~a column by Colleen O’Brien
Oh, how we complain about work: the bosses, the coworkers, the drive to and the drive from, the pay, the hours, the pointlessness of it; we do complain. I don’t know if it’s part of the human psyche to complain or if it’s acculturated, but complain we do, especially about work.
But, in the working class, being without work turns us into pathetics. Work is what we do that gives us self-respect. Or at least money to pay for supper, rent, clothes and the necessities for a decent life.
I personally believe that all work is noble, be it celery picker or CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Actually, of the two, the celery picker earns more of my respect. I need him and his produce; I probably don’t need the CEO of a company that sends all its manufacturing offshore, imports it into this country and sells it to us at prices higher than when union people produced it on U.S. soil, and then takes a salary in the millions, plus stock options, a Lear, travel expenses and a company Lexus. These bennies are not thought important to ordinary workers.
I’ve been without work before. I’ve been fired, sometimes called “let go” (or as the Brits say, “made redundant”) and quit. I prefer working, as do most of us.
I like having a point and a challenge; I like having to think hard and figure it out. I will work even if I don’t get paid, which is evident in my past, because I like what I do; but I do prefer getting paid. A living wage would be nice, but that doesn’t always happen either.
One of the biggest problems in our country — well, in the world right now – is the number of unemployed and feebly employed (those who work but don’t make enough to have a decent life). Not only are the unemployed often hungry, homeless and sick, they despair. Being unable to provide for oneself and one’s family is demeaning, a situation for self-loathing. Each of us contributes to this despair even though we’re not the multi-nationals exploiting the world – we are the ones who buy their gasoline, purchase their diamonds, eat their beef, wear their made-in-Bangladesh tee shirts and $150 Nikes made in Thailand for pennies. I don’t know exactly how to fix this, but I want my representatives to work on it instead of falling all over themselves dissing welfare mothers and passing laws that allow corporate welfare to the max.
Many poor countries do not have the wherewithal to pay unemployment to their out-of-work citizens. And then there are the wealthy countries like the U.S. whose representatives vote to cut off unemployment benefits. This frosts just about everybody with a brain and an ounce of compassion because the folks passing the laws are not cancelling their own unemployment bennies, let alone their current wages and very slack hours and number of days worked within a year.
When I read the news stories about how the National Security Agency collects our cell phone address books and our phone calls, as well as following our cells so they know where we are, at the cost of $52.6 billion (Washington Post) for this “intelligence” gathering, I am thoroughly . . . well, I’ve been sitting here for a full five minutes trying to come up with the word of just how I feel. So far I’ve been through angry, belligerent, bewildered, depressed, disgusted, hopeless, shocked . . . and this does not count the bad words that have popped into my head.
Could they use some of this for unemployment benefits? For work projects (bridges, roads, schools) across the nation? For excellent schools – with books! — in poor neighborhoods? For public transportation? For renewable energy? For a smidgen of fairness across the board? For a living wage. (NOT a minimum wage – who wants the minimum in the face of $52.6 billion for being spied on?)
Work is a pleasure and a privilege. It can be creative and joyous. It is a necessity for most of us. Making the world we believe in would include getting paid a living wage – why this is such an alien concept to so many in-charge people is beyond me. How did they get this way? Are power, position and money so corrupting that once you get them, nobody else counts? Why is it that those we vote for so quickly forget their work? To represent us, not the corporations and the big banks and the king-makers and the super-rich. Oh, and the spies.
This disappointing behavior of one human to another is hardly a new problem. It’s been going on since the first humans figured out how to be in charge of other humans. So . . . we’ve learned nothing and we don’t care. Kind of a pathetic epitaph for the current (used to be dinosaurs) top of the food chain.
