Working Harder and Longer
Keeping up with inflation was the challenge of the 1970s. As
prices rose, wages increased and the middle class trod water to
keep their heads dry.
When we entered our recent recession, inflation was the least of
our worries - we needed jobs, increased demand for goods to spur
manufacturing, a sense of security, and faith that our hard work
would be eventually rewarded. As corporate downsizing and the
offshore job exodus continued, we learned to work harder and
longer to keep our hard won status.
The economists and political pundits trumpeted the end of the
tight economy and the expansion of manufacturing, housing,
tourism. Sure, the jobs never came back on the scale predicted,
but there was a degree of comfort in the slowdown of layoffs and
restructuring. Beneath the rhetoric of tax cuts to jump start
consumer spending and a housing market running amok on
historically low interest rates, the quiet increase in personal
bankruptcy filings and the working class slide into poverty was
dismissed as a political "sour grapes" issue that had little
bearing in a country intent on reorganizing the entire world as
a mirror of itself.
But if we look into our own mirror, what do we see? The income
of the middle class is declining in proportion to the rise of
prices. The working poor fall below the poverty line even when
working two minimum wage jobs. Large corporations like Walmart
hire illegal immigrants so they can work without benefits nor
regulatory protections. Franchise owners of fast food chains
hire non-English speaking staff because paying a living wage
would cut into their quarter of a million annual profits.
Unscrupulous executives manipulate the supply and price of basic
power and laugh at the little guy: "Burn, baby, burn."
And yet we are amazed that the rest of the world doesn't want to
be totally like us. What's wrong with these people? (Might they
have a better idea?)