The Right Propaganda
The March 22, 2004, edition of Business Week sports the headline, "Where are the Jobs?" The question takes up half the cover, with "Jobs?" in two-inch red letters. The lower right corner of the page says, "Economic growth is very strong, but America isn't generating enough jobs. Many blame outsourcing. The truth is a lot more complicated." I found this irresistible; I had to read it.
I turn to the article and see another blaring headline in the same red and white on black background covering the entire page. The article begins, "Americans live on a faith-based economy. We believe deeply in education, risk taking, and plain, hard work as the way to a better life." It goes on to say, "Profits are soaring, yet no one is hiring." We are losing our faith. We no longer trust our government, and we no longer trust business.
The article goes on to explain that, "Of the 2.7 million jobs lost over the past three years, only 300,000 have been from outsourcing, according to Forrester Research Inc. People rightly fear that jobs in high tech and services will disappear, just as manufacturing jobs did. Perhaps so. But odds are it will be productivity rather than outsourcing that does them in."
I am not certain what they mean by productivity. A chair bought at one of those import-friendly discount mega stores holds up for less than a year. It may have cost a mere $87, but for only one-year’s use, that seems expensive. On the slave wages I earn as a security officer, I can easily afford the $122 19” television I purchased, but I discovered its life expectancy, like the rocker’s, is limited. It worked for two years, one year longer than its warranty lasted. Now I look back in fondness on the 27" American-made television bought in 1976 that cost a staggering $800. It worked like a champion until 1992, with only one major repair. The repair was less than the cost of the cheaper replacement! We call these new cheaper sets the outcome of better productivity.
Yet, Business Week tells us, “Consumer net worth hit a new peak, at $45 trillion--up 75% since 1995--and consumers have more than recouped their losses from the bust." I have no personal experience of this. I have lost two-thirds of my income from the so-called bust, and I have recouped nothing. McDonald's is not even hiring here in Dallas where I live. However, this is certainly not isolated to my little corner of the world. There are no jobs in Wisconsin, either; I have checked there three times. Ohio is hurting, according to the news, and Michigan is reporting 25% unemployment. Michigan's problem is so severe that the governor is taking action to halt the outsourcing of jobs for the state. I guess I could move further into the Southwest. New Mexico has ‘help wanted’ signs in fast food restaurants, and Phoenix is experiencing a building boom. I must draw certain conclusions from this. The Southwest is booming because of population movement, but those who refuse to move are suffering.
The March 22, 2004, edition of Business Week sports the headline, "Where are the Jobs?" The question takes up half the cover, with "Jobs?" in two-inch red letters. The lower right corner of the page says, "Economic growth is very strong, but America isn't generating enough jobs. Many blame outsourcing. The truth is a lot more complicated." I found this irresistible; I had to read it.
Faith Based Economy
The article goes on to explain that, "Of the 2.7 million jobs lost over the past three years, only 300,000 have been from outsourcing, according to Forrester Research Inc. People rightly fear that jobs in high tech and services will disappear, just as manufacturing jobs did. Perhaps so. But odds are it will be productivity rather than outsourcing that does them in."
Better Productivity
Mass Migration
Ten Years Ago
The editors of Business Week note that older, more stable workers are taking ‘survival’ jobs, positions usually held by entry-level employees. I fall into this category; I am currently a security officer, a position for which I am overqualified. My former job has been outsourced to India; and frankly, I am overqualified for those relocated positions as well. If the economy were truly productive, I would not be in my current job; it is a waste of personnel resources and the very height of inefficiency. Someone who is truly an entry-level employee would have my position, and I would be in a higher position contributing to the productiveness of the American economy.
The editors of Business Week note that older, more stable workers are taking ‘survival’ jobs, positions usually held by entry-level employees. I fall into this category; I am currently a security officer, a position for which I am overqualified. My former job has been outsourced to India; and frankly, I am overqualified for those relocated positions as well. If the economy were truly productive, I would not be in my current job; it is a waste of personnel resources and the very height of inefficiency. Someone who is truly an entry-level employee would have my position, and I would be in a higher position contributing to the productiveness of the American economy.
The Business Week article also says that "younger and nonwhite workers" have left the workforce; as older, more experienced workers like me take their potential jobs, they give up on finding anything at all. According to the article’s writer, "If participation rates were at its March 2001 level, there would be 27 million more workers in the labor force looking for jobs. This would push the unemployment rate up to 7.4%, not the 5.6% reported in 2004. This must prove that scholars are skewing the numbers for political purposes and not observing what is actually happening.
The jobs that "require close contact clients, and understanding of the US culture, will likely remain [in the US],” according to Business Week. In my personal experience, as those in the service sector swell, the quality of service will decline and attitudes over inequity in the system will increase. The "younger workers" of every race seem to be a product of the "whatever" generation.
