Independence Week

It may be a projection of my spiritual state, but the world around me seems confused and in disarray. Institutions and services aren't functioning well, and the proposed remedies seem to yield more problems than they solve. Meanwhile, the "good guys" who are working out our puzzles seem impervious to the collateral damage their brainstorms will doubtless produce.

Congestion parking in New York is one example. A city that needs tourism and retail intends to penalize the very people who feed those industries--the bridge and tunnel people who pour in to see shows and eat out, and the vans and trucks that transport goods to stores and from warehouses. However, many non-driving New Yorkers, who relish the excitement of a bold idea that does not seem to affect them, support the proposal, without seeing what a catastrophe it will be for them as well.

The immigration issue is another example of an intractable problem that inspires unpopular solutions and a cacaphony of confusion. Most Americans are now celebrating the defeat of the amnesty bill that would have granted citizenship to some 12 million illegal aliens, but no one can deny that these visitors remain among us, blasting at our building facades, stocking our food shelves, caring for our children and cleaning our homes--doing the work that native-born Americans presumably are unwilling to do. And while the bill's opponents can be satisfied that the aliens have been denied citizenship, all that has been proven is that neither individuals nor our government has the will to oust or welcome these foreigners among us, to tax them or give them benefits.

We use and watch their efforts but pretend they don't exist. Underneath it all is the plain, selfish fact that the individuals and companies that hire these foreign workers could as easily hire native born Americans, but would prefer to pay less. Local union members have handed out fliers protesting all over the city protesting against one construction or engineering firm after another for using illegal workers to build or renovate their properties, but their efforts are unavailing. The work moves forward. Most people who receive these fliers do not care much or know what they can do. They see this as an economic terf war war between two sets of workers--one closed and clannish group (the union) noted for violence and corruption against another group, who is quiet, cheap and obedient. We don't like either party enough to raise our voices.

But if Americans are serious about doing more about the immigration problem than snubbing the immigrants, if we are serious about closing our borders and job markets to aliens, we will need to decide whose side we are on in these "labor disputes." Because the demand a segment of our population (the upper classes, the employers, etc.) puts on the commodity of cheap labor is what keeps the aliens coming and staying. Merely voting not to give them rights is not going to prevent them them from taking their cut of the gross national product or exerting the pressure of their needs on our fragile infrastructure. Yet, rather than discuss this problem openly and logically, Americans prefer to talk at each other through the metaphors of congestion pricing and immigration--one group in effect telling the other that their needs have become inconvenient and harmful. Until we deliver this news to one another directly, the problems we attempt to solve will fester.