Unemployment, Illegal Immigration, Poverty and You

Continuing my thoughts on the state of our nation, over the past 50 years we have destroyed our manufacturing sector, instead relying upon imports. In one respect, Americans do not seem to understand that the WWII generation created and supported the creation of the United Nations. After WWI & II, they wanted something better to keep the world from falling apart. Given that competition between USSR & the US, the opportunity for global conflagration was high. So proxy wars, UN resolutions, and exhaustive small stupid wars came into being.

In the global expansion of commerce, the ruling class of baby boomers came into being. Each claiming knowledge of how to help those towards the bottom. Before the explosion of education, the working class could aspire to a middle class life. We did move into a technological world, more formal education was needed, but old attitudes die hard.

So, free trade agreements became the rage, jobs went south to Mexico, made a right turn and landed in Asia. Those who made it in education are the beneficiaries, those who depended upon working w/o education were in a vulnerable position. Then came illegal immigration.

Now, the PC lefties would correct me in saying that they are, "undocumented workers". They would be correct in the latter, but as working for companies requires documents, they have documents, just not valid ones. So using the left's phrase, they are, "illegally documented workers", or, "illegal workers" for short.

Working folks in Iowa won't work for $10.00/hr in a meat packing plant, but would do so for $15.00/hr. However, the cheaper labor makes that unlikely. And to my personal knowledge, our government has seen fit to reissue visas to those who previously overstayed their visas for 5-6 years and worked. Our visa policy is favorable to foreigners who own property in their native land.

So now to unemployment. While illegal immigration has slowed, it has not stopped. Others remain, still working. To their credit, working people at in contact with immigrants in their jobs, neighborhoods, and daily routines. There is not hatred nor jealousy towards them on a grand scale. The social compact has been observed: they have been helped during their crisis. But to date, it has stopped.

So what will the future bring? People just holding on to their lives, cutting back, downsizing, minimizing, and cutting costs, spending whatever they get on housing, food and necessities? Are they living the high life? And now with the extensions cut off, the welfare safety net is their next alternative.

They are loosely organized through service organizations. As for me, I'm searching the horizon for the rising demagogues, charismatics, and pretenders to the throne who will organize the 10%+ rabble into a rise to power, much like Hitler did with his brown shirts.

Unemployment and the State of the Nation

Our current economic conditions are an accumulation of 30 years of foolish monetary policy. I remember getting a primer on it while a banker in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its premise is that surpluses are built in good times to assist the economy in bad times. But politicians being what they are, having a pot o gold is too much to resist. Only this time, it went out as tax cuts instead of spending.

Kool Aid drinkers on both sides point to one another. A truth about regaining sanity is to look at your actions and be responsible only for what you can control, and don't take someone else's inventory. Unfortunately, that is exactly what they do.

So now debates rage on immigration, unemployment federal extensions, and START treaty. And the extremes hold dearly to their positions. And the problems go on.

Take federal unemployment compensation. During my stay on the' "dole", it was difficult to determine from the information provided what could be done. For instance, if one works one week and reports it, does it interfere with next week's payment?

I received Social Security Disability in the mid 80's. Rep Andy Jacob, and a moderate republican senator sponsored and passed a bill that allowed SS disability recipients to go back the work yet have the safety net under them if chronic conditions recurred within specified time periods. Previously, they would start all over with a six month waiting period.

I'm a fan of William F Buckley whose main thesis was Government should not do what the private sector can do. It does what is needed. The private sector is not providing jobs. Repubs think giving them more money in the form of tax breaks and other incentives would work. However, your basic transnational company isn't patriotic, has been focused not on making money, but maximizing profits. A brief review of literature over the firms who received TARP funds will substantiate this.

In the 1930's, starting in Jackson County Missouri, Harry Truman, as a county judge aka commissioner, parked the machinery and put men to work on the roads. It is thought that it was the model for WPA projects. However, we do not see this occurring with the big companies, but with small businesses, those whose owners are more connected to people, extending help wherever possible and within their resources.

I do believe that we are entering a very dangerous time in our history. We have submitted ourselves to belief systems such as multiculturalism, strident feminism, rigid conservatism, etc that it is a struggle for the middle to hold against the ends. Yet this is necessary for the survival of our constitutional republic.

And I haven't even addressed the issue of sexual immorality.