Unemployment and Entitlement

You know what bites?  Actually, lots of things bite, but here’s a big one.  The American economy (as measured by the success of American businesses) doesn’t need that many American workers anymore – and never will again.  Increasing automation—along with a doctrinaire free-trade agenda—have conspired to make a broad spectrum of American workers obsolete.   When times are bad, Americans are laid off, then when things pick up, workers are hired in China, India, Malaysia, etc. 

We’re told to ‘make ourselves matter’, and to stay relevant, but are given no real guidance as to what that means – because there is no way for the large population of displaced American workers to ‘matter’ again.  I welcome any INFORMED rebuttal of this point. 

Kurt Vonnegut’s 1952 book, ‘Player Piano’ postulated a fully automated US economy that didn’t need workers anymore – just managers and engineers.  The rest of the population were given make-work jobs in the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps.  It seemed bleak and dystopian at the time, but by contrast to the economy that has evolved in the US, it was actually relatively optimistic.  At least in the book, the displaced workers weren’t blamed for the overwhelming forces that displaced them.  And more importantly, they were cared for.  In today’s society, they are blamed for not making themselves ‘matter’.  Those who try to matter find a moving target of job skills which appear promising, but then are moved offshore, or made obsolete by technology.  The retraining is so expensive that, even when a job pans out, the burden of student debt is crushing. 

Those who have managed to maintain their status in today’s society are not called upon to do much to help those who’ve been cast aside – and are taught to scorn those who have lost everything, so as not to be troubled by their plight.  Basics, such as retraining, unemployment insurance, healthcare, and foodstamps are painted as luxuries, and treated as though they encourage dependency, and a sense of ‘entitlement’, when in reality, they only allow people to bounce along the very bottom of our society.  

The very companies who have moved cut jobs wholesale, and moved others overseas, are applauded as ‘job creators’, and rewarded with perks like the Foreign Investment Tax Credits, to help finance the transition. 

And those whose income is derived their investments in these businesses, enjoy a tax rate less than half that paid by those who earn their income from actually working. 

Entitlement, indeed!