Thankfully someone kicked the hornet's nest confronting our views of tariffs and deportation. Politicising these topics only camouflages their clarity, now it’s time to actually examine our ethical standards.
Why did much of our manufacturing and agriculture relocate in the first place? Canadian lumber isn’t straighter than Montana’s. We don’t buy electronics from overseas because they are higher quality, yesterday it was transistor radios, today it’s big screen TVs. South American beef or the frozen fish from Vietnam in our grocery store isn’t better than our domestic staples.
Our imported gadgets, garments, and gym shoes are mostly manufactured in places like China, India, or Sri Lanka by people chained to a factory floor. We’re enabling what essentially amounts to modern-day slavery; but our conscience is sheltered from our passive dehumanization by an ocean of separation while our insatiable appetite for toys and trinkets perpetuates a practice that is less than rewarding for the workers.
Additionally, we are too important for menial labor or to allow our children to be dishwashers or enter any of the service industries, so for a generation we have basically treated our goodhearted Hispanic neighbors like indentured servants. We don’t habitually move into Hispanic neighborhoods, we move out when they move in and “white flight” takes place. We aren’t hiring qualified Hispanic school teachers or police officers by the droves, we aren’t partnering with them in our small businesses, electing them as the Mayor, or having them over for supper either.
The rage over tariffs/deportations is only a symptom, we need to ask ourselves what is at stake and why the uproar now? Our addiction to material goods and cheap labor that’s beneath us has blinded us and the outcry over tariffs and deporations feels disingenuous, something feels inconsistent within our character considering that what we’ve become accustomed to is now at risk of becoming inconvenient.
Again, our dependence on cheap labor & goods is blinding us while overseas manufacturing facilities function as a buffering agent shielding our conscience -- where has the authentic compassion for our Hispanics, disadvantaged Asians, and the dejected citizens in America’s farmlands & Rust Belt been for the last 40 years? The sting of tariffs and deportation means higher prices for the consumer but what if instead of freaking out about higher prices we consider the mere possibility of how the American rancher and farmer might thrive and our folks in the Rust Belt might regain their dignity and become productive and prosperous once again if these proposed tariffs and stricter immigration policies are as dangerous as they appear to be.
Here’s what we’ve perhaps lost sight of: “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.” (Deut 24:14)
Consumerism is not a Red or Blue issue between the conservatives and progressives -- sadly we are too preoccupied with our own self interests as if tariffs and immigration were simply economic/social issues instead of seeing them for what they are at their core, spiritual conditions of the heart. More to the point, what if we evaluated our purchasing habits and stopped taking advantage of foreigners, farmers, and factory workers, because that’s exactly what we are guilty of doing independently of whichever administration happens to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Originally published in the Kingsport Times News : https://www.timesnews.net/living/faith/craig-cottongim-its-time-to-examine-our-ethical-standards/article_457e694a-f533-11ef-8eea-d31641a92942.html
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