Re: continuation of wage and life expectancy discussion

[Guest guest]

,

Excellent analysis of the realities of both calculating " average wage " and

" life expectancy " within the farmworker, or even more challenging, the

migrant population(however we define that term).

Do you think the collective " we " will ever retire the 49 figure when it is

often so great for its jerk effect in making a case? However, I would argue

the opposite, that we do an injustice to assisting this population when we

continue to march out a figure that we cannot defend and which sounds

unrealistic.

Thanks.

Alice Larson

----- Original Message -----

From: " V Bletzer " <keith.bletzer@...>

< >

Sent: Friday, December 28, 2001 7:38 AM

Subject: [ ] continuation

> Fascinating discussion in recent days. I add further comments.

>

> HOURLY WAGE. I believe it is more common, at least in the journal

> literature, to characterize farmwork by annual income, for reasons

> described by Alice Larson, Palandati and Hedgren. Caution

is

> warranted for annual estimates that are unclear on place(s) and duration

of

> past experience(s) of those in the sample and how this variability may

> affect extremes in the range of incomes that produce an estimated annual

> income.

>

> There are several ways to consider how farmwork earnings affect way of

> life. One is a tactic I've heard labor organizers use: pay per bin, box

or

> bucket is compared against same pay per unit ten or twenty years ago.

> Change in pay is slow to take place where efforts to improve have not been

> intense.

>

> LIFE EXPECTANCY. Farmwork is indeed an occupation. For many / some / a

> few, farmwork also is a work experience that may occur one or more times

> during the course of life. How long does one have to work or have worked

in

> agriculture to qualify as a farmworker, and to affect, by standards of

> research, one's longevity? Conversely, how much work experience outside

> farmwork overrides placing one in the category of farmworker but does not

> override the effect of farmwork on longevity?

>

> IF first public use of farmworker life expectancy at age 49 was the 1960

> airing of " Harvest of Shame " (thanks Greg), neither the pre-broadcast

> context of the number 49, nor its post-broadcast popularization for more

> than two decades, appears unusual. Estimate of Global Life Expectancy

> reached 49 by 1960. U.S. life expectancy estimate more or less reached 49

> at the turn of the century (1899--1900) as it continued to increase in the

> 1900s. Given the theme of lag in progress, introductory references in

> " Harvest " liken then-contemporary U.S. farmwork to two Third World places,

> followed by scattered reminders to viewer's assumed agrarian past (notably

> the quote, " We no longer own slaves, we rent them " ). " Harvest " was

> broadcast during a time in which, and through a medium (TV) by which,

> numbers and statistics became embedded deeper in American culture (e.g.,

" 9

> out of 10 " as testimonial; concept of ratings). Comparing life expectancy

> has been a common technique to distinguish ways of life, especially the

> world's poor with wealthy nations (U.S. included). Given the mysterious

> attraction held by a cipher ending in nine (consider the sales ploy of

> pricing merchandise), and given that " 49 " is the last number before moving

> into the second half of 100 (i.e., 50s, 60s, then 70s, as the age to which

> modern peoples could expect to live), 49 can be viewed as a maneuver

(among

> several used in " Harvest " ) to emphasize the point that farmworkers were

> unjustly outside the advantages and protections of modern America. It was

> no coincidence the medium for constructing and publicizing this message

was

> TV or that Harvest was broadcast on Thanksgiving Day.

>

> Several discussants over the past week make a good case for retiring the

> mythic 49. We should hope, as researchers, that we have not unwittingly

> adopted the analytic research technique of replacing a missing value with

a

> " universal mean, " that originally may have been a journalistic gambit...

>

>

> V Bletzer. Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of

> Anthropology, Arizona State University.

>

>

>

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