[ale] chance to talk with Johnny Isakson('s staff)

[Jeff Hubbs]

On Wed, 2002-11-13 at 23:31, Vaidhy Mayilrangam wrote:
> Ah!! so you want capitaliam and globalization only when it favors you..

You're close.  I want it to favor as many people as possible, but not to
the extent that it takes the United States (I am , after all, a US
native and proud citizen) closer to third-world conditions - or, perhaps
I should say, to the extent that it expands *extant* third-world
conditions in the US both geographically and up to progressively higher
income levels.  

When I think of "it favors me," I'm not so much thinking of what puts
money right into my pocket as I am things like where can I live and work
such that I have a hope of ever getting another job and still live in
the same place - or will I be forced into staying in the same job for
the money despite whatever abuse I have to take?  Can I make it less
likely that my daughter will encounter drugs and weapons before she gets
to high school?  Can I afford a car that will get me to work reliably
almost every day or, can I afford to fix the car I have when it breaks? 

Actually, when I say "I" in those questions, I really mean "people like
me."  See, it matters to me if I'm surrounded by people who are content
or people who are under the gun every hour of every day.  At the core of
it all, it's *that* that determines how aggressive drivers are, how
likely are people to cut in front of you at the grocery store checkout,
who will hassle you for no reason at a bar or restaurant.  

These things have to do with a lot more than how much money I get.  It
has as much to do with the value society places on human comfort and
security, i.e., just how much money do you have to have to buy your way
beyond "normal" levels of crime, squalor, etc.  

At one point, not that long ago, I had a good IT management job but my
family and I lived in an apartment complex that teetered on the edge of
squalor and seediness.  There were obvious signs of drugs and guns, and
one of the things that I got to see in the last couple of months that we
were there was a young woman being beaten about the abdomen with both
fists by her boyfriend, out in the parking lot.  A boyfriend who, I
later learned, pointed a gun at two young boys who witnessed one of his
assaults.  Not long after we moved out, I was interested to find that we
had had a neighbor on the Georgia Sex Offender Registry.  Thank God he
lived in another section of the complex.  

If you want to have a society where people act like vicious animals,
have a society where people are treated like vicious animals - complete
with predation, no hope of escape, constant expectation of pain and/or
suffering, separation from family, isolation, lawlessness, disease,
confusion, distrust, misinformation.  

Deep down, I want people in other countries to come to experience the
best aspects of the US in their own countries, hopefully while avoiding
the worst aspects.  I smile at and talk to the Ukranian, Estonian,
Indonesian, and Mexican women that I've seen working at the places I
like to eat at.  I'll be coming out of a store and I'll hold the door
open for some Mexican construction workers, and I'll look them in the
eye and say hi to them.  Some of these people face what  I'd call
horrible living conditions when they aren't working.  Some may have
narrowly escaped being forced into slavery.  I make an effort, however
small, to make things just a *tiny* bit better for these people by being
nice, engaging, and polite, and I hope that in so doing I am able to
provide just a little bit of what they came here for.

- Jeff


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