(snipped)
Yes, there is more to the story than first impressions. Automating the picking of fruit is actually money going to a manufacturer of of the machinery and to the finance company, or bank. Machines do not spend money in the neighbourhood. So local businesses close through lack of people. You can see the voting pattern change as a result of this. Less voters...less political clout. I'm sure someone else can expand on the scenario. I remember the effect on the Toft CaneCutting Machine invented in the 1960s in Queensland. In the 1950s the cane towns were suddenly exploded with actuall men with machete's, thousands and thousands of them, cutting cane by hand...ask me about it.
Accomodation, cars, petrol, cafes, pubs full, you name it. It was the wild woolly west without guns and the towns were alive and booming. As soon as the cutting of cane became automated the towns died. Innisfail for instance used to have 6000 people out of the growing season and 20,000 when we invaded to do the cutting. A few cane-cutting machine drivers do not a community make. Property prices slump. A slow rest...a re-run of the invention of spinning looms on villages.
