Who Will Help Me Bake My Bread?
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For those not familiar, the title is from a children's story, The Little Red Hen. Summary goes: the hen sows wheat and asks, "Who will help me?" The other animals offer excuses. The hen harvests the wheat and asks, "Who will help me?" Same answer. Same question when she mills the grain, same answer. Repeat until she has the bread made, then everyone offers to help eat it.
The population is getting older. Modern medicine is constantly working to increase lifespan. First world countries are bemoaning their declining birthrates, worried about the 'gray boom' that will affect their economies when the current generation of workers become tomorrow's pensioners (or, more likely, welfare petitioners.)
Of course, third-world countries seem to have few problems with producing babies, just more so with providing for them, medically, socially and psychologically.
America has a rather short-sighted and bipolar view on immigration from third-world countries. We can't maintain the American way of life with just Americans born-and-raised. So much of our talent now is foreign-born, American adopted. Naturalization. Immigration.
Another nasty secret in California from when I lived there is its reliance on legal and illegal immigration, primarily from Mexico. Not just the fields, the most often-cited. The tech industry's cleaning services as well. We didn't write "Trash" on the boxes we left in the hall to vanish overnight, we wrote "Basura" on t them.
Also, the care for the elderly. Someone has to change the bedpans, bedding, Depends, wash the bathrooms and cook (hopefully washing hands between each.) Someone has to mop and wipe down the rooms, take out the trash, do the laundry. So often, it's someone with enough pragmatism to realize that "No upstanding American would stoop to this sort of work" meant, "Here's a paycheck, just got to sweat and hold my nose for it."
No, this isn't another bit of pundiocy on immigration. I don't have a view to offer right now. This is too personal an issue for me to be objective. I'm just observing what I see -- our elder care solution is based on Mexican unskilled labor as well.
The population is getting older. Modern medicine is constantly working to increase lifespan. First world countries are bemoaning their declining birthrates, worried about the 'gray boom' that will affect their economies when the current generation of workers become tomorrow's pensioners (or, more likely, welfare petitioners.)
Of course, third-world countries seem to have few problems with producing babies, just more so with providing for them, medically, socially and psychologically.
America has a rather short-sighted and bipolar view on immigration from third-world countries. We can't maintain the American way of life with just Americans born-and-raised. So much of our talent now is foreign-born, American adopted. Naturalization. Immigration.
Another nasty secret in California from when I lived there is its reliance on legal and illegal immigration, primarily from Mexico. Not just the fields, the most often-cited. The tech industry's cleaning services as well. We didn't write "Trash" on the boxes we left in the hall to vanish overnight, we wrote "Basura" on t them.
Also, the care for the elderly. Someone has to change the bedpans, bedding, Depends, wash the bathrooms and cook (hopefully washing hands between each.) Someone has to mop and wipe down the rooms, take out the trash, do the laundry. So often, it's someone with enough pragmatism to realize that "No upstanding American would stoop to this sort of work" meant, "Here's a paycheck, just got to sweat and hold my nose for it."
No, this isn't another bit of pundiocy on immigration. I don't have a view to offer right now. This is too personal an issue for me to be objective. I'm just observing what I see -- our elder care solution is based on Mexican unskilled labor as well.
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