This is something that I had posted on Yahoo 360. In retrospect, it's not very good, but I do have to wonder what the hell I was thinking when I typed this.
Sorry, nothing very witty today. And so, instead of dragging you down into the spiraling depths of despair that I’m suffering, I thought that we could talk about something else today. Unless, of course, you want me to publicly flog myself so you could feel better about yourself. If so, I’ll be more than happy to help you out.
Now just WTF is that last part about? I mean, really, you want me to drag out the minutia of my life and agonize over it in a public forum just so you can feel better about yourself? What kind of friends are we? Do you sleep better at night when you see me crashing to the ground in flames? Oh, I see, I get the pain and you get the pleasure. Well, that sure as shit sounds fairly equal to me. Just let me know when you’re down in the dumps so I can laugh at you, ok? That’s what friends are for, right? Oh, I’m sorry, that’s what family is for. Never mind.
What do you want to talk about? Hum, hum? You there, in the back, please speak up. Yes, I’m talking to you. No, I don’t care that you’re just here “auditing” the course. Its’ audience participation day and it’s time for you to step up to the plate. Yes, yes, I know that you’re hung over and the dog ate your brain and you’ve never amounted to anything in your life, but for once, please take your finger out of your nose, get up off your ass and let’s talk about something. You see, conversations, just like telephones, work best when used both ways. I can continue to sit here and pontificate away, but without any feedback from you, my gentle readers, I have no fucking idea what you’re thinking about and what you think about what I’m saying.
Ok, ok, I know its’ Friday and you’re just trying to hold on until the whistle blows and then you’re outta here, down to the local watering hole to get all liquored up and hopefully do the old bump and grind with some stranger, so I won’t tax you too much. So we won’t talk about anything too deep or meaningful, ok? Does that make you feel better? I can hear the deep sighs of relief.
Hummm, what to talk about, what to talk about… I’ve got it! Let’s talk about immigration. Now, before we get too far into this, for disclosure purposes, I do have to admit that my maternal grandparents and my paternal great-grandparents were immigrants. We’ve actually found their names on the lists from Ellis island and have our family trees going all the way back to some barren pieces of sod in Scotland and Ireland.
One of the things that I read in the last few months really put this into perspective for me. Did you know that one of the Fathers of our country was very concerned about immigration? Not just one of the Founding Fathers, but the legendary Ben Franklin himself. And do you know who Ben Franklin was all up in arms about? Advocating immigration quotas against them and saying that their influence would bring about the destruction of the American way of life? Germans. Yup, that’s right, Germans. Dear old Ben was up in arms about the numbers of Germans that were immigrating to America. Now, at the time, I’m sure it seemed that the Germans were just swarming ashore in never ending waves, but in retrospect, it seems that we weathered that storm well enough, don’t you think? Aside from the fact that we all speak German, wear lederhosen and named the 10th month of the year after an ancient German holiday (hello? Oktoberfest?), we really cannot discern any impact that these immigrants had on us at all.
Now, for those of you still with me (I know that history is boring, but I put a nice spin on it, don’t you think?), let’s summarize a little bit. In the 1790’s it was the Germans, in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s it was the Italians, Irish, the Chinese, and whoever else came ashore at that time. Actually, they have found that every 20 – 50 years America has experienced waves and waves of immigrants. And you know what else is interesting? After every single one of those waves the economy expanded, people were wealthier and the Nation didn’t implode.
So, now it’s the Mexicans. At least that group is the poster child for the current immigration debate. Because there are a lot of other people coming into this country that are not just Hispanic, believe you me. Look at the Indians (from India, not the reservation, you moron), who are becoming more and more prevalent every day in the computer industry and accounting. So it’s not just the Hispanics that are stealing our jobs, unless, of course, you’re a landscaper, and then yes they are and you’re shit out of luck.
Let’s talk about the economy for a moment. If you take the rate of expansion of our economy, project it out 20 – 30 years, and then take into account our birth rate, you’ll see that we are not generating enough little people internally to fill all of the jobs that are going to come up in the future. Not only that, we’re not generating enough people to fill all of the current jobs that are going to open up when the baby boomers retire. So, not only can we not fill current jobs, we’re not going to fill up jobs created in the future. I can go on and on about inflationary pressures, wages growth, unemployment rates, etc. etc., but I think you get the picture.
History has shown us that for the last 200 + years, America has experienced waves and waves of immigration, and not only has it taken all of these people in, it’s actually prospered from it. So just calm down, relax for a while and have Carlos get you another drink before he finishes your lawn.
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