North Arkansas has benifited greatly by Tyson...it did make jobs up there, and else where around the state. I am in North Arkansas alot, and know some Tyson employees.
Red Robin, do you know how many Cuban Refugees, and how many Viet Nam Refugees, got jobs there? Do you know how many millions were made on the backs of the poor folks up there when it all started? Yes , they have a job, and Yes, that is a good thing, but there are few really great jobs there...mostly very low paying jobs.
How can you hold up for huge business that will make a surf out of you! Look at the people that risk all they ever had (and many lost it) at the whim of a house inspector, that just does not like you as an individual? No recourse but to take what they dish out.
You talk of the huge pasture improvements? HOw much rocket science was involved in spreading chicken litter over a burned out old cotton patch, from years ago, to make a pasture out of it? Would the grass be any shorter if the Chicken Growers had some imput and control over the trap they have been placed in?
And just for the record 50 years ago, folks could still process their own chickens and did! Some were sold in local markets, and Grocery stores, FRESH! And there was nothing stopping you from processing them and selling them, if you wanted too. That was before the big companys got the laws passed that are designed to keep small business out of the market!
So if you think that bowing down to the Poultry Giant and worshiping is a good idea , go ahead! But it it either being a surf, or slave to the Company, or they will just go to Mexico, I say lets let em go, and let the Chicken Growers Develope their own USA market, and let Tyson sell his chickens to the 3 dollar a day Mexicans that are building the cars and making the Burlington Rugs there now....that used to be made HERE!
Tyson has done some good things in North Arkansas YES. But big Packers are systematically killing the small ones. Wal-mart has done great things in North Arkansasa also, but they have put out more independent merchants than the great Depression did! J B Hunt has done great things for North Arkansas also, but at the expense of the small owner/operators all over this country. Big Business tends to make lots of money, mostly at the top. Mostly for the few. Yes there are drivers all over the country with JB Hunt jobs. There are thousands of Wal-Mart clerks everywhere, and there are hundereds of Chicken House owners in this country that are financing the Tyson Super Business, and they are made slaves for it! When the big packers get their way, the beef business will go the same way. IT is already. And when it does will you tell me how wonderful it is to have those businesses, and how many jobs they made. Is that why they are so intent on keeping the Illegals here now? Is that why with every raid by the Border Patrol, Tyson is stalled out, and the big Packing houses have to skip a few days work? Because they are so good for American Citizens?
There is some good in all the above, but most of the good is for only a few, and the harm is done to the many!
Stay tuned, you will see the beef industry go down that same path if the Public buys into the VI thinking.
Write that down!
Ross