Posting Frequency and Practical Politics
A good friend of mine is running for local office, and it’s incumbent-hunting season right now with the municipal elections coming up here in Texas. Much of my discretionary time spent writing is now being spent talking to voters.
One of the things I’ve noticed about candidates is that they’re lazy, often sticking to nice neighborhoods for block-walking.
Since a lot of the voters live outside suburbia proper, it provides an opportunity to meet a lot of characters. It’s quite entertaining- the South has more characters per capita than any region of the country, especially when you get out of the ‘burbs and go talk to the people. The real blessing of our country is not our government (which is a curse), but the nature of the people themselves. Their anti-government, anti-tax, “leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone” attitude is the very thing that has preserved us from further slouching towards socialism.
Ironically, in the South, where inequality of wealth is highest, real equality of persons also reaches its peak, in terms of the respect that men show each other regardless of their social station.
Someone who lives in a $5000 market value trailer on 1/2 acre on a dusty rural road despises the few hundred dollars he pays in property tax every year as much as I despise my larger bill. And what he hates more than anything else is the government monkeying in his business, and critically, at the same time, would accord me the same respect- specifically, that the government should not engage in wealth redistribution experiments that would ostensibly benefit him at my expense. This is the real test of the golden rule, whether someone with something to gain can resist the temptation of government meddling.
And this is why I think the working people of our country are entitled to the wages the market dictates, however high, and should not have their jobs bid down by massive immigration. Just as they respect the rights of those more blessed financially, those at the top should not support policies that undermine their earning potential. I continue to be amazed by the willful blindness of many people, who keep talking about a labor shortage. Yes, we have a labor shortage of $8 an hour landscapers, but there’s plenty at $15 an hour. But bring up the prospect of higher wages and many of those profiting from the immigration invasion quickly change the subject.
The Mexicans we are importing will eventually elect a Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro, and when that happens, all of those who made their wealth on $8 an hour drywall installers will be wishing they could pay some back wages to get their country back.