I had a thought today that many Americans are becoming like the rag pickers of India. The Untouchables who go through the mountains of trash to find scraps of cloth or metal to eek out a meager living.
And what brought me to that thought? It wasn't the beggars on every corner. It wasn't the multitude of homeless people going through the trash. It wasn't the families working together to find cans and bottles to sell for cash. No, that is easy to see. No, it was...
The Internet. Yes, the Internet.
Let's face it, the Internet is cool, but it's also filled with so much garbage. You can find so many wonderful things on it, the whole sum of human existence is here somewhere, if you know where to look. So much creativity and beauty. But there is also a lot of garbage.
Some people are making a good living on the internet. Some have even become rich. And some people are like Untouchables.
Check this out. I'm selling my car right now using classified ads on the internet. Every response I've had so far has only been from someone trying to scam me, phish info on me, or sell me something. They got my info from the classified ads I posted. To do that, these people must cull through the ads, the piles and piles of ads (garbage) to find scraps of information (rags) to try to make a few pennies. If they get me to click on a link they send me, they might make a penny. If they get me to buy a service, they might get a commission. But it won't be a fortune, it won't even be enough to live on. It might be enough to subsist on. And tomorrow they will be going through the ads again looking for more rags. They aren't building anything. They aren't adding to the beauty of the world. They are just rag pickers, trying to stay alive one more day.
Another sign of the fall of the American Empire.
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