Quick Hitters IV: Introducing Saxtonville--the Website!

[There are all kinds of interesting things going on right now, as I suppose you would expect in the height of what veteran pols call "the silly season." So I'll make a departure from my typically verbose style and give you more links and facts, less solipsistic analysis in a series of quick-hitter posts. Here's another...]


The state AFL-CIO has been making a little mischief surrounding the controversy over Ron Saxton's side career as a cherry/grape farmer in Rickreall, the hiring of migrants of indeterminate status to Saxton, and the revelations that the corrugated tin shack used to house the migrants was never fit for humans to dwell in. I think I missed the initial rollout, but Saxtonville.com has gotten some recent updates and deserves a second look for your own amusement. If nothing else, this caption accompanying the now-infamous Polk County picture of the corrugated tin hovel is worth the read: "Saxtonville guests enjoy state-of-the-art accommodations with cathedral ceilings and natural landscaping."

But there's more!

Long before unions came along to mess things up, a rich man and his money could get away with a lot: Hire children and immigrants for starvation wages. Disregard workplace safety and frills like paid sick time and overtime pay. Earn millions while paying next to nothing back to the community to pay their share for schools, public safety or senior services.

Ah, the good ole days!

Those crazy union kids...