Jobbed

It’s hard to turn on any news program without hearing about jobs. Good jobs, bad jobs, no jobs...take your pick. Everyone has a reason and a cure for the continued high rate of unemployment. The “job” in these discussions is a noun. Let’s spend a few moments talking about the verb: jobbed, as in “being jobbed”.

This term is an informal way of describing the act of cheating or betrayal. Archaically, it refers to turning a public office or a position of trust to private advantage. Hardly positive notes, but who can argue that they are not germane to what is going on around us.

President Obama recently nixed the Keystone pipeline project to the dismay of those tied to interests of the oil industry (Republicans, generally). This project, they argue, would produce many jobs that desperate Americans need. And look at the additional jobs the pipeline could provide farther down the road: HazMat personnel, environmental engineers, and countless others to be tasked with cleaning up an inevitable spill.

Washington state’s Hanford Site was created to produce plutonium for the first atomic bomb. Seven decades later, the cleanup continues with little hope of ever restoring the environment to an acceptable condition (http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/story/2012-01-25/hanford-nuclear-plutonium-cleanup/52622796/1). Talk about a jobs creator!

California’s Governor Jerry Brown, on the other hand, is being demonized by some (Republicans) for continuing to press for a high speed rail project. This is a jobs creator, isn’t it? Why is there little bipartisan support? No, it’s not about jobs. It’s about being jobbed.

Wichita, KS knows first hand as they fought for Boeing’s USAF tanker project while the company assured the city leaders that such a contract would ensure Boeing’s continued presence in their city. Well, Boeing got the contract, but now it seems as though “unforeseen events” have forced the company to soon shutter the Wichita plants. This is jobbed with a capital “J”, wouldn’t you say? Many employee groups have taken cuts in pay and benefits as their employers promise to avoid bankruptcy only to find that the filing follows shortly thereafter.

We’re all being jobbed by someone, at sometime, for some ulterior motive. The politicians (left and right) seek to warn us that voting for any third party candidate is a wasted vote when, in fact, it only threatens their oligarchy. Corporations sit on large sums of capital and state they will hire only when consumer confidence returns. The problem is that the confidence will rise only after jobs are more plentiful. CEO’s know full well that many of the jobs lost over the past several years are not coming back, but they find it hard to state the obvious.

Banks find it more profitable to loan their money to the federal government rather than entrepreneurs and others seeking to grow (or start) their businesses. And with the Fed promising to keep rates low for the next couple of years, financial institutions see lending to anyone but Uncle Sam as fiscally unsound.

We don’t have a jobs shortage, but rather an expertise shortage as technology renders many positions passé and new positions unfilled due to lack of qualified applicants. Education isn’t stressed, though. Just jobs and who can create them as if they were lying in the bottom of a black top-hat alongside the white rabbit.

Until we realize the path to lower unemployment lies primarily in retraining and retooling for 21st century opportunities, we will continue to fall prey to the jobs mantra espoused by those looking to maintain their status quo while limiting the advancement of those they profess to represent. They’re jobbing us, in other words.

The jobless rate hovers near 9% while the jobbed rate is closer to 100%. The former is tied to our economy while the latter can be traced to the various and sundry leaders, corporate and political, that choose personal gain over a higher ideal. We’ll all be in a better place when both numbers come down.  

Advanced Scatology

Have you ever held a diamond in your hand? If so, you’re familiar with turning it ever-so-slowly to view how the slightest change in angle offers a whole new view of what it has to offer. Each facet is unique and provides its own character to the overall effect of the stone.

OK, let’s take that analogy and alter it just a bit. In mentally reviewing the events of the past several weeks, I find myself holding something else in my hand: horse manure. You know, a meadow muffin. A pasture puck. Or, if you prefer, equine excrement. It, too, has many facets and, to be fully explored, one must turn it slowly in the hand.

Here you’ll find the Washington government facet where the right is witless and the left is gutless. Throw in a president who seeks compromise over any kind of confrontation and we’re reduced to an over-indulgent parent and a spoiled child that threatens tantrums until it gets what it wants.

