
I found myself at an odd crossroads of sorts when I heard a TV talking head (I don’t know which one) spout “Isn’t it time Americans got back to work?” In and of itself, such a statement doesn’t sound very controversial, but then again context is everything.
The comment was in response to a jobs report that came in a bit lower with less persons rejoining the workforce than previously estimated. Keeping in mind we’re still adding jobs and not subtracting them, and the Covid-19 pandemic is still far from over, getting Americans back to work still seems like a logical area of inquiry and commentary.
However, this is where the rationality ends, for the main point of the discussion was that while employers are apparently creating jobs and are unable to fill them, you know, low-paying, with far from adequate benefits, for basically unskilled service jobs from benevolent employers including Amazon for example, the shortage of available workers in the marketplace was due to, you guessed it, lazy people not willing to get off of their extended unemployment checks, a kind of insurance we all pay for.
We’ve all heard it so many times, government handouts in the form of our tax dollars paid to parasites is what’s ruining America, while we as a nation still can’t seem to find the political will based on common sense to move the Federal minimum wage to a whopping $15.00 an hour because it might, although we know it won’t, be a “job killer” and deny particularly the young in our society a job where they can learn the basics of our economic system.
You know, working for just above starvation which taking orders from someone who has dropped out of school for the opportunity to become an assistance manager for Ronald McDonald and then a chance to be independent and earn your way, even though for the most part, I would argue most teens get the fast food part of their lives as quickly as possible once they realize they are being taken advantage of for their youth particularly in a tight market where everyone up to their grandparents are competing for the same jobs.
Don’t get me wrong, at the right time and in the correct economic environment “my first job” jobs can do a great deal of good and can teach at a minimum good worker skills in a real world setting without the hazard of causing too much danger. I mean, flipping a burger isn’t all that dangerous or demeaning, now is it?
Yet, on top of the obvious lie that most persons on unemployment or similar government benefits are “the problem” when they are not and hoarding money rather than use it to expand into new and better business with newer and better opportunities for workers, you know, raising that corporate tax rate back to a sane level, I found myself not quite applauding those persons who refuse to take inadequate work to feed a family and quite frankly justifiably beneath them (I am a true believer in work should not be essentially punishment) but part of a growing movement of individuals like myself (retired btw) who cannot see how any “return” to any of the economic policies, including job creation that resulted as a result of Reagan’s trickle down poverty based on voodoo programs could be deemed a victory.
More employees doing more work for less pay while their corporate masters bleed them dry is not a good economic model and we should stop pretending that it is. Not only is it deleterious to the at best under-utilized and under-employed in an effort to reduce the cost of benefit, including health, but the concomitant negative effects on society cannot be overstated. In short, we all lose, and even worse at a time where we don’t have to.
We must go forward into the future and start building the next generation of good paying, great benefits (or go to Medicare for all), in areas where we are already seeing explosive growth and are chomping at the bit for a little American elbow grease and ingenuity into the fold.
And get this, in areas of commerce where a market for the better (and hopefully cheaper) products already exists. In my book starting with green technologies based upon clean, renewable energy sources. Whether we as Americans choose to delve into these international markets in ways that only America can, will not change the fact that herein lies our energy future.
You know why reviving the coal industry was always a pipe dream? Not that there wasn’t any coal left, or workers to work the mines, but because no one was buying. This “phenomenon” is known as “let the market sort it out” and it did.
Same thing for oil and petroleum products. Right now, the world is awash in oil yet the sector continues to shirk and I might offer, due to the continued government assistance, is on life support.
As we continue dragging our feet while some of the most misguided among us continue to cry “cancel culture” as what will soon be the eulogy for of all things plastic products, seemingly unaware that oil is not renewable, is far too toxic given the alternatives that are now economically competitive and available for mass production, and belong to a past that is now obsolete and unsustainable as a reliable source for our energy needs industry, and whether we like it or not, unsustainable and we must move on.
Both home and abroad a great part of our ability to compete on an international level with those countries already committed to green energy alternatives and offering incentives to workers in the form of family leave and childcare depends on us well, waking up to the reality we find ourselves in with every day we wait and making it that much more difficult to regain our number one world status in world trade and overall economic success.
Or, we can continue to fall for the false claim that all of our economic woes are caused by lazy people who do not wish to spend a significant part of their lives pulling products off of shelves in a warehouse so that Amazon, that like Walmart, makes nothing mind you, can ship products directly to its consumers at a penny less than everyone one out there and calling it progress.
What are we waiting for? For the starting gun to fire? Or a bell to ring? Another natural disaster, an oil spill perhaps? Should we wait for a beholden to Big Oil Congress (I’m actually laughing) to make a move? No, we should begin by taking matters into our own hands.
Start by demanding better sustainable products powered by the sun, wind or geothermal sources, with get this, compatible infrastructure so that if you want that electric car, you won’t have to drive all over the world just to find a place to recharge. Remember, in America consumers rule. I know that, they know that, and now, you know that.
Oh, and if I may ask one favor? Stop referring to AOC as “progressive”. She’s not. She’s just telling you, again, what we should have done five years ago what we should have done to be living in a world today, that we will all be living in my best guess five years from now, maximum.
There is nothing lefty, liberal or progressive in common sense forget the big lie and go for the big economic recovery plans that are good for the lower and middle classes while demanding the rich and wealthy pay their fair share toward our ultimate yet shared destiny as a benevolent democracy using social programs if necessary to achieve economic parity while protecting our financial interest domestically and abroad.
You in?
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