‘What you up to these days? It looks like you’ve moved to a new firm, but
you’re using same kick-ass webhost as before so maybe it’s just an alias.
Are you still in Jersey? Still living with homegirl? Have you started
raising a brood of berzerker goth toddlers who will sack the eastern
seaboard after episodes of “Dragon Ball Z”, pillaging liquer stores,
raping Verizon trucks and setting decent Starbucks-drinking folk
afire?

Just thought I’d ask.

I’m bored with this game of “strap on a hand-cannon and deport the
impoverished illegal immigrant” and looking for something new. Something I
can do in the private sector without attracting the attention of deranged
federal investigators (e.g. migrant smuggling and child slavery) or hoping
impoverished illegal immigrants can pay my bills (e.g. immigration law). I
could do imm law for some big corp but… wow. There’s nothing appealing
about trying to get the State Department/INS/Homeland Security trinity of
evil to hurry up. It might be possible with bribes, but I already
mentioned the deranged federal investigators…

My job with the INS is all about keeping the filthy masses out of the US
so the rest of us can get paid more than we’re worth, or at least more
than those heathens would work for. There’s a lesson in there about
economics, but not one that anyone really wants to talk about. Anyway,
because of that inefficiency that I create the lucky bastards I’m fighting
against (smugglers and counterfeiters) get paid more for one smuggled
little girl than I make in a whole year (frequently $50,000 per
person).

See, I finally understood my econ lessons. And now I understand that that
profits are found where there are inefficiencies in the system – where the
free market hasn’t driven prices down to the cost of production. I suppose
if you’re really good you can just increase productivity and drive down
costs so when competition forces prices down your profits are safe. But
I’m not that good. The only thing that separates me from the people I
deport is a piece of paper saying I’m American and a bunch of other pieces
of paper. I can be honest and say that I have no competitive productive
skills whatsoever, and I’m not particularily proficient at the skills
needed to be productive in this epoch (read: math). Really, I’m better at
exploiting opportunities and living off the inefficiencies of the system.
I’m not the deer that gets up in the morning and tries to run faster than
the fastest lion, nor the lion who tries to be faster than the slowest
deer. I’m more of a scavanger like a jackel or a buzzard. Or maybe I’m an
economic parasite.

“If you can’t eat your neighbor, go lower down the food chain,” as my
grandfather used to say. Actually, he just said “lets go fishing” but I
understood what he meant.

This is all a great unfolding mind-fuck of an epiphany for me. But at
least it’s a plan with a philosophy I can live my life by.