And here’s the global economy facet. You’ll see how interrelated every country is to every other one and how one’s economic headache is shared by all. Our stock market swoon is partly due to the spasms in Europe. Of course, the debt-limit debacle didn’t help, but you’d have to go back to the Washington government facet to fully appreciate the irony.

The jobs facet is something to behold. The private sector has no need for worker bees and now the public sector has no money for projects, programs, or wages. You needn’t be an economist to see where the unemployment rate is headed.

Look! Here’s the “I’ve got mine” facet and what a sight to behold. Those that have, want to keep it and to hell with those that don’t. Yes, there will always be those that take undue advantage of any program, but the very fabric of our society depends upon the premise that we help those in need. Otherwise, we devolve into a series of tribes scrambling to protect our possessions with nary a thought to the bigger picture.

There is a large facet for which I have no simple name. It is the one that illuminates how folks vote against there own best interests. The Republican party has marketed itself to be the sole source of family values and all that is good and right for America when, in fact, it is more aligned with corporate interests of no regulation and limitless wealth. These goals run opposite to the interests of the typical middle American yet the bulk of Republican voters occupy that economic strata. As a friend of mine says: “You’re not a Republican unless your Gulfstream has winglets.” (A Gulfstream is a high-end corporate jet and one with winglets is a high-end Gulfstream.) Last week’s hogtying of the FAA centered on Republican positions of reducing air service to small communities and making it harder for airline employees to organize. Do they sound like positions to protect the little folks?

And, should you be looking for the vision facet: forget about it. There is, however, a myopic section that has eschewed “long range planning” for quarterly reports and the next election cycle. Yet another disappointing perspective. 

By now you’ve realized that your examining a piece of crap and, unlike the diamond, it leaves both a strong scent and brown stain, neither of which are considered highly desirable. But most of the players in today’s economic and political theater have some muck on them. From the Commander-in-Chief down to the lonely voter in the polling booth: we can each claim a role in our current state of affairs.

It’s going to take much more head-work than hand-wringing to extricate ourselves from this funk. Let’s hope that our elected representatives are up to such a task and, if not, it falls to us, the voters, to ensure a better mix of legislators in the future. 

We...They

Wow! What an election last Tuesday. Some Tea Party loyalists and a wave of "traditional" Republicans shifted the balance of power in the House well to the right. Debate has already started regarding our future. Gridlock or progress via compromise?Let’s take a look:

With the new congressional line-up, both the left and right have a scapegoat in the other side. Who’s to say which side is being obstinate? Neither can budge and still blame the opponent’s recalcitrance for lack of forward movement. Is this what we have to look forward to for the next two years? I certainly hope not, but other facets intrigue me even more.

First of all, the new majority claims that they've received a mandate from the voters refuting anything with Obama's fingerprints on it. An estimated 42% of eligible voters participated last week by casting a ballot. And most victories were within 10 point margins. That's not much of a mandate to me. We could spend the rest of our time talking about the disenchanted 58% that had something better to do than vote, but to what avail? The sadder commentary lies in the fact that the 42% represents a high for mid-term participation. Regardless, there is no mandate: the word is bandied about by spin doctors trying to steamroll the opposition.

Throughout the campaign, much has been said regarding those in Washington. “They” in other words. They don’t listen to us. They work for us. They are out of touch. And so on and so on. Literally overnight, these first term House members have gone from “us” to “they”. Before long, they will be neck deep in adoration and attention from those seeking a willing ear in which to whisper many promises of success and recognition. The bowl of cream will be placed in front of each one in the hopes that a few laps will turn their attention to a greater good: the will of the lobbyist. Choices will have to be made and alliances formed where one rubs the back today so as to have their back rubbed tomorrow. Such is the political world and I can’t wait to see how our new arrivals will handle such temptations.

It's one thing to create the image of making Washington change from the outside and then actually doing it on the inside. Many have tried, most have failed. Does that mean that I wish failure upon the new House of Representatives? Of course not. First of all, that would be un-American and secondly, it sounds too much like Limbaugh. That doesn’t mean, though, that I’m blind to the fact that such a scenario may well come to pass.

