Those Scary Brown People

We had it coming to us. We've had it coming to us for a long time. You know all of those immigrants that "take our jobs"? Well, besides the obvious benefit of having a hungry work force willing to do anything to drive our economy forward, well, we also were instrumental in bringing them here. Now we want them to go home? We brought them here in the first place.
Why? How? Well, first of all there's the good neighbor policy and manifest destiny that the United States has been practicing since its inception. We have always felt as if we were in control of anything south of the Rio Grande, stepping over and ignoring the aggressive ways we have acted during the 19th century. Let's deal with the 20th century alone.
Well, during the beginning of the 20th century we let our companies like the United Fruit Company dictate the policies of various countries in Central and South America. We continued a policy of power being concentrated in the hands of the few in most of South America. If people are poor and being kept down -and they see an opportunity a little ways north-- what else will they do?
I'm not even including what has happened since NAFTA began. The subsidies and tax breaks that we have given our industrial farmers has created a situation where farmers in Mexico no longer can make money by growing their produce, simply because our farmers are able to do it cheaper. When a segment of an economy, which is as prominent even in this day and age as farming, of course it will create a segment of the populous that will need to look for jobs. Coupled with the dire economic situation, the division between economic classes, and low employment- people will inevitably look for another way in which to feed their families, especially if they are available to the north.
We have even encouraged Mexican workers to come to our country- we ENCOURAGED it. There was the "Bracero Program" which began in 1942 and ended in 1964. We brought Mexican workers to the United States to work.
The laws in this country, the mindset, the archaic way in which we treat our immigrants is simply embarrassing. We have done this to the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, and the Germans. But now, we are doing it with a group that has been in this country for as long as it has existed. We have alienated a group willing to work harder than any other in this country. As far as I'm concerned the people of this country, those that support the draconian laws of Arizona and those laws that remove immigrants and children of immigrants from this country should be ashamed of themselves.

Once in a While Paul Krugman Writes Something Good

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/opinion/14krugman.html?hp

Out with the Old

I know that I should probably be writing something to express my opinion on the Greek debt crisis and its potential for destruction world-wide. It, honestly, doesn't strike me as something that needs my commentary. The countries that should have never been allowed into the Euro Zone because of their not meeting fiscal requirements that the European Central Bank stipulated. It's not exactly rocket science. If you have country's with rampant inflation and huge debts -- two things that are not allowed into the new currency zone-- well, then those countries should not be allowed in. These countries-- Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal-- they will eventually in one way or another bring the European Currency to its knees, even with the latest addition of around one trillion Euros for a bail-out safety net. The Germans are going to have pay most of that bill, they're going to become angry at their even higher taxes, and eventually that increased burden will bog down the engine that runs the Eurozone. Just give it time, it won't take too terribly long.

Anyway, the post that I really wanted to write had to do with my anger (as it often does) with what is going on in the world. Ostensibly, I would like to pose the notion of evicting the elders from control of our government. As we now have the oldest Congress in the history of the United States, I think it is time for a few procedural, or better yet, cultural notions to change.
I was struck by something that happened in the Supreme Court a few weeks ago, and I found this to be truly indicative of the way in which our government functions. One of the Justices on the Supreme Court inquired as to what the difference was between a pager and e-mail. These- one outdated and one extremely used facet of our society, and their not having knowledge about said entities, truly shows how out of touch our government is with its people.
The United States has never been a nation that put a huge amount of stock in age and experience. Although, this has changed in recent years. We have not gone the way of Italy, where people are hired and fired based solely on their being older (and thus more "knowledgeable") than other candidates. However, we have put a great deal of stock in the last few years on the age of these candidates.
I suppose this will sound fairly radical and less measured than some of my previous posts- but I believe we should rid ourselves of these people. We should be voting out members of congress not familiar with these basic notions, we should be voting out people that are not aware of what is transpiring on the ground in their home districts.
The youth are the future, right? We have been told that forever- our children are our future. Well, the actions of our elders has yet to tell me that there is any truth in that statement. Currently, we sit at around 10% unemployment. However, the under-utilization, or underemployment rate for those under the age of 30 is nearly 20%. Couple that with recent rash of unpaid internships that are being used as full-time employment without the compensation, you have an increasing class of poor, greatly indebted, and impressively frustrated youth. What do I think?
I think that our business class has a strangle-hold on the government. I think that the Republicans and Democrats alike sit in the back pocket of these interests. However, I also see a generation that has been forgotten. That which has been done to better our economic situation has been done to benefit our elders. I also see a political class that is either too young to remember the Great Depression, or so old that they have forgotten its lessons. I see the government controlled by a generation that voted to deregulate our financial system, lower taxes, and increase military spending. I see a spoiled generation, a baby-boom generation, that has taken our country into such a dire fiscal situation that I doubt we will be able to remove ourselves from it anytime in the near future.
It's time- I think, that the under-30 generation stood up as a whole and voted them out. All of them. Those which do not reflect OUR interests should be gone, out of office, sent home to see what their corruption has done.

For the Love of God, SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR TAXES

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm