Cheap Labor Dampens
the Need to Innovate

Inventions Source

Commentary for Tuesday 05/01/2007 Necessity the Mother of Invention

It's True: Great ideas and inventions arise out of necessity. Whether the need is a cure for some dreadful disease, or a more efficient way to do hard work. There has to be a need to overcome. Think about it for a moment. There have been cases where inventions came about by accident, and a need for them had to be established, but those are on the 'rare side'.

Ideas: Generally speaking, an idea springs forth from that special somebody who declares "There's got to be a better way". Any need that humans have, there is a potential solution for somebody to find.

Stifling Progress: The main enemy to good ideas and inventions is complacency. When people are satisfied with the way things are, and life has presented no challenges, then the main ingredient to progress, necessity, is killed. It is only through being challenged in life that we see a need for making life better. Should we ever decide that life is just good enough, then progress stops. No doubt, that in the United States, we have it better than those who came before us. No longer do we have to chop wood all summer in preparation for winter. Our stoves are thermostatically controlled for better baking. Travelling great distances is no longer so arduous or time consuming. Every facet of our life is easier for us than it was for those who came before us. All of the little things that we take for granted now were once challenges for prior generations.

Failure to Recognize Challenges: Right now, one of our greatest challenges is to decide if we want to preserve our culture. Our culture is in danger of being devoured because of our inability to see a challenge to it. One such challenge is the need for labor to do menial tasks. The premium for these tasks is not high enough to attract a domestic workforce. As a result, we have to rely on help from our neighboring countries. The downside to this is that once these imported workers establish themselves, they too want a better life, and in doing so, move on to better paying jobs. When those menial jobs become vacant, it takes even more workers from our neighbors to fill those slots, and the cycle repeats itself. Soon, the weight in numbers of this imported labor force, takes its toll on our culture. After all, we live in a majority rules society.

Not Bad People: The great majority of the immigrants are not bad people. They are just taking advantage of a need we have in this country. Remember the old saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention." But also remember, complacency kills the inventive spirit. So we have become complacent about our need for these labor intensive jobs. As long as the labor needs are being met, there is no need to invent more efficient ways of dealing with this work. By using our inventiveness to solve these labor problems, we would at the same time be able to stop the hugh influx of illegal immigrants because the demand would eventually go away.

Low End Jobs: Jobs that require little skill are often very demanding. Nobody, not even the Illegal Immigrants want to do them forever. These Immigrants always manage to move up in the system and get away from that type of work. It is because we do not try and solve our problems with the need for unskilled labor that we are always needing more help. We will never have enough of these people to do that hard and demanding work with this perpetual need. However, if the spigot to the cheap labor resources is turned off, then these labor intensive jobs will attract a higher premium, and somebody will figure out how to do those jobs more efficiently. It won't be the end of the world, just progress.

Decision to be Made: Yes, we as a Nation are going to have to decide if our culture is worth saving, because it is in peril by doing nothing.

Robert welcomes your comment to this or any other of my commentaries.

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