Mar 3 2008 2:49PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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In the February issue of Professional Builder, I wrote an editorial that received as much feedback as any editorial I've ever written. You can find the article here. One of my main points is that the U.S. consumes resources at a per capita rate 32 times greater than developing countries, and we need to reduce that consumption. (It should be noted that in spite of the provocative title of this entry, I purposely did not equate resource consumption with global warming. That's a different discussion.)

What surprised me was the thinking in the emails I've received. I expect folks to disagree and -- sometimes -- agree with what I say. However, several writers seemed to think this rate of consumption was the fault of immigrants -- illegal and legal. 

Have we made immigrants such pariahs in our immigrant-based country that we now blame them for everything? I mean, if immigrants are responsible for this heightened rate of resource consumption, then they must be living in the big houses, driving the big cars, and living the big life. Right? Of course they aren't. The immigration issue is completely unrelated to our per capita consumption of resources. But some groups have made immigration such a bogeyman issue, that we're willing to blame them for anything. Even when it doesn't make a lick of sense.

As one of the emailers noted in her final sentence, "I am starting to think we have 32 times less the brain power in this country as well." I couldn't agree more.