Privatizing Dreams
I got a brother-in-law,Jimmy, who’s been unemployed awhile. His job got eliminated and since he’s near 60 without a lot of work experiences or training, new jobs were hard to come by. He’s a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, one of the many who believe that only the shiftless don’t work, only the ‘takers’ are on food stamps, only those who feel ‘enititled’ accept government handouts. Although he thought it was okay to take unemployment compensation.
Well, he ran that until the fund was empty and so, too young to retire, he hit the streets looking for a job to tide him over until Social Security kicks in. Don’t tell him Social Security is a form of socialism. Not while Bernie Sanders is running for President. Unfettered capitalism is his religion, don’t muddy it with Obamacare or Medicare or the rest of those quasi-commie programs. He’s not bitter he was laid off — he’s an Ayn Randian who believes the Captains of Commerce have done their best DESPITE government interference. Minimum wage should be just that: the minimum the market will bear. EPA, OSHA, the FDA — get them off corporate backs and let corporations compete freely. Laissez faire! The gospel according to Rockefeller and Carnegie and Gates.
Ask him about corporate welfare, tax breaks for Boeing, government subsidies, sweet capital gains on hedge fund managers — he see that as ‘just doing business.’ His mizzus, laid off from her bank years back, found work at a community college and they both hated she’d found a public service vocation. Good benefits, though…. They gave her lots of allowance when her depression worsened, granted sick leaves and absences. When she couldn’t work at all, they finally cut her loose and let her collect unemployment. She too swallowed her Republican pride and ran the account to its end. By then Jimmy had his pink slip.
These are hard times for the working poor of America and there are hard lessons to be learned. By those willing to learn…. Jimmy, I heard yesterday, had finally found gainful employment. “What did he find?” I asked, glad they wouldn’t have to sell their house. Next time you go into your local WalMart, that Greeter at the door with the smiley face vest and the ‘Welcome to WalMart”, there’s Jimmy, pleased as punch he works in corporate America, greatest country on earth. I suspect in a month he’ll change his tune on that minimum wage issue.
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