A couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal had a front page story titled "Cutting Meat and Sleeping on Floors" with the subtitle:  "Haitian workers at JBS plant had tough jobs and tougher living conditions. 

                  Datelined Greeley, CO, the story is an investigation into the hiring practices and employee treatment of South American-owned JBS, one of the big four meat processing companies that control 85 percent of the U.S. supply.  The story explains how 30 workers lived in a five-bedroom, two-bathroom unit paying $60 a week each in rent.

                  According to the article, all the workers are legal under special immigration worker visas.  If you'll recall, the company that sent the tainted onions to McDonald's two weeks ago has 20,000 employees harvesting its produce.  Most are foreign.  And I say "go for it, wonderful people.  You're pushing yourself to better your life, taking responsibility, producing something for society.  Go get 'em." 

                  With Trump's election and commitment to crack down on immigration, many people are melting down over "who is going to do this work that American's won't ?"  I have two responses.  First, we have a legal immigrant worker program.  Our farm has numerous foreign interests for our steward and apprentice program, and we used to take some.  But it became virtually impossible to get them in legally, so we no longer accept anyone without a U.S. citzenship or passport.  That's a shame. 

                  Be assured that if these jobs were hard to fill, our immigration folks would increase the legal work permits up the wazoo.  These big businesses are not going to fail because the federal government chokes off their worker base.  So don't worry, the government will take care of these big outfits.

                  But number two is that if we eliminated welfare--all welfare--I'll bet thousands of people would suddenly decide it's better to work than starve.  The only reason Americans won't take these jobs is because it's easy to suck on the taxpayer's teat.  I'm feeling chafed, honestly, from all the sucking.

                  The American productive class is fast being overwhelmed by the unproductive class.  We need to wean these people off.  Several years ago the church I attended disbanded its benevolence fund because every time we went to an alleged needy person, they had a big TV, alcohol, cigarettes and take-out boxes.  They didn't need money; they needed to take responsibility.

                  A few years ago the local Food Bank called us to take away their unwanted food.  We picked up two tons of perfectly wonderful prime North Carolina yams.  I asked the administrator why no one would take them:  "That's poor man's food.  These people want processed food, Ho-Ho cakes and Little Debbie's snacks."  Wow.  They were too lazy to cook.

                  A story like this in the WSJ evokes emotional outrage over worker treatment.  But the real outrage should be over stealing money from productive people giving it to people who won't work.  And to those who push back that this is uncharitable, when Jesus said to take care of the poor, He didn't say for the government to take care of them; He said for His followers to take care of them.  This is an individual responsibility, not a government responsibility.  Don't conflate the two.

                  I've spent many a night sleeping with the chickens to keep predators away.  I've been out at 2 a.m. carrying bales of hay to flooded chickens so they can get up off the ground and stay dry.  Teresa and I were married 20 years before we spent a cumulative total of $10,000 on automobiles.  We don't take vacations.  And this is the most wonderful life in the world because we love listening to the spring peepers and catching fireflies at night.  

                  No complaints here.  But what is the justice in taking our hard earned money from hard scrabble living and giving it to someone who won't work?  Or won't marry in order to collect government money for the kids?  Or a host of other alleged hardships that make someone eligible to go on the government dole? 

                  What unlovely job or thing have you done in your life because you felt responsible for your own success and livelihood?