So Much Time, So Little Blogging....

Well, it isn't like there aren't about a thousand topics worth blogging on. But I have a good excuse and I'm fully prepared to exploit it, so don't start with me.

Right at the moment, there's an interesting subject that I never hear about on CNN or any of the other media poodles that slobber over the politicians for fear they'll get kicked out of the press corps. Which is a rant in itself, but I'll save it for a day when Anderson Cooper seriously annoys me. Most days he's just a smug little prick and not worth the effort.

So here it is: today was a day of protest over U.S. immigration policy and most of the people I know claim they don't know what to think about the issue. They are seriously conflicted over it, and it would appear on the surface that there is good cause for conflict. Surfaces are deceptive. That's because the problem is never on the surface.

Here's a clue: If you want to fix a problem, you have to go back to shortly before the pain began. By the time you noticed the pain, the problem was already manifest. By the time you are delirious with pain, the problem has given birth to thousands of generations of problem. We are delirious with pain, and once again the guys who are benefitting from our pain have diverted our attention away from them and onto each other. One of us must be the bad guy - either the illegal immigrant or the American taxpayer who has lost another job.

What nobody ever asks on CNN is what on earth kind of an economic system permits hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers to form an invisible slave labor pool that can be exploited by any jerk with a mind to do so, have no legal recourse against that exploitation, and are forced to hide in the shadows for fear of punishment? What kind you ask? Why the kind that was established on the principle that slave labor is a good thing for people who wish to become ridiculously wealthy at the expense of everyone else. That's a fucked up system from go, and it will not get better by passing another law or building another fence or blaming another country, president, worker, or pet otter. The problem, my friends, is us. The problem is that we think it's more important to have cheap goods than to protect the fundamental human rights we all claim to value so highly. We will not see any substantial improvement in our situation until we go back and fix the problem. And the problem, my friends, is us.

If the folks dining in restaurants tonight continue thinking that it is their Manifest Destiny to receive moderately priced prime rib entrees, even if that means that the nameless have-nots in the shadows of the kitchen must fear for their safety and do without healthcare, nothing will change. If the guys who go golfing this Sunday believe that it's their god-given right to play on perfectly manicured greens without having to pay a fair wage for those services, nothing will change. If the next president can't nominate a cabinet member without scouring their tax returns to see how many undocumented nannies and housekeepers they failed to pay Social Security taxes for, nothing will change. So long as we keep trying to squeeze a few extra pennies out of the suffering of a Chinese prisoner, or a Mexican farm worker, or a Philippino garment factory worker, nothing will change. Nothing will change unless we change. It's an inside job. What goes around, comes around. And someday (maybe today?) the shoe will be on the other foot.

This is not a difficult issue, and it never was. It's very simple. All you ever have to do is ask yourself how you would want to be treated if the tables were turned. What if it was your mother, your sister, your son who wanted to work and be accorded the dignity and respect of a valuable member of the community? There's nothing complicated about this. We need to consume less, share fairly, support our brothers and sisters around the globe in their efforts to create sustainable economies (that would NOT include economies based on slave labor), and stop being so damned impressed with ourselves.

An economy is nothing more than a simple exchange of goods and services for goods or services of comparable value. The exchange flows in a circle, and the rate of exchange is its velocity. The world is a circle, and this global economy must include all of us. If we scrape a little extra off the top before passing it on to the next guy, the economy will eventually break down because someone won't have enough left to exchange for the goods and services that they must acquire in order to survive. Hoarding is not good for economies. The solution to this is not to then turn on the guy who didn't get his fair share and blame him, drive him out, or kill him. The solution is to make sure that he gets his fair share so that the economy can continue to thrive. Otherwise, OUR economy goes down the tubes right along with his becaues they are in fact one. For details, see the current Bush economic plan.