By Keith C. Milne
I never thought I would see this day in my lifetime in the United States, the former envy of all other countries. A day when the largest cohort of mostly younger people in the history of the United States of America have chosen to sit around doing nothing much except whatever they want. Okay, I get that. Who wouldn’t want that luxury. The trouble is, this huge group of former workers are not rich, are no longer working, and are now living off of reduced funds from unemployment, Covid-19 relief, depleted savings accounts, and borrowed money from friends and family, and in some cases are simply maxing out their credit cards, and are planning to have a ball and then file for bankruptcy so they won’t have to pay it back!
Even when they do seriously look for work they are asking for starting wages that took their predecessors sometimes decades to achieve, and if they cannot get them, they stay unemployed! No Fear! Like the money will never run out and they now have all the time in the world to figure out what they want to do, or figure out ever more clever ways of doing nothing at all while getting paid and doing their bit to ensure that the decline of the U.S. continues unabated in the wake of a global pandemic that has already disrupted “normal” life in ways never before seen in my lifetime.
This is likely going to cause a ripple effect throughout the country and the world. Earning less generally means spending less. Spending less means that businesses don’t do as well and may have to lay off other people who want to work. Manufacturing slows, supplies begin to dwindle, prices inevitably go up as the demand stays steady or increases for the remaining available resources. The misery index goes up for more people.
Not everyone likes sitting around everyday. Thank goodness SOME OF US believe in taking care of ourselves and our families on our own. We CHOOSE TO WORK and do not take the work we have available to us for granted. Rather, we look at it realistically for what it is: an opportunity to earn an honest living and pay our own way through life. Doing so allows for a much deeper appreciation for what you have used your wages to buy and own.
There are more jobs available now than ever before in my lifetime of over six decades, but there have been MANY time periods in America’s history when this was not the case and, quite often, the situation for the American worker in the past has been just the opposite.
The time I remember well was in the 1980’s after Ronald Reagan became President. His two-term presidency resulted in double-digit inflation with a stagnant economy, and economists of that time referred to as “Stagflation.” High unemployment, high prices, high inflation, and an employers market. People needed to up their game and compete with one another to get ANY job, not just good jobs.
I remember feeling pretty scared about my own employment when the weight and magnitude underlying the statement a former boss made back in 1990 really hit me. I remember him smiling and looking around at a bunch of us attending a safety meeting. Then, in answer to a complaint from a coworker about the need to be having so many safety meetings, he leaned in a bit towards us, narrowing his eyes and lowering his voice while saying “if you don’t like your jobs then you’re welcome to hit the road right now because I have at least 100 applicants to pool from who would be more than happy to take your places.”
While it may be easy to assume that “things will (always) be okay” and that you’ll always be able to “make it,” it is not prudent to do so. We are all connected. What you do or do not do impacts others, and what they do or do not do also impacts you, independent of you recognizing that fact or believing that you will be the exception to this law. Things will always be okay for most of us if we all do our part and go to work and make the toilet paper, and the iPhones, and pick the lettuce and the cucumbers for our salads. Things for most of us will continue to be okay if we all pull together for a change and get vaccinated so that we can continue living and then subsequently continue to have a “choice to go to work or not” in the first place!
While you sit at home and try to decide whether you want to go skateboarding or to the mall with your buddies today, and assume that the mall will always be open for you to go recreate in, and the skateboard park will always be open for you, and the unemployment check will always be in the mailbox, you are SO SCREWING YOURSELVES! No Social Security earnings, no savings, no investments to grow and get rich over time with. No anything except a bunch of free time, with little or no money to live on! WOW! REALLY?!? You must be assuming that your parents will leave you all of their wealth. Hmmm . . . maybe they’ll leave you all of their debt! THAT IS ALL YOU ASPIRE TO BE? THAT IS ALL YOU ASPIRE TO OWN OR HAVE FOR YOURSELF? IS THAT THE ONLY CONTRIBUTION (NONE) THAT YOU ASPIRE TO LEAVE AS YOUR LEGACY? HOW TRULY NAIVE YOU ARE TO ASSUME SO MUCH SAFETY WHEN IT IS ONLY AN ILLUSION.
Well, here is some news for you: employers are already way ahead of you folks who naive enough to think money and food and rent or mortgage payments and clothes and cars and gas for them all grow on trees. They are not waiting for you to come and work for them whatsoever. Well, okay, sure, the mom and pop restaurant owners are for now and so are quite a few other low paying retail jobs FOR NOW. I emphasize that because electronics and technology are already bringing us robots that deliver pizza, weld automobiles, paint them, prepare food, do dishes, drive us to work, and vacuum our floors.
As these “devices” become ever more capable, your human choices about what is available for you to do to earn trinkets to trade for your life needs will begin to grow ever narrower over time. In other words, get off the bridge and onto solid ground while you still can. Stay on the bridge too long, and you will not even notice that the river has eroded the soil away from around it enough to jeopardize the integrity of the entire structure. Understand?
To the State and Federal Governments: while I applaud you for your efforts to thwart mass evictions and the like during the Covid-19 pandemic, you really need to stop enabling anyone to stay home any longer!
Capitalism needs expanding markets in order to continue succeeding. Without that, it will wither and die. Without energy, entrepreneurship, activity, invention, production, consumption, or money to do any of it, will certainly result in the collapse of our way of life as we know it.
And, to turn the table just a bit, if you are in your late 50’s or early to even mid-60’s and are thinking of retiring early, think again please? Who is going to train the new workers? If no one with any proper experience is there to teach them, how are things going to be for you in retirement? What kind of “customer service experience” do you think you’re going to get when those behind the counter are saying “no problem” to you when you say thank you to them?
If you’ve had far more time off than you have spent working for the last year or so, please get back to work. I cannot emphasize it enough here and in other posts I’ve written, that it’s not about just you, it’s about us, the United States of America. It’s about having a free, healthy, vibrant, country that has a future to look forward to.
Everything we love about living in this great country depends on every single one of us standing tall and doing the right thing most of the time, while working together to get things done that we all want and share in common. This is how our country got to be so great in the first place, and is what has kept it that way until now. Our way of life here in America, that so many seem to casually take for granted while so many abroad would give up their first born child to have a shot at living here, is in trouble. It’s still not too late, but it’s time to get to work! Your future, and everyone else’s depend upon you doing so.