I'm also concerned about the apparent impatience of the citizenry. Two years is not long enough to dig out of the economic hole we find ourselves in. Saturday's New York Times reported an increase in October jobs of  151,000. While this number is higher than expected, the report goes on to say that, according to the Brookings' Institution's Hamilton Project,  even if 208,000 jobs were added every month  (the highest yearly rate we've seen in the past decade) it would take 12 years to close the gap. You have to remember that new worker bees come into the mix every month so the jobs required continue to increase, too. 

Last week I compared our economic distress to a case of overeating and the ensuing pain. I'm inclined to think that a long battle with cancer may be a more appropriate analogy. We are in the early stages of treatment for an affliction that will take more than a few days and minor inconvenience to conquer.

In the meantime, I suggest a more temperate approach in choosing those that govern while realizing fully the depth of the challenges we face. Swaying from one party to the other and embracing opposing philosophies every 24 months doesn't exactly serve our best interests. Humans being what they are though, I guess that we can't hope for much more indulgence. I’m reminded of Walt Kelly’s cartoon strip “Pogo” and its most famous mantra: “We have met the enemy and he is us!” Time will tell, but we can all be assured of the continuing sideshow known as Washington politics.

Where's Mine?

Unemployment remains above 10% with little relief in sight. As a result, much is being debated regarding the wisdom of additional stimulus to “create” jobs. While I believe that some jobs in certain sectors are gone for good and while I believe that others are genuinely unemployed and unable to find gainful employment, I am left to wonder about the others who find it more convenient to be unemployed and collect their unemployment checks.

We’ve always had ne’er-do-wells that will continually seek sustenance from the public teat, but I’m afraid that another group is gaining numbers: those that delay employment so as to collect the maximum amount of unemployment benefits. I know a man whose wife was laid off and collecting her benefits. She had found another position and her husband told me that he had cautioned her against taking the job “too soon”. His “too soon” was defined as any point prior to exhausting all unemployment benefits she had coming to her. “After all, it’s her money”, he explained to me. “No, it’s our money”, I replied. After all, every employer and employee pays into the system in one way or another and the resulting pool of money provides a bridge for those that find themselves between jobs.

This feeling of entitlement to “our money” ends up working against our best interests, though, because, as the costs of unemployment go up, the payments made by companies goes up, and the price goes up for the end-user (you and me). How maximizing one’s unemployment payouts results in an overall increase in income is beyond me. “Well, if I didn’t do it, someone else would.” There’s an original rationale: yeah, I’m gaming the system, but so does everybody else. We’ve already debunked the “my money” excuse, too, so it comes down to the age-old getting something for nothing mindset.

But we’ve already figured out that we’re paying more in the long run, haven’t we? Ah, the long run: there’s the problem. We live in an era of myopia where long-term lies somewhere within the next day, or so. Screw the future, I’m getting mine now and I’ll let tomorrow take care of itself. There’s a 21st century mantra if I’ve ever heard one. I was “unemployed” for several months in late 1984/early 1985 (the airline that employed me filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy). However, I was still in the Air Force Reserve and turned to them so I might fulfill my financial obligations. Some of my ex-colleagues were also reservists, yet they were collecting unemployment benefits. “But your not unemployed”, I told one. “Well, they’ll never know and, after all, I’m due”, was the reply. A college educated professional, still serving in the military, and yet clinging to an over-used and under-justified mentality.

I’d like to think that are fewer of these folks than the career lollygaggers mentioned at the outset, but I’m not sure if the numbers would provide any solace. Not that there are any numbers to compare. I am sure that, if polled, less-than-forthright answers would be offered to simple questions like, “Are you delaying employment until your unemployment benefits are exhausted?”

Sorry, no solution to be found within this passage. The problem is not economic, societal, philosophical, ethnic, nor religious in nature. You see, ultimately, it comes down to the character of the individual. We cannot cajole or coerce someone into doing the right thing if they have no inner desire for the same thing. There was a time when nothing was worse than being on the dole. That time has passed and we are now faced with gimmickry and twisted logic to explain behavior that is something less than noble. Let’s all hope that this, too, shall pass.