically good people. Because, why not? It's not like they'll get caught. They can always take their money and go home.
As far as the backyard eggs, they are far more expensive to produce for us than Eggland's Best or the store brands. Even if you don't do organic, you don't have the economies of scale that make a farm profitable. We don't buy feed by the ton or bedding by the semi-full or chicks by the thousand. We can't broker our manure on the poultry litter exchanges and make some money off it. All of those things save a ton of money, and in a low margin industry like agriculture, those little savings are your profit. We sell eggs for $3.20/dozen wholesale, and make about 35 cents per carton. That's after factoring in housing, etc. We are in the black now, but had to amortize the facilities over five years.
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