[bsder]

> We have somehow gotten ourselves in the position where manual labor relegates one to be a social untouchable.

Hogwash. If the salary rises high enough, people will do the jobs. Why do people only seem to like capitalism when it suppresses wages?

I guarantee you that if the farmers paid $30/hour, they'd have plenty of people to fill those jobs.

Every time I hear about one of these job "shortages" I always sympathize quite deeply: "Yep, I have a similar problem. There is an acute shortage of supermodels willing to have sex with me."

Amazing how that puts things into perspective really quickly.