Work! (a blog from an earlier time, but still relevant)

Beloved, it has been awhile since I registered thoughts on these pages, but this evening, in light of all that is happening in the nation in politics and political rhetoric, I decided this would be a good time to underscore the problem that is being talked about but not really being addressed. This is the problem of work, and the fact that so many people do not have work adequate to support their basic needs.  Work is vital to reducing crime, reducing drug sales, improving neighborhoods, keeping families together, improving public schools, as well as increasing self-esteem and hope.

Some say we can have work if we just reduce taxes even more than they have been in the recent period.  My words here are not meant to espouse the virtues of all taxation, but to challenge the argument that by reducing them more and more, especially upon the people who are the wealthiest, jobs will rain down from heaven, and all our economic woes will be virtually solved.  Our problem is way more complex than that, and if we, everyone of us from the highest elelments of the public and private sectors to the general population, don't sober up and come to terms with what has happening, the future of the nation is indeed dim.

Right now, the "haves" are controlling the debate and the "have-nots", or the think they have nots, are essentially not weighing in on the conversation as much as is needed to modulate the direction of the public discourse. What has been happening for well over a generation in this country is the gradual reduction in skilled and semi-skilled manufacturing, and all the people and communities that relied on this work have been left up the creek without a paddle. In some instances, these jobs have been outsourced to nations which do not have, or which actively prohibit collective bargaining, or technology has replaced human workers.  In each case, this has met a demand from shareholders in companies for higher returns on their investments, since labor costs have gone down precipitously.