Monday, March 14, 2011
Asked and answered, asked and unanswered
Question: Why is there no looting in Japan?
Sailer asks it and finds the correct answer. Because Japan is a mono-ethnic culture. All Japs are Us, and all foreigners are Them. Japs are unapologetically "racist", with all kinds of awful names for everyone from Koreans (who are pretty much the same genetically) to Caucasians to Africans. No doubt at all about who's Us.
At the UK Telegraph, Ed West asks it and can't seem to find the answer.
Most of the commenters on West's column supplied the correct answer, but one asked a sidebar question that got me thinking about our idiotic assumptions.
"How does Japan run its economy without immigration?"
The assumption behind this question is that some jobs are so dirty or menial that Us won't do them, so we have to bring in some of Them to do those jobs.
Thinking in comparison to Japan, I realized the assumption is backwards. In fact we have set up those jobs as low-paying jobs because we've always had lots of Them coming in. Japan has never allowed any Them onto the island, let alone into jobs. All jobs have to be done by Us. We like Us and want Us to prosper. Therefore, all jobs must have decent pay.
And here we come back to Polistra's old hero, Henry Ford. Pay workers enough that they can buy the product they're making. The closed circle. Henry applied this rule to a mixed labor force, part long-settled whites, part recent Euro immigrants, part ex-plantation blacks. He sent intrusive social workers to insure that the families were functional, that the wives learned how to keep a household running. Henry turned a mix of Us and Them into all Us.
Our companies have forgotten Henry, but the Japs didn't forget. That's how they get along without immigrants, and that's how we could also get along without immigrants.
Sailer asks it and finds the correct answer. Because Japan is a mono-ethnic culture. All Japs are Us, and all foreigners are Them. Japs are unapologetically "racist", with all kinds of awful names for everyone from Koreans (who are pretty much the same genetically) to Caucasians to Africans. No doubt at all about who's Us.
At the UK Telegraph, Ed West asks it and can't seem to find the answer.
Most of the commenters on West's column supplied the correct answer, but one asked a sidebar question that got me thinking about our idiotic assumptions.
"How does Japan run its economy without immigration?"
The assumption behind this question is that some jobs are so dirty or menial that Us won't do them, so we have to bring in some of Them to do those jobs.
Thinking in comparison to Japan, I realized the assumption is backwards. In fact we have set up those jobs as low-paying jobs because we've always had lots of Them coming in. Japan has never allowed any Them onto the island, let alone into jobs. All jobs have to be done by Us. We like Us and want Us to prosper. Therefore, all jobs must have decent pay.
And here we come back to Polistra's old hero, Henry Ford. Pay workers enough that they can buy the product they're making. The closed circle. Henry applied this rule to a mixed labor force, part long-settled whites, part recent Euro immigrants, part ex-plantation blacks. He sent intrusive social workers to insure that the families were functional, that the wives learned how to keep a household running. Henry turned a mix of Us and Them into all Us.
Our companies have forgotten Henry, but the Japs didn't forget. That's how they get along without immigrants, and that's how we could also get along without immigrants.
Labels: Asked and answered
¶ 1:15 PM