Chaos in the Workplace
The two, twenty-something female Hispanic customer service representatives who work for my company both show up late on a regular basis. Both act as if it is their right to be employed. One of these young women attacked the other on the job in front of clients. This was a continuation of a fight at a party the previous night over a man who is incarcerated. This woman yanked the phone out of the security officer’s hand while she was calling the police; the security officer was reprimanded by our office staff for becoming involved in the incident. I would call this same woman every day at four a.m. so she would arrive at work on time at five. Despite this, she rarely arrived until 6:30 a.m. I finally stopped making her daily wake-up call, and she was fired. I am sure that she believes she was fired because she is Hispanic, not because she decked her coworker or because of persistent tardiness. I am also certain that she lays some of the blame on me because I discontinued her early morning reminder to get herself to work. That is the higher level of production in the jobs that "require[s] close contact with clients, plus an understanding of the US Culture," from the "younger and nonwhite workers." To this, I say, “Whatever!”
Jeep
The Business Week article continues, "We are now experiencing the maximum pain for the wreckage of outmoded jobs while still awaiting the innovations that will generate work in the future. While America's faith in its innovation economy has often been tested, it has never been betrayed.” I recall otherwise. In the 1970s, when gasoline prices took a leap, the U.S. automakers refused to produce efficient cars. The Japanese, primarily Honda, came into our markets with the Honda Coupe, and then the Civic, providing Americans with efficient, modern vehicles that helped Americans economize their fuel use. It is not as if U.S. companies could not make a more fuel-efficient vehicle. The Willies Jeep of World War II went 30 to 50 miles on a gallon of gasoline; the Jeep today is considered one of the worst offenders of low fuel efficiency.
Betrayal
The American auto industry also has betrayed its consumers by not employing the best safety technology. We lose 40,000 to 50,000 people every year in automobile accidents. Airbags were installed in vehicles to act as a passive restraint to solve the problem of people not wearing seat belts. Now we see that this equipment has been responsible for killing many vehicle occupants.
Technical Workers
In 1997 and 1998, the Clinton Administration appeared to be solving in advance the coming issue with “outmoded jobs.” President Bill Clinton and his vice president, Al Gore, were challenging young people to get a technical education. The Republican Congress stymied this campaign by passing legislation that gave a special permit to technically trained foreigners allowing them to come into America and work in information technology (IT) jobs. In 1999, the accounting consulting firms were hiring people to recode old programs to solve the Y2K problem providing another excellent opportunity to technology-savvy American workers. These companies promised to find these employees positions once the Y2K threat had passed. This seems not to have been the case. By early 2000, the bottom had fallen out of the technology sector.
Innovations
There is no question that I am somewhat jaded by my personal experience. In high school, I designed the Antipersonnel Fragmentation Torpedo, or AFT, a land-based robotic crawler, using caterpillar tractors fitted with a Claymore mine and outfitted with some booby traps to prevent tampering once activated. This was just the first of many like-minded inventions. However, as I got older, I stopped designing weapons systems because I began to consider them immoral. Maybe I was too naïve; times change. We grow and learn along the way. Perhaps the gods do not care if we murder one another as long as we make a dollar and as long as we give 10% to our favored institutional religious organization. What is a little mass murder in the name of restoring faith in the name of “America's faith in its innovation economy?”
Recovery
"Given the chance, the economy will deliver the jobs and prosperity that it has in the past," Business Week ends its upbeat propaganda. Certainly, history has provided the ultimate example of American economic rebound. After the destitute years of the Great Depression, Word War II created hundreds if not thousands of truly wealthy people, inventing and producing killing machines. The War left Europe and Asia in rubble and destruction and, because of that, more prosperity was generated in the rebuilding effort. Corporate America deserves credit for that. The question remains, do we have the leadership and ethics to repeat that former experience?
Kevin Phillips in his recently published American Theocracy, states, “We can begin by describing the role of religion in American Politics with two words: Widely underestimated.” Religion and politics are incredibly intertwined in the U.S., as they were in Europe before the foundation of the U.S.; and, that influence has been overlooked by the Establishment. Yet, George Gallop, the famous pollster, said, “religious affiliation remains one of the most accurate and least-appreciated political indicators available.” (Potts, Clifford A. Radicals, Religion, and Revelation. 1st ed. Dallas: WordTechs Press, 2008. 5-6. CD-ROM).
Radicals, Religion, and Revelation was written as a personal exploration of various religious expression within the context of the US culture of the early '00s. It was written from 2004 to 2006. This chapter is included because it touches on the background expounded upon in Conspirators, Confederates, and Cronies.
Cliff Potts -- May 17 2014
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