Septic Tanks, Immigration, and Social Justice

Hong Kong - photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

Social justice is based on the concepts of human rights and equality and involves a greater degree of economic egalitarianism through progressive taxation, income redistribution, or even property redistribution. These policies aim to achieve what developmental economists refer to as more equality of opportunity than may currently exist in some societies, and to manufacture equality of outcome in cases where incidental inequalities appear in a procedurally just system.
-- Wikipedia

It is all about perspective and how the message is conveyed, so news agencies which promote social justice are clever about shifting responsibility away from the individual and onto the back of the beleaguered tax payer.

On a recent radio program on NPR’s “California Report,” the reporter was hot on the trail of another injustice in California’s Central Valley.  Ostensibly, the plumbing in the homes of a group of families from Mexico living in a rural part of the Valley is not connected to the sewer, and the septic tanks are overflowing.  During the inevitable interview, a Spanish speaking head of one of the households lamented about the continuing problem of not having adequate sewer facilities.

“Mexico is a very poor country,” he offered.  “But the government always builds a sewer system for houses before people can use them.  Why can’t they do the same in this country?”

He went on to add, “It’s embarrassing, but my family puts our feces in plastic bags and dumps them in the garbage.”

Before my father and mother died, I took my wife and children to visit the ranches where my parents were born and raised in eastern Wyoming and western Nebraska.  Both families were large and poor, but hygiene was taken very seriously.  If one of the outhouses was close to capacity, another one was dug and the old one sealed.  Allowing it to overflow and indiscriminately dealing with the excess was something my grandparents never considered.  Sloppy disposal of refuse meant disease and death on the frontier. 

“There's nothing left.  The barn and silo are completely gone.  Nothin' but ashes.  What can we do, Ma?"

“We'll wait for the government to rebuild it, Pa, and they'll give us plenty to eat until its done.  There’s nothin’ we can do.”

The attitude expressed in the preceding dialogue was the least probable exchange between a husband and wife running a farm or ranch after a lightning strike burned a barn to the ground.  Neighbors came from far and wide to help rebuild the structure well and quickly.  The concept of the self reliant citizen taking initiative in the face of hardship is foreign to the liberal press.  Excuses are plentiful and expectations low.  The advantage of setting sights below the horizon is that it is difficult to be disappointed.  

Three questions come to mind: 

What type of person is so indifferent that he or she will not dispose of their own human waste in a proper fashion and would continue doing so for an apparently unlimited amount of time until someone else did it for them?

If Mexico takes such good care of its citizens, why would one choose to remain in California, where trash bags are used for toilets?

This could not have anything to do with California’s overly generous welfare payments, or could it?