Frontline show about meth epidemic

[Duer 157099]

Last night I caught the Frontline episode about the methamphetamine problem.

One segment showed a place they busted, a home on some farmland in the central valley of California.

While the place was being searched, the owner of the property arrived and was talking the the police, and he was expressing how surprised he was that his worker/tenant would do such a thing (cook up meth to sell).

The owner tells them: "This guy has worked for me for 9 years -- he's very responsible (etc) and I just gave him a raise to $6 per hour!"

Then, the police/DEA agents remark to the camera, something about them finding a bag with $2700 cash in it (or $27,000?) and are sort of making a joke of the owner/landlord who thought his $6/hour wage he was paying the guy was generous or something -- but here's the kicker: the agent then says something like: "...but then greed comes into it" -- as though the guy cooking meth was "GREEDY" because he wanted to make more than $6/hour!!

It was so odd -- like, they got that a guy making only $6/hour would be tempted to somehow supplement his income, but then they call him "greedy" for wanting to do so! Just really bizarre comment.

I would have been happier if they had called the boss "GREEDY" for not paying his workers a livable wage!!

[shain from kane]

1. The rancher may justify the $6.00 per hour wage rate by providing

food and lodging for the employee. I'm not defending his method, just offering an explanation, since I've seen it happen in the past.

[Duer 157099]

2. Sure, could be

And that wasn't even so much what bothered me, but how the agents responded to the issue.

They first commented on what appeared to them to be a low wage for a guy who had worked there for 9 years, but then made the ridiculous comment about the guy (not the owner) being "GREEDY" for wanting more. It was that juxtaposition in reason that really got to me.

[shain from kane]

3. They caught him messing with drugs, before he bought the farm.

Ownership society? Takes quite an investment.

[Duer 157099]

4. I don't get what you mean

[shain from kane]

5. Sorry, it's a combination of three things. Some of my comments on DU

can be somewhat crytic.

"Bought the farm" is an expression for dying. People who mess with drugs, or deal in drugs, often experience a premature death. And he was a farm laborer. So the authorities caught him before he "bought the farm."

I can't believe that the employee would be happy for the rest of his life to continue to be an employee. His long-term dream may be to ultimately "buy the farm", that is, purchase the real estate. So the authorities caught him before he could accumulate enough money to "buy the farm".

"Ownership society" is a reference to a speech from Bush where he emphasized the term. With ownership in mind, the employee could never accumulate the capital investment at $6.00 per hour to ever own anything besides a used pick-up truck. Therefore, he had to look for other means of income, such as drug dealing, to accumulate any wealth. A normal job would never produce a life beyond living from paycheck to paycheck. He's kind of stuck where he is, with just farming skills, and I believe that it would even be very difficult for him to afford to move from the farmhouse. That is why it is very difficult to convince young people in the lower economic strata, such as the ghetto, that pimping and drug dealing is not the only way to success.

[Duer 157099]

6. Yeah, I tend to be cryptic myself sometimes too

I got all of those references, so I guess I *did* get what you meant; just wasn't sure if my cryptic interpretatin matched with your cryptic meaning :)

[deaniac21]

7. This was all clearly the rancher's fault. If he had provided a

livable wage it would never have happened.

[madmusic]

8. Will the Feds seize the farm? News at elven, or later n/t

[Jed Dilligan]

9. Rancher sounds guilty

Methinks he doth protest too much... If he lives on his ranch he would have smelled that shit. He was getting a cut.

[sendero]

10. There is always a subtle spin..

... from the anti-drug folks about how the "drug culture" works. In their bullshit version, all drug dealing is done between a dangerous gouging "pusher" and a simpering abused "user".

It is of course absolute bullshit, most of these folks are buying a COMMODITY THEY WANT AT A MARKET PRICE FROM PEOPLE THEY MORE OR LESS TRUST, or they would not be doing business with them.

The mass hypocrisy about drugs (and I'm as anti-meth as they come, I've seen the casualties) in this country is staggering. One wonders if, throughout human history, folks have allowed the spinners and liars to weave a web of bullshit around everything that is actually happening, the way Americans let them talk about drugs, sex, war and money in America.