Tsunami relief?

Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day… Or something like that.

150,000 people I have never met are dead in a part of the world I have never seen. I’m not even sure how I’m supposed to feel about that. I should be overwhelmed I supposed but alas I am not. I can barely force myself to think about it when I have more pressing issues like it being the middle of the evening and I need a sandwich. That's what it's like to us in the western world. We'll all cry when in hurts our economy or if we happened to know someone there, but that's about it. Other than that we might send a check or something if we remember.

Here’s what I do think about when I do think about it. We’re sending millions of dollars across the sea for a relief effort. Which is awesome… I don’t think I have seen an outpouring of wealth voluntarily for nothing in return in as long as I can remember. But here’s the thing… Why just give them money, and goods? Sure they need them pretty badly and we must give enough to get these people through the initial shock. I say we divert some of this money though and start building factories and industry. I say we give them the opportunity to grow. Many of these nations qualify as third world and represent very little trade capacity. These were poor nations long before the sea swept across its borders and into homes. Why not take this opportunity to help them up beyond what they were before.

Imagine this; we talk to Nike, Hanes, Tyco and anybody else who is usually criticized for “sending jobs overseas” and offer them tax breaks to move industry into these devastated areas. We agree to invest the money we are already sending on infrastructure. We take a devastated labor force, put them back to work in jobs that to us are dirt cheap, but to them are tantamount to untold wealth. We use the money we are sending to hire local workers to rebuild these port cities. Then we hire them in our factories. Everybody wins. But here’s the kicker they don’t just win today. They win for a long time to come. Industry boosts the local economy. The influx of American dollars brings up the standard of living. And of course, trade begets trade. Growth begets growth. One industry needs structure and can’t afford it but many industries together will shoulder the cost of things like roads, energy, clean municipal water sources, working sewer systems and health care. The importation of cheap labor services will offset the cost and help boost American industry and the American economy.

Sure cold hard cash will feed these people this week. But industry will feed them long into the future. Industry will put clothes on their back and build schools for their children. Industry will turn Developing Nations into Developed Nations. And at the same time we get to import cheap labor which helps put goods in the hands of our citizens. Everybody wins. We have an opportunity to turn this tragedy and the outpouring philanthropic spirit into a fantastic gift for the world. Aren’t we obligated to do it?

Teach a man to sew Nikes and everybody eats.

Leftist pansies

Man the left is being petty these last few weeks. Here's my favorite... The blue states pay for all the red states. Hmmmm. Well maybe but here's the thing... Who feeds who. I gotta tell ya if they want to split off into two different countries I say lets' go. Let's take all the states that produce agricultural and commodity products in gross and cut them off from the states that just buy and sell things. Red staters will dress badly and blue staters will starve. Fucking idiots.

Crazy Dreams

I had a dream last night. It’s kind of disturbing so put the kids in the other room if you plan to read this aloud. I was on the campaign trail, walking through a hotel, somewhere in Ohio or Pennsylvania (a battleground state), looking for a coke machine. I turned a corner and walked past an open hotel room door. Inside I saw something that I may never clear from my mind. I saw naked and on all fours John Kerry giving Karl Marx a knobby while Pol Pot (dressed only in a silly little sailor’s hat) was giving him the reach around. Sensing that there was another person present JfK lifted his head and asked “have I ever told you about the environmental benefits of government subsidized drip irrigation programs?” then he went back to what he was doing. I turned away and continued looking for a coke machine.

It was, to say the least a disturbing dream. But it got me thinking, what is it about John Kerry that I don’t like? Hmmm. He seems like a friendly guy. He seems to care a great deal about something. What could it possibly be? Oh right, he’s a bleeding heart pinko communist. I forgot. Some would argue with me about him being a commie or just a “socialist” which is what communists in the states became when communism was associated with all those millions of murders in Russia, China and Cambodia to name a few. Nobody wants to be called a murderer just for his beliefs; even if his beliefs did take him on a plane to a foreign land to have secret meetings with the communist leadership of an enemy state with whom the United States was, at the time, engaged in combat. But then that’s just the North Vietnamese. We like them right? After all they were only killing their own people… and ours.