The Endeavour

There are a lot of angry people in America.  Disillusionment seems to be running things these days. America was a land of hopes and dreams but it seems the reality of “America” today is adapt or be left behind; a sort of social Darwinism.  It doesn’t matter if there are no jobs to be had, if you are jobless it’s because you are lazy.  Maybe you didn’t think about your future properly when you were in school and chose band or drama rather than math or science.  Then college came and you foolishly thought you could be anything you wanted to be so you took History or English or (gasp) Communications.  Then once graduation happened, the loans were all lined up to hit you all at once and the foreboding real world approached, you realized that sometimes the dream has to wait and you end up waiting tables or selling shoes for minimum wage.

Then there are those who just didn’t apply themselves at all and maybe graduated from high school by the skin of their teeth or never did graduate and hit the job market at 18.  Things got tough and some found a small sense of security in gangs and/or drugs and either died too early, ended up in jail or got help and found the light, eventually.  Then there are those who found support from the Government in the form of public assistance.  Without which a mother of three might find herself homeless and her kids in foster care.  She may or may not get comfortable on Welfare, it’s hard to say.  But there are those who will never leave that security system.

This is nothing compared to the poverty found in Mexico or India or the African continent.  So, people from those places find themselves in America, either by work visa or by slipping under a fence.  Employers find their labor cheap and since they are illegal anyway, don’t report their wages and therefore keep their taxes low.  The legal visitors allow their visas to expire, therefore become illegal visitors and contribute to the illegal, and cheap, labor force, and this keeps legal citizens from working and getting ahead and once again in need of public assistance.

Then greed causes widespread financial recession when inflation creates bubbles that burst and employment tanks even further.  Even the illegal labor finds no work.  But that is just the way the cookie crumbles.  Corporations need to continually maintain profit margins to keep their shareholders happy and therefore continue to invest in those corporations so they can grow and hopefully grow their portfolios. So, when NAFTA came along it was a godsend for corporations since they could now legally or without penalty, move their manufacturing to other countries where the labor was cheap and shipping was just as easy.

So the number of people out of work, on public assistance, homeless, illegal in resident status, strung out, in jail, dropping out of school, hopeless, or any other number of situations that in no way resemble the “American Dream.”

Ok, so this sounds a bit bleak.  Well, that’s because it is.  This is a reality for so many in America today since the poverty gap has continually grown for more than 40 years with no end in sight.  All because citizens are envious and lazy?  Give me a break.  How exactly do you expect a jobless person to simply “get a job and stop bitching” when there are no jobs to be had?  By ending choking Government regulation and taxation on Corporations?  Really?  That simple?  By closing the borders and ending immigration, therefore opening up jobs for “real” Americans?  What jobs?  What company in their right mind would want to close the benefits of cheap overseas labor or unreported wages?  How does that make business sense?  Are we supposed to think that Company X will suddenly feel obligated to legal and expensive labor because “it’s the right thing to do?”  Since when has that been true?  Why would any company want to see Government subsidies end?  These handouts help top defray the costs of labor and encourage growth (i.e., stimulus) but with the advent of lean manufacturing and efficiency and robotics, such labor is no longer necessary for many and therefore the subsidies are just a boon.

How is this “class warfare?”  How is this “Unfair Government interference?”  Why is ending unnecessary subsidies, encouraging corporations to bring jobs back to America, closing loopholes in the tax code designed to give unfair advantage to large companies and kill competition, and providing a clear path to citizenship considered “redistribution of wealth?”

Since no one is willing to explain this to me, at least no one who supports the Conservative movement in America today, is there anyone else who can explain why I am supposed to swallow their ideas or else be considered Un-American and near treasonous, unpatriotic, rebellious, ungrateful, and communistic?

That’s rhetorical hogwash designed to keep heads in the sand.  We are not asking for war on corporate America?  Not hardly.  We need Corporate America.  We need small business to provide jobs.  We need smart immigration laws to discourage illegal activity and encourage citizenship.  We need to bring a more level playing field so that people can stand up by their own bootstraps and have any realistic shot at bringing competition to the market.  But isn’t that what scares the likes of GE or Anheuser-Busch?

Competition, fairness, responsibility, Innovation? Gee, that sounds expensive.  That could mean shareholder value might go down a touch.  We certainly can’t have that.  We need these things to inspire our children to dream big and reach for higher and higher ambitions don’t we?  Isn’t THAT what being an American is supposed to be?  Or is it all just a dream?

-MRC