Immigration: "Don't Fall For It Kemosabe--it's a Trap!"

Regular readers know I have no wife, no kids, no house, and no car payment. That’s a bit of a mantra hear at Stays Put and I doubt it’ll change anytime soon.

That said, you can see why I can only generate so much genuine interest in the future of us primates. I tend to look upon the lives of my fellow countrymen with the same curious interest that Jane Godall watches chimps. With an outsider’s curiosity that can leave me both bemused and depressed.

Course there’s nothing more comical than Americans in an election year. All the corn-dog slogans and infantile cliches that even my 10 year-old niece can see thru a mile away.

Change!

Service!

Sacrifice!

Freedom!

...Shut the fuck up!

Stays Put will never be a political blog--I just don’t care enough to be sincere ‘bout the subject. But I do have a strong interest in animal behavior and cant help but be fascinated by the psychology of human behavior--both on the individual level and in large, organized groups (a/k/a as politics).

At present, the immigration issue has made for some good entertainment. William Faulkner once said that “no man deserves love since nature did not equip us to bear it”; and while it may be an imperfect analogy, I’d argue that no politician deserves immigration in an election year for the same reason. Its just too complicated an issue.

Fact is, for every law-and-order Republican who refuses to consider amnesty for illegals there’s another capitalist/free-trade Republican who loves the cheap, free-flow of labor. And for every liberal Democrat who buys into the inherent human-right of the individual, there’s an AFL/CIO labor member upset at the loss of jobs and the downward slide of wages.

So for all the rhetoric of how important immigration is, its a loser issue for any politician outside of Arizona and Texas. That rare issue that taps into the conservative side of Democrats and the liberal side of Republicans. Best you can hope for is to break-even.

But that’s best-case scenario.

As long as I’m dropping famous quotes or insights, its an established precept of haggling that the first party to mention price in the course of a negotiation finds themselves at an immediate disadvantage. If you believe that (and I certainly do), then its obvious that the Republicans once again have shot themselves in the foot.

Again, I’m not here to argue for or against amnesty for illegals. What interests me is the art of politics and political strategy. And with that in mind, I think its more than obvious that President Obama made the right political move when he placed the immigration issue on the back-burner; whereas the Republicans and their up-front, “show me your papers” approach should pretty-much fly like the proverbial lead zeppelin.

In fact, the Republicans basically handed the Hispanic vote to Democrats, which was stupid because Obama had promised Hispanics to tackle immigration this year. Republicans could have made some in-roads with Latinos. Yet I doubt there’ll be much of a political price for Obama to pay now. Hispanics know how Republicans feel about them.




But people, let’s be honest. If you really want to know the problem for the American economy and the ‘cause of our high unemployment, just take a look at this Chinese guy here. If he looks a little familiar it may be because there’s close to a billion of 'em on this planet. And there average wage is about .70 cents a day* (*you might want to fact-check that statistic).






Or how ‘bout this guy here? He may not look quite as familiar ‘cause he’s Indian. Only 800 million of these guys, and their living the high life--an average wage of close to $2 dollar day* (*again, I suggest you fact-check that).






Or what about this (below)? Recognize this machine? Its called a computer.

The reality is, unless you’re a great athlete, or a surgeon, or a plumber, or a farmer; robots and computers can probably do what you do. And do it better. And they don’t get tired. Or angry. Or ask for health benefits. Or vacation.

So scapegoat immigrants all you want Sara Palin and John McCain, 7-10% unemployment will be here long after Obama’s gone. Why would you hire an American worker when you can go overseas? Or use a computer? Or a robot?

The real question for future Americans and the modern countries is going to be: how do we live in the post-employment world? A world where people and labor are no longer needed. Think about it, unless you live on a farm, why would you have 3 or 4 kids? ‘Cause that’s what your parents did? You’re a person, not a chimp. You have to see that there'll never be enough good work for all these people. So rather than breed, perhaps you should find a healthy hobby to stay busy.

Though in the case of some of these Arizonans, they probably could use a girlfriend.