Now, upon reading this comic, I do find it funny, for the simple fact that most Americans follow the same pattern of logic. Even myself, when i'm just not wanting to look at the much larger and complex picture, don't see that there is more to this picture than just the face value.
The complexity of this comic comes from two sides. The first is the side of the government, with the other being the side of the immigrants. However, since immigration is such a hot button issue in every election, we'll start with that.
When an immigrant comes to this country legally, gaining citizenship, learning our history, our laws, and any other knowledge of importance in order to function as a normal person in society, I have no problem with it. If someone wants to have what they deem a better life here, and make it possible legally, I am all for it. Go on, have fun, live your life, hope everything goes well for you.
However, I do have strong beliefs against people who have gotten here in a way that doesn't go with U.S. law. I know that a lot of people are seeking asylum in the U.S. for various reasons, but you should be able to go through legal channels in order to gain legal citizenship in the United States. If you don't have the patience to go through this procedure, then you don't deserve to cross our borders.
At the same time Illegal Immigrants are doing a number on our economy. An immigrant that is in this country illegally doesn't pay any taxes except for sales tax. And at the same time, there are members in congressional houses across the country that are trying to pass bills that allow them the same rights as naturalized citizens. That means social security benefits, welfare, medicaid, programs designed for Legal Americans that have rights by our constitution.
So, while they take our money, they pay nothing into our country. That's a major burden, considering 11.2 million Illegal Immigrants live in the United States. So, considering that at the end of the comic, Joe the Plumber American has some reason to blame immigration, as long as he points the finger of blame at the correct legality of the immigrant in question.
However, let's flip the coin on the topic. Looking at the rest of the comic where the Government, Banks, and Federal Reserve basically act smug in the American's face. This is where my other problem with the comic starts.
Let's start with the Banks. Yes, in the recent years, the banking system in the United States has done more harm than good. I'm not saying that the way we do things is in any way close to perfect, and there does need to be control. But, on the other hand, our nation is tied into our dollar, and our banks have a portion of control on how money is used in society.
If we let the banks go bankrupt, like they almost did a couple years ago, our economy would not only run the risk of total economic collapse, but be poised to go from one of the largest economic superpowers to one of the most poor nations on this planet. The value of the dollar would plummet below some of the lowest value currencies, our money would be absolutely worthless. People wouldn't be able to spend money anywhere with the wages they currently make to support the lost value of our currency.
So, the government bailout of the banks was necessary. It's not an ideal situation, and I think that there definitely need to be more safeguards and restrictions in place in order to maintain that our economy survives in case of round 2. However, i do feel that while the banks are an evil entity that controls our livelihood for the most part, they're very necessary and are here to stay. So, in a way, yes, the government is in the bank's pocket, just like the banks are in the government's pocket. It's a lose-lose situation as much as it's a win-win situation. Everyone wins and loses at once, while at the same time being screwed.
Now, the federal reserve, the last part of this comic. To say that it could lower unemployment, or even eliminate it is true. However, it's not that Wall Street doesn't want to eliminate unemployment, it's that using the Federal Reserve to do so would slowly decrease the value of the American dollar to about the point it would be if the the banks went down. It would be a slow death, sure, but a death none the less. To lower unemployment, they have to have the Treasury print money for the government to start projects that create jobs (A federal or state budget doesn't just come down from the sky you know). And since the job of the Federal Reserve is to give the american dollar a value that is competitive in the world market, doing too much too fast is counter productive.
At the same time, among all of this in front of you, and given what you've watched your government do over the last 20 years, would you really want our Government to take this much control? Airports before ran efficiency and smoothly before 9/11. And then when they re-opened, they had the response time and efficiency of the DMV. Two hours waits to board your plane, to make sure that no planes went with explosives or anything of that nature.
How about national healthcare? The United States, for years, has talked about health care in the fact that millions of Americans don't have it, or can't afford it. So, when President Obama decides to put his own spin on it, look what happens. The law is deemed unconstitutional since it basically levies a fine on small businesses if they can't afford health care for their workers, and at the same time forces companies to do something that may or may not go against their own obligations.
Even the War in Iraq. As conservative as I am, the Bush Administration bungled this entirely, using one lone person as an informant, without even looking into what was actually going on. And now look at what has happened. This government is spending trillions of dollars on a war we don't want, in a country we don't want to be in, for a government style that hasn't worked correctly for a long time.
On top of all this, our elections have become nothing more than a mud-slinging contest on who can cover up the sun the most. Each candidate paints themselves as the sunny, grass-is-greener-if-you-vote-for-me style candidate, and every time, we fall for it. Then we vote them into office, and they either:
a. Do Nothing
or
b. Do what their predecessor did and screw things up more
So this comic, as much as this is the view of most American's, is wrong on many accounts. It shows an extreme of the American nature, but at the same time, we all need to truly think about what we want as a nation. On major issues like this, immigration, health care, tax reform, deficit spending, we as Americans need to look at what this government has done, what it wants to do, and what it is actually saying. Otherwise, we're the ones who are going to end up looking like idiots when we realize that the only one getting ahead is the ones that are doing all the talking.
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