In 1981, in response to the death of his son, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the classic When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In recent days there's been such bad news about jobs and unemployment that Rabbi Kushner should consider writing a sequel: When Bad Things Happen to Good Americans.
23 million US citizens are not fully employed while corporations enjoy record profits. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers show US unemployment at 8.9 percent with another 5.4 percent underemployed and .7 percent "discouraged" -- not looking for work for various reasons -- for a combined rate of 15 percent. Of these unemployed, at least 1.4 million are "99ers," individuals who have exhausted their unemployment benefits after unsuccessfully seeking work for 99 weeks. Oh vey!
Most Americans believe in God, as 83 percent of Americans identify either Christian (78.4 percent) or some other religion (4.7 percent). Rabbi Kushner asks: if there is a loving God, why do bad things happen? Why do we lose our jobs even though we work hard? After considering the usual explanations -- God makes mistakes, suffering builds character, and so forth -- the Rabbi concludes, "Maybe God does not cause our suffering. Maybe it happens for some reason other than the will of God."
No doubt America's millions of unemployed ask themselves daily why their bad thing happened. Reading their stories one realizes that these were good employees who were terminated because their corporation chose to increase its profitability.
The US economy is slowly improving but jobs are not being added at a rapid pace. Many economists predict high unemployment is likely to continue. Meanwhile, US Corporations are enjoying record profits.
Rabbi Kushner observes, "In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened." What do Americans intend to do about our high unemployment and the 23 million citizens that are suffering?
Being a religious people, Americans believe the United States is the number one nation on the planet and that God favors us. We don't expect to have chronic problems like high unemployment -- or several million folks who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. When things go terribly wrong, Americans scramble for answers and we often resort to political blames games: it's the fault of Democrats/Republican/Liberals/Conservatives. Chronic unemployment has become a political "hot potato" tossed back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.
Rabbi Kushner asks what do we intend to do now that the bad thing -- chronic unemployment -- has happened? What action will you and I take?
First we need to acknowledge that there is an ideological split. Americans agree on the reality of unemployment but not its causes and remedies. Liberals believe corporations care more about profits than they do worker well-being and feel the Federal government ought to intercede with a combination of unemployment insurance, reeducation, and job creation programs. Conservatives believe government is the root problem and feel that the market will provide the necessary jobs if only federal taxes and regulations are reduced.
This ideological split is usually framed as a debate about the merits of "big government" versus "big corporations." While it's expressed in political language it's actually a question of values: do Americans honor the Golden Rule? Do we truly see ourselves as being responsible for our brothers and sisters? Do we care more about compassion than we do about profitability and efficiency?
When we consider our chronic unemployment as a question of values rather than political jargon, we recognize America is torn between individual values (human rights) and corporate values. And the conflict goes deeper. The US is in the midst of struggle to define the relationship between democracy and capitalism. Conservatives, and most Republicans, believe democracy and capitalism are synonymous; what is good for the market is good for Americans, in general. They believe corporate values trump human rights. Liberals, and many Democrats, do not believe that democracy and capitalism are synonymous; they're worried that rising economic inequality is a grave social danger. They believe that human rights supersede corporate values.
Rabbi Kushner writes, "The God I believe in doesn't send us the problem; He gives us the strength to cope with the problem." He concludes his wise book by observing, "Our responding to life's unfairness with sympathy and with righteous indignation, God's compassion and God's anger working through us, may be the surest proof of all of God's reality."
Americans need to respond to chronic unemployment with sympathy and righteous indignation. And from this moral stance we need to resist the political tsunami that argues that corporate rights trump those of individuals, that contends that democracy and capitalism are synonymous. In the face of a grave wrong Americans need to find the strength to protect all of our people.
It certainly helps if you're younger than forty, well educated in an in-demand field, and have enough money to support yourself while you get established in your new home country. But I started living and working in Germany as a translator four years ago at the ripe old age of fifty-two---so it can be done.
Emigration to English-speaking countries like Australia, New Zealand, England, or even India, is worth a try, but fluency in a non-English language would open up that many more possibilities. Even learning a European language like German or Greek, whose native speakers are confined mostly to Europe, is a good investment. Birth rates are way down in almost all of these countries and they're looking for fresh, young talent to help them out. An even better bet would be to learn an Asian language like Mandarin or Japanese.
So here's my formula for dealing with intractable unemployment:
1. A degree from a reputable university in a field like engineering, medicine, finance, or science
2. Fluency in at least one foreign language
3. A valid passport
4. A one-way ticket out of the USA
5. A map to the nearest international airport
6. A car with a full tank of gas
Immediately after obtaining 1 and 2, place 3, 4, and 5 into 6. Start 6 and follow 5 with all due deliberate haste. Use 3 and 4 without delay upon arrival.
Kurt Vonnegut had something valuable to add to our current predicament.
Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleanic times.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five
We need independent media and representatives. We need real fighters, smart fighters, with blood in their eyes to help lead the fight against these corporate pigs. Things can change and they will change. If we channel our righteous rage and organize our greater numbers, no way we lose.
