More Americans leaving workforce
Okay folks, brace yourself here, I am feeling an extreme rush of optimism after reading the above article, but shall deliver it with the necessary sarcasm and cynicism to which you have undoubtedly become accustomed.
More Americans Leaving Workforce was the title of the article. I am not illustrating that because I am writing a third grade book report, but because of the slant, whether or not it was intentional , that title jumped right off my laptop screen and smacked me upside the head! Americans are LEAVING the workforce?!?! Are you kidding me? If the word leaving is synonymous with getting one’s ass drop kicked to the curb, then yes, I suppose leaving is an appropriate choice of words.
After having been laid off and spending days, weeks and arduous months looking for a job, I was at first rather offended by the tone of the title. It was as if the Americans were choosing to just not work and who did USA Today think they were? And then, the quintessential light bulb popped itself over my head.
The article itself is mostly regurgitating the employment statistics, aside from the insanely tonal title and maybe a line or two about whose fault it is, but that title kept at me. What if Americans are actually leaving the workforce? What if, they have had all they can take of schlepping themselves off to 60 hour work weeks? What if they are tired of making their employers a necessity when to said employers, those Americans are barely considered even an option?
This country was made great by the hard work, tenacity, dedication and good ol’ fashioned blood, sweat and tears of the American worker. Workers worked hard for an honest day’s pay, produce a top notch service/ product about which they could surely be proud. The United States was also made prosperous by the ingenuity, business sense and vision to build the great companies that produced the superior product or service. (Are you hearing “God Bless America,” yet?) What’s my point?
Why SHOULD Americans go back to the work force that doesn't appreciate them? Why would workers toil for a boss that no longer has vision other than that of the board room and the stock tickers?
For the longest time, I have held onto the belief that we, in the United States, are inches away from the revolution that occurred in Eqypt. I am not standing with a sandwich board that says, “The World Is Ending,” I am not saying we should be screaming in the streets, and quite honestly, I am not even sure the protests that have been staged about the Unions and about taxes or illegal immigration are going to help. We need ingenuity. We need to think outside of the box. We need to get back to the thinking, and attitude, and the spirit that once made America great.
So, let’s hit ‘em where it really hurts. Let’s stage a different kind of revolution that removes Corporate America from OUR equation. What have they done for us? Let’s remind them that they need us way more than they think they do. Why wait for someone else to sign your paycheck when you can simply sign it yourself? In the early days of the United States, pretty much everyone made a living working for themselves. They didn’t always make a fortune, but the necessities were achieved. Guess what? Even working for a big corporation now, most people are simply achieving the basics anyway.
The middle class is filled with the workers that know how to do the job, produce the product and provide the service. Small businesses, singular consultants, got swallowed up by corporations in years gone by because they didn’t have the means to go global- now, EVERYONE who has internet access and a shipping company nearby can do it. How many times have you sat in your stuffy cubicle or toiled over an assembly line only to have your boss come over to you, give you an order which you realized was the most idiotic thing ever? How many times have you thought to yourself, “My way would be much better?” The truth is, you were probably right. So take that idea, the one that would make the products/ services from which your big corporation bosses are making obscene amounts of money think is wrong and do it right. What’s that old saying? See a need, fill a need?
Maybe this is Atlas Shrugged and maybe the middle class is tired of carrying the burden of the corporations and those one percenters on their shoulders. Maybe it’s time for the ones that really do all the work to drop out of the standard workforce. There was a time when a job with a multi-national conglomerate came with security- sustainable incomes, job security, retirement funds and quality health care access. Those perks are all but gone now, so, honestly….what ARE those jobs doing for us? They don’t need us anymore? Well, maybe, just maybe, we don’t need them either.
Is the world ending? Is the economy plummeting? Maybe, but maybe that means it’s high time for a new beginning- on OUR terms.
Okay folks, brace yourself here, I am feeling an extreme rush of optimism after reading the above article, but shall deliver it with the necessary sarcasm and cynicism to which you have undoubtedly become accustomed.
More Americans Leaving Workforce was the title of the article. I am not illustrating that because I am writing a third grade book report, but because of the slant, whether or not it was intentional , that title jumped right off my laptop screen and smacked me upside the head! Americans are LEAVING the workforce?!?! Are you kidding me? If the word leaving is synonymous with getting one’s ass drop kicked to the curb, then yes, I suppose leaving is an appropriate choice of words.
After having been laid off and spending days, weeks and arduous months looking for a job, I was at first rather offended by the tone of the title. It was as if the Americans were choosing to just not work and who did USA Today think they were? And then, the quintessential light bulb popped itself over my head.
The article itself is mostly regurgitating the employment statistics, aside from the insanely tonal title and maybe a line or two about whose fault it is, but that title kept at me. What if Americans are actually leaving the workforce? What if, they have had all they can take of schlepping themselves off to 60 hour work weeks? What if they are tired of making their employers a necessity when to said employers, those Americans are barely considered even an option?
This country was made great by the hard work, tenacity, dedication and good ol’ fashioned blood, sweat and tears of the American worker. Workers worked hard for an honest day’s pay, produce a top notch service/ product about which they could surely be proud. The United States was also made prosperous by the ingenuity, business sense and vision to build the great companies that produced the superior product or service. (Are you hearing “God Bless America,” yet?) What’s my point?
Why SHOULD Americans go back to the work force that doesn't appreciate them? Why would workers toil for a boss that no longer has vision other than that of the board room and the stock tickers?
For the longest time, I have held onto the belief that we, in the United States, are inches away from the revolution that occurred in Eqypt. I am not standing with a sandwich board that says, “The World Is Ending,” I am not saying we should be screaming in the streets, and quite honestly, I am not even sure the protests that have been staged about the Unions and about taxes or illegal immigration are going to help. We need ingenuity. We need to think outside of the box. We need to get back to the thinking, and attitude, and the spirit that once made America great.
So, let’s hit ‘em where it really hurts. Let’s stage a different kind of revolution that removes Corporate America from OUR equation. What have they done for us? Let’s remind them that they need us way more than they think they do. Why wait for someone else to sign your paycheck when you can simply sign it yourself? In the early days of the United States, pretty much everyone made a living working for themselves. They didn’t always make a fortune, but the necessities were achieved. Guess what? Even working for a big corporation now, most people are simply achieving the basics anyway.
The middle class is filled with the workers that know how to do the job, produce the product and provide the service. Small businesses, singular consultants, got swallowed up by corporations in years gone by because they didn’t have the means to go global- now, EVERYONE who has internet access and a shipping company nearby can do it. How many times have you sat in your stuffy cubicle or toiled over an assembly line only to have your boss come over to you, give you an order which you realized was the most idiotic thing ever? How many times have you thought to yourself, “My way would be much better?” The truth is, you were probably right. So take that idea, the one that would make the products/ services from which your big corporation bosses are making obscene amounts of money think is wrong and do it right. What’s that old saying? See a need, fill a need?
Maybe this is Atlas Shrugged and maybe the middle class is tired of carrying the burden of the corporations and those one percenters on their shoulders. Maybe it’s time for the ones that really do all the work to drop out of the standard workforce. There was a time when a job with a multi-national conglomerate came with security- sustainable incomes, job security, retirement funds and quality health care access. Those perks are all but gone now, so, honestly….what ARE those jobs doing for us? They don’t need us anymore? Well, maybe, just maybe, we don’t need them either.
Is the world ending? Is the economy plummeting? Maybe, but maybe that means it’s high time for a new beginning- on OUR terms.
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