Thoughts about Jobs, the Election and Two Fine Poems from Sid

  

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your news on MSNBC.  Switch to Fox News for an alternative view.

A tip for Republicans -  Open your eyes.  Stop getting your news on Fox News.   Switch to MSNBC for an alternative view.
                      

                                                          

Thoughts about Jobs

The concept of a “job” has not always been with us.  In olden days, individuals farmed their land for sustenance with labor supplied by family members and occasionally by slaves (check out the Old Testament) or indentured servants.  And off of the farm, blacksmiths, shoemakers, tailors and the like were individual craftsmen.  They might be assisted by an apprentice or two who, sooner or later, went out on their own.  And in the world of finance, bankers had no real employees.  Their work was done to a great extent by family members.  Remember Shylock in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice"?  No one, in the old days, ever thought of getting a “job” on a long term basis as a way of earning a living and supporting a family.  Certainly, there always were those who as the result of some misfortune, had to seek employment by someone else, but these were marginal employees and not crucial to the economy.

                  

                                           In bygone days, everyone was in business for themselves

And then came the industrial revolution in Western Europe and the United States.  Factories appeared.  People to operate the machines and still more people to manage them and sell the products they made were needed.  The concept of the “job” as a career became respectable.  As the industrialized economies of the world grew, retail businesses, financial institutions and even governments to provide essential services flourished.  And they all needed employees and people to sell what employees created.  In fact, during the last century, most people earned their living by having a job.  Everyone could not be an employer or a professional such as a physician or an attorney. 

 

                          But soon, this changed to most people getting a job

But as we entered the 21^st century, things started to change again.  Ignoring the fact that the cost of labor is lower in undeveloped countries, less labor was actually needed to perform the tasks an industrialized society demanded right here at home.  The technological revolution resulted in far fewer employees needed to grow acres of wheat, put together automobiles and even answer telephone calls made to businesses.  While new jobs are being created every day by our new technologies, they are different jobs from the positions the industrial revolution created a century and a half ago, and they often are fewer and less rewarding.  The unemployment created by these changes is and will continue to be an ongoing feature of our economy.

   

                                             Technology has changed the job market

But let us go back to the thriving days of the twentieth century when there were plenty of well-paying career jobs in the private sector for anyone willing to become educated and work hard.  Many Americans took such jobs, including those in the post-World War Two “Baby Boomer” generation, now approaching retirement.   

                  


                                               Going to Work in the Twentieth Century                                  
                                     

Others, perhaps but not necessarily, less talented or ambitious, chose to take lower paying jobs in the public sector in fields such as education, police or firefighting, health care and government work.  Remember, as the economy expanded, so did the need for such government services.  Making up for lower pay in these jobs, however, were excellent health benefit and retirement plans, and the security of knowing that to be fired from such a position, one would practically have to “commit a crime.”    

                                        
                                                      Newark, NJ, City Hall

Nevertheless, despite this, most Americans chose to work in the more financially-rewarding private sector.

In the background of this story is the role played by labor unions.  Unfortunately, the industrial revolution brought about abuses in the private sector. To protect the interests of workers, unions arose and as a result, working conditions were greatly improved and unions acted to bargain for employees to assure that they received fair pay, good benefit programs as well as good retirement plans.  Eventually, as government expanded, unions also stepped in to achieve these goals for government employees.  With the advances in technology mentioned above, and the resulting decline in the need for labor as we have known it in the private sector, unions became much weaker in that part of the economy.  Employment in government, however, remained robust, and the unions of government employees remained strong while those in the private sector became less influential or even disappeared.

This is where we are today in the year 2012, with a Presidential election coming up in a few months.   Changes in the concept of what people do to earn their living will influence the results of that election.            


                                 

                      Despite Union opposition, Walker wasn't recalled in Wisconsin

In Wisconsin recently, Governor Walker withstood an effort to recall him from office.  The effort was led by government employee unions who were resisting his efforts to limit their ability to bargain collectively.  Because there are more voters employed in the private sector than in the public sector, and more voters who are not members of unions than those who are, the recall effort failed.  Nationally, the Democratic Party, which receives a lot of support from unions, might do well in distancing themselves from the image of government unions reaching deeply into the taxpayer's pocket.

