03 September 2011 - The Mad Filkentist (original) (raw)

| | September 3rd, 2011**06:38 am - Red alert! Job applicants!**It's scary what tribalism plus high unemployment can do. This combination was largely responsible for the rise of the Nazis. What's happening in the US isn't nearly at that level, but it's still disturbing.I won't second-guess the jury in this case, in which Homeland Security pilot James Peters may or may not have killed a person trying to enter the US. But what really gets to me is the words of Thomas Berg, one of Peters' attorneys: "The dangerous work (pilots like Peters) do in trying to secure our border is to protect you. He was doing his job that day." Protecting us from what? From someone who was trying to find a better job than he could find in Mexico. What level of tribalism does it take to regard the aggressive pursuit of illegal immigrants, often forcing them into deadly situations in the desert or at the mercy of human smugglers, as necessary "protection" against competition for jobs?People regard jobs as a static quantity or as something which the government creates by waving its wand. They think that every time someone else gets a job, there's that much less employment left for them. But jobs are created by productivity; people who are productive at their jobs create more opportunities for others to do productive work. It's economy-wrecking policies, barriers to entry, and barriers to hiring which create unemployment. But it's much easier for people to think of other people who want to work as their enemies from whom the government has to protect them. Unfortunately, the logical conclusion of this is that everyone is everyone else's enemy. People don't want to think this, but what they do end up thinking is that everyone outside their own tribe is the enemy.(5 comments | Leave a comment) | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | | | LiveJournal.com |