Opus 2025-408: Banana Economics

When I go to the grocery store at this present time, it seems like the only fruit that I’m willing to pay for is bananas. I think I had the choice of the basic banana at $.54 a pound or I could get what I assumed were organic bananas for $.78 a pound.  I went for the cheaper brand.  It was my choice. It was my money.

As I was thinking about bananas I started thinking about how they are grown and delivered.  My son gave me a long dissertation recently on the dynamics of bananas reaching the shelf.  It was rather interesting.  I got to thinking about the first steps of banana production.  Bananas grow in tropical climates.  I don’t know how much care the plants take, but somewhere in the chain there are human beings out caring for the trees, cutting the fruit off and preparing it for shipment.  None of those things are done in air-conditioned warehouses.  All of them require someone who is desperate enough to feed himself and his family that they will go out and work in an atmosphere that we would find repugnant.

They have no choice.  I’m just guessing here, but I would also assume that they do not have air-conditioning in their homes.  It’s possible that they don’t have running water and flush toilet toilets.  In some areas there might just be one or two electrical outlets.  These assumptions are based on stereotypes, but they work for my point.  You can adjust them as you need to.

The point is that these human beings who are also created in the image of God, just like me and you, do not have available to them the option of air conditioning.  I would guess they don’t even have the option of food unless they get themselves out of bed, go out the door and show up at these sweaty jobs.  Does the world owe them air conditioning?  Does the world owe them gourmet food?  Should everyone have a microwave?

Now bring that concept home to the United States.  I keep hearing about all these young people living in their parents basement.  I tried to think of anybody I knew that had able-bodied young adults living in their basement and in my circle I couldn’t find anyone.  I did think of one person at church who has a grandson and his wife living in an RV behind her house, which is somewhat similar.  If mommy and daddy are happy and Junior is happy and no one cares about the future of the next generation, then I have no real input.

But that’s not the picture I get.  I get a picture of parents that are very frustrated with their children living in the basement and playing video games all day.  I have a solution.

First of all you need to cut off the air conditioning in that part of the house.  Air conditioning is not a requirement for life.  It may be a requirement for comfort, but it is not a requirement for life.  Secondly, and this might take some technological savvy, turn off their Wi-Fi.  This may involve simply changing the passwords.  Next put a lock on the refrigerator and all the cabinets so that they can’t raid the kitchen when they’re hungry.  If you’re really compassionate, you might put a supply of peanut butter, crackers, and a glass of water at the top of the stairs.  If you really want them to get motivated, don’t even do that.  Stop cleaning their room for them.  Stop doing their laundry for them.  In a short phrase, encourage them to move out.

Their next step might be to move in with some friends or into someone else’s basement, but eventually that will run out of people willing to support them.  The day will come when they have a choice of going out and getting a menial job and sweating in the sun or starving to death.  If they choose to starve to death, then some of the money you saved by kicking them out of the basement can be used for a nice funeral.  It’s their choice.  Everywhere I look there are people looking for help, wanting to hire people.

If all they can find his minimum wage work, so be it.  At that point, if they are moving forward and showing responsibility, parents might extend a carefully measured helping hand.  Don’t give the air conditioning, but at least give them enough to encourage them to keep working.

It’s a long way from the bananas of Central America to the Wi-Fi in your basement.  As I said, I don’t know anyone like this or have it in my circle of family and friends.  I could be doing nothing but extending a stereotype.  At the same time, someone has to harvest my bananas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-206: Snowflake Mush

I talk about the mush that fills snowflakes minds.  One of the reasons the term mush is so appropriate is that it is essentially a fluid like suspension that will fill every vacant space.  Hard facts have hard edges and don’t tend to conform to preformed brains.  

I tend to think that the snowflake mind is normal for human beings or at least it is easy to create.  While I believe that every human is born with potential, even the birth quotient varies with the individual based on heredity and, believe it or not, the outside influences on the developing child in the womb.  There is a reason we talked to our children before they were born.  They could hear us and, although they didn’t understand the words, they could grow in the basting of human contact.  While all have potential, it is different with each person.  Some have minds and personalities that are open to manipulation.  Most humans crave acceptance and have a desire to belong.  This will cause them to resist thinking things through.  Some grow out of it, others are stunted early.

I tend to be a skeptic when it comes to the ability of the masses to think and process.  It takes work and most of us are a bit lazy.  It would do us a service to keep in mind that sloth is one of the seven deadly sins and is repeatedly condemned in the book of Proverbs.  Those who have the ability to think need to look at it as a responsibility.  Those who understand the standards of God need to see them as good for everyone, even those who reject them.

If you are a mush headed snowflake, I lost you a long time ago.  The rest of us need to understand that the snowflakes need our guidance.  I challenge you to look for opportunities to stand up and be counted because the society they will allow is not one that will put up with their foolishness.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-154: On the Street: The Millennial Battery Change

He was an impressive young man.  He was also a walking tragedy.

It started when my car refused to start.  After exhausting my limited mechanical ability, which consists of opening the hood and shaking my head, I called AAA.  It was around 100 in the shade and they told me it would be at least 50 minutes.  A half hour later it was the same story.  When I got the call that AAA was beside my car I was willing to be impressed by anyone, but he really was impressive.

As you would know it happens, it was the battery and he didn’t have the specific one I needed.  So they sent one out.  I can sit in a waiting room with a book forever and never talk to a soul.  I can also carry on a conversation.  Since we were waiting for the battery I got to asking him questions about himself.  He struck me as a hard worker and until his senior year in high school he was a good student.  He seemed to have his head on straight so I asked him if you was going to do this the rest of his life.  Did he have any dreams?  His answer, “No.”  It is hard as an old man to listen to a young man who seems already defeated by life.

His original dream was to be a lawyer but he claimed he could not afford the classes.  I kept throwing out ways he could do it and he kept telling me why it was impossible.  He knew how to show up on time and work hard but he didn’t know how to take risks.  I asked about family help and had an abridged statement that he didn’t get along with one side and never talked to the other.  Since it was none of my business, I let it go at that.  His family was a mess.

He was not married and had no interest in marriage.  He doesn’t see any women he would trust to bring up the next generation.  That is insightful but also a statement about himself.  He sees clearly enough that there is a lack of willingness to self sacrifice in his generation.  He sees how shallow the women he knows tend to be.  He is not living in his parent’s basement but I see him getting old and frustrated because he never invested himself in more than today.

Whom do you blame?  Obviously he has to be responsible for his own decisions, and to be fair, I did not hear him blaming anyone for his frustration.  I would look to parents who obviously did not set the example for him to follow.  I would also look at the teachers he had.  He was aware that they had bought into the Common Core Curriculum that was pushed so hard by the progressives who control education.  Was he a good student or did they just make him feel like a good student because the standards were too low.

I wish him the best.  He seemed a pleasant young man.  He had good looks and the ability to get along with strangers.  He knew how to work.  He is like so many who need a dream for their lives.

homo unius libri