There was a time when the line between Main Street and Wall Street was strong and good It was the already rich who gambled most on Wall Street but then we all were conned into putting all our pension moneys into Wall Street and that meant that Wall Street has lots more money to gamble with and all those Main Street pensions to hold hostage when they got caught short. And that is exactly what they have done and now they are blaming all those whose main street pension money has made them billionaires.
The budget cutting is the wrong answer--it is just another con--cut all but corporations so the corporations can gain power and money to play with on Wall Street and in DC so they can pay less and less and keep more and more. This downward spiral is no accident; it shows no empathy or compassion and will destroy democracy.
And I am not sure that as a country we can wait for 2012 to make this all different.
I hope you realize that Mr. President; the country might not be able to just wait for your re election.
However this is a false belief. Even the Goddess of the Marketplace Ayn Rand received assistance on her way to becoming such an influential author from various people and institutions.
Take someone like H. Ross Perot. He was a classic self made man but he benefited from government spending from his own high school and college (he went to the Naval Academy), government research into computers and technology, his business was protected by various laws on copyrights, contracts, patents and his employees were mostly educated at public institutions. Some of this was localized spending and some was national in scope. Is it wrong to request he pay for the benefits he has been given so future generations may also have an opportunity like he did? No.
So when a government requires those who have much, pay much, it is not "punishing them" it is asking them to pay back what they received to gain what they now have. And yes, that means that as an absolute number and percent they will pay more then say the guy who drove the truck that made the deliveries of Mr. Perot's product.
Not sure what he gained from paying more taxes. What government services has he used and not directly payed? Since 60+% of government spending is transfer programs, chances are good he's been on the giving side of those services all his life. Another 20% goes to education, and I'm sure all his kids have gone to private schools, yet still has to pay for public schools. 10% of spending goes to defense, which all citizens gain equally. The rest of local infrastructure, and I bet his property tax is paying much more than the burden from his property.
Reality is, he's paid far more than he consumed in government and pays at an "absolute number and percent" far more than a truck driver already.
Meanwhile 47% of population do not pay in any federal income tax, receive most of the transfer program money, and scream, "stick it to the rich". Talk about immortal.
Tell me, how often do you land in court on civil matters? To enforce contracts? He depends on a function court system (which is not free) that can uphold contracts his business needs and has.
He depends on his employees being educated at someone else's expense. He could not afford to pay for their initial 12 years and their college educations (if required.)
He depends on the FDIC to ensure that the banks both him and his business uses do not fail and he loses all of his money.
He depends on the FBI and other police apparatuses to keep crime down from white collar to plain ol' cop on the street keeping the chances his employees make it to work that day high and not die in huge pile ups.
There are numerous other examples. The fact is that a person who makes a lot of money gets more benefits from the government then we Joe and Jane Average get. That is why they should be paying more.
And it is not unreasonable or immortal (which I think you mean immoral) to demand this.
The more you benefit from a society like that, the more you should be willing to pay to support it.
"Americans need to respond to chronic unemployment with sympathy and righteous indignation."
A dose of literate economic reality is the only thing that makes that sympathy and indignation target the proper forces in our lives. While there's some argument about "whens," the following facts are incontrovertable:
Conventional Energy Output is diminishing and that will only pick up steam over time.
Energy=Wealth
Cheap Energy=Growth in Wealth
Expensive Energy=Contraction in Wealth
Ergo: Growth has ended and traditional Capitalism is a boat without a paddle. Any politician who says differently is either reaching for blind confidence or a hard-core denier. All of the capitalist economic models are predicated on growth. Those models must change for capitalism to survive. Hardly 1 in 100 economists of any stripe realize this, mired in their their hard-boiled catechisms. The politicians of any stripe are even worse, because their rhetorical catachisms are grounded in what their contributors desire, and not what is known.
Systemic civilizations can't turn on a dime. Thus there is no way that any one solution to the energy disaster or even a combination will be built out fast enough to avoid considerable economic contraction. The best that we can say and do is, if we get on it right now, we can stop the bleeding and start to staunch the wound before the patient expires. Until this is understood deep in the soul of the majority of Americans, assuming that democracy survives, nothing of any significance will happen.
I'm not looking to be a millionaire, just keep the bills paid, and I think the low-ball, low-cost model really has some merit. I think people let a lot of sunshine be blown up their pants legs about what 'class' they're part of and so forth, and maybe there are some classists in this country, I don't care, some of the 'rich' people I've met and known in my life didn't have any class, no good manners, just a snotty attitude directly related to how much money they had and their supposed status in life. Jerks. Well, there's no shortage of those, and some of them run large companies and financial institutions and so forth. Good riddance. I hope they all go broke, and that the federal government goes after their offshore holdings and tax shelters with a grim and determined vengeance, and then looks to itself vis-a-vis 'middle class' and all that other B.S. Pigs like to live fat, too.
The people of Christ were the poor!