The 2005 Disaster of New Orleans will serve to instruct the rest of the world as to the unique situation of the American people. Go to Somalia or Darfur and look at the refugees there, and compare them with the refugees of New Orleans. New Orleans refugees include poor people who are also obese — so well fed that they are far more likely to die of diabetes or stroke than starvation. America’s poor have a far higher standard of living than those of Africa or Haiti or South America.
America’s poor demand services. And they are armed with firearms, and when angry, shoot at the police and the military to express their dissatisfaction with correct and inept government. In Darfur, people are so poor that they cannot arm themselves even for legitimate self-defense from attacking, murderous marauders.
Americans want services, they want comforts, and they want effective government. But Americans assume that such things will be provided for them. They vote on superficial rationales, on sound bites. Americans do not "throw the bums out" when government services are inadequate, and spend more time researching the sports ratings than the performance of their elected officials. Americans still tolerate a Federal government of millionaires and billionaires who do not represent the working class. Americans continue to elect Federal representatives who send their jobs offshore, cut taxes on the wealthy at the expense of the poor, send their children off to war, enact super-expensive "security" programs that only provide an illusion of security, and reduce funding for social programs relentlessly.
Americans want to be fat and want free handouts from government. They don’t want taxes but they demand services. They tolerate inept public servants with good images and poor performance. Americans don’t bother to vote, don’t bother to insist on quality officials, and then complain bitterly that their needs are not looked after.
Why should George W. Bush perform for the poor when he gets power for two terms without a single legitimate election? Why should the poor expect more when the Democrats do not oppose the legislation of the Republicans, but mimic it? Why should things get better when there is no consistent demand for improvement?
The sad truth is that America is a decadent society — ripe for a fall. America’s poor are fat and sassy. America’s middle class loses ground and elects politicians only too happy to sell them out for more corporate reward. The trouble with Kansas is the trouble with N’Orleans and with Detroit. America’s standard of living is dropping like a rock, except for executives and entrepreneurs who donate heavily to the politicians. Politicians manipulate public opinion just enough to get elected, and then to disown their responsibilities to the general electorate.
America’s future is becoming clearer and clearer. We are being overtaken by hungrier, better-educated, more competent, and harder working people from India to Malaysia to China to Brazil. If America did not have so many hard-working immigrants to carry the load at low wages, we would be in even worse shape. But those immigrants are starting to stay at home and compete from home now, except for economic refugees from south of our own borders who are coming here because we wrecked their own economies in order to bring their raw materials into our borders. When we import Costa Rican raw materials, we end up also importing Costa Rican migrant workers who follow their resources across our borders.
Nowadays, even immigrant workers in America are fat and sassy. Little children from Mexico visiting the local WalMart with their parents are as obese as American children. Fat immigrants who can’t speak English beg for services — it is the American way.
America is fat and decadent. Americans beg for and demand services but eschew taxes. Corporations eschew taxes and exploit the same poor workers who no longer receive insurance, retirement, or vacations. The whole system is headed for collapse.