Unemployment is not shared equally between the public and private sector.  More workers for private businesses have lost their jobs than have public employees.   They feel they are bearing more than their share of the load.  Public employees, however, have a greater measure of job security and anticipate “guaranteed” retirement benefits, just like those received by those already retired, neither of which the existing tax base as presently structured can support.  Thus, there is resentment on the part of many tax-paying voters against teachers, police, firefighters, health care workers and other government employees who appear to have it “better” than those dependent on the private sector for their living.  

   

Is there resentment of the security and retirement benefits public employees have?

It wasn’t always that way.  As long as jobs in the private sector were plentiful, well-paying and relatively secure, what happened to government employees didn’t really matter very much, but now it does, and this was reflected in the Wisconsin recall vote, and is evident from the attitude of some local officials, usually Republicans, toward teachers and other government employees.  They too are now subject to layoffs resulting from budgetary constraints.  Efforts to privatize schools and prisons are also happening, as well as attacks on compensation and benefits of government employees.

                               
                  Efforts to privatize prisons have met with questionable results

Whatever efforts President Obama makes to deal with the unemployment crisis, he probably will have to avoid appearing on a stage backed by a cadre of supporters wearing tee shirts identifying them as members of a particular union of government employees.  No matter what he says or does, doing so will lose votes for him.  

                                                                                            

 I hope he gets the message.  Wisconsin voters certainly did.

Jack Lippman

                                                                        

Recently, Sid Bolotin's eldest son received a high honor in his chosen field, inspiring Sid to write this:

A BABE, A CHILD, A MAN

My wife and I are sitting beside our son

With his wife and three adult children

Among hundreds of his business peers

In the Ritz-Carlton conference room

Two massive screens straddle the stage

Each project a video of his family

Being interviewed for this presentation

His wife, children, a childhood friend, a client

All testify to his being a mensch

Devoted to family, friends, and clients

Building his business on caring, integrity, and perseverance

Now he’s on stage

Receiving his jacket and ring

To signify his induction

Into the Hall of Fame level

High up on his industry’s ladder of achievement

A 55-year-old flashback explodes in my mind

I’m standing at his bassinet

At my first-born’s birth

My eyes fill with tears

Applause, cheers

Thunder in my ears

My heart bursts with pride

Sid Bolotin

                                                               

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Also, since the material I post is often political, Google Adsense's algorithms put political ads on this blog.  Of course, they have no role in determining who places the ads.  Advertisers pay their money and their ads appear.  I may disagree with some of the political ads on the blog, but neither I nor Google Adsense can control who decides to advertise.  This blog makes a few cents when you click on an ad.  As I have stated before, all such money received by this blog will go to charity.

JL

                                                        

And here's another gem from Sid's pen.  The accompanying photos are for real, too.  (If your family also inspires you to write poetry, please consider sharing it with us.)

                                      AAH, THE FARM

                                   Sid Bolotin

During a seventeen day expedition criss-crossing New England

To celebrate graduations of four of our nine grandchildren

I yearned to spend time on number two son’s farm between treks

After the first graduation in New Hampshire

We returned to our base camp

At number one son’s home in Swampscott, MA

Number one daughter-in-law graciously shuttled me 90-minutes west

My son drove 90-minutes east from southeastern Vermont

To rendezvous in New Hampshire for supper

Upon our return to the farm in the dark

I wearily untangled myself from the cab of his pickup truck

And maneuvered gingerly along the pathway of sunken flat-topped boulders

Fondly fending off his four dogs…two adolescent Golden Retrievers, two ancient, large mutts

I gimped up the three flattish rocks leading onto the wrap-around porch

Arthritic knees strongly protesting the change from the flat terrain of Florida

Torturously climbing up a twenty-step staircase

I settled thankfully onto a mattress on the floor of my granddaughter’s room

Tucked under the window in the steeply slanted ceiling

Gratefully snuggled down for my first night, gazing wondrously at the star-infested sky

Serenaded by hundreds of male wood frogs croaking romantic intentions

Sounding like a grand orchestra of raspy, quacking ducks

Seemingly only moments later

Dawn’s 5:00 a.m. light flooded the room

Accompanied by the rooster’s “cock-a-doodle-doo”

Followed by excited clucking of twelve hens

Croaking of four guinea fowl

And a chorus of bleats from the sheep on the adjoining property 

                

Holding tightly to the railing I negotiated the stairs downward

To greet my number two daughter-in-law rushing to go off to her teaching job

While my grandson sped through his breakfast to drive to school

After making myself some cereal

I eagerly went outside to join my son in his nursery

Of 6000 potted perennials

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