MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - "Families have to balance their budgets," my Republican friend said to me, "and the state should, too." We were discussing Kansas's latest round of budget cuts. I had expressed a worry that deeper cuts would eliminate even more jobs and that insufficient spending on education and infrastructure would undermine long-term recovery. Afterwards, I thought about the family as a metaphor for the state. What if we pushed the analogy further?
A few days ago, I was in a post office in another community, waiting to mail a package. I had spent the previous day on the phone and then on-line, trying to get the USPS's click 'n ship to work. The USPS has been urging customers to complete transactions on-line; but after many hours of frustration -- and multiple "chats" with on-line help -- I learned that the zip code I was trying to mail to had not yet been entered into the system. Hence, my trip to an actual, physical post office. There I found a line of customers extending out the door and around the lobby. I was recovering from surgery and unsteady on my feet, so my package and I leaned against various spots on various walls as the line crept toward the two employees at the counter.
As we inched closer, I heard one of the employees say to the customer in front of her (who must have made a complaint), "Well, we're like any corporation -- we try to get by with as few people as possible." When my own turn came, I inquired further and learned that nobody who retired was being replaced. Thus, the number of employees was dwindling -- no doubt in hopes that on-line mailing would fill the gap. Meanwhile, as I had discovered, there was a group of techs in cyberspace, helping people get used to click'n'ship. Maybe they would also get around to entering all the zip codes in the United States into the system. But once that was done, would their jobs too be reduced in number?
That question loomed larger the following day as I visited with a friend, who, like me, is on the verge of retirement. We both look forward to adequate pensions and more time for community involvement. But we both also worry that those who come after us won't be so lucky. My friend is a blue-collar worker in an industry that is relying increasingly on "provisional" labor.
"I feel so sorry for the guys coming in now," he told me. "They're paid next to nothing, and they're let go at the drop of a hat. How will they ever retire?" I told him the same thing was happening in my profession -- university teaching--where nationwide at least half of the classes are now taught by "adjuncts"--part time employees who are hired semester by semester. They are highly educated but miserably paid, and they have no job security. I'd like to think that my retirement would open up a good spot for a younger person. But around the country, positions like mine are being degraded into something that won't even support a family.
Corporations -- and institutions such as the USPS and public universities that follow a corporate model -- must take efficiency, flexibility, and economies of scale into account. It's what they do. But the corporate view is only a partial view; society as a whole should never look at any segment of our population as disposable. We should act more like a family than a corporation. A family doesn't balance its budget by getting rid of some of its children.
It's great to be concerned about taxes or the deficit or the bottom line -- but we should be equally concerned about our fellow citizens. Jobs -- good jobs that allow young people to build a future and seniors to enjoy security -- should be the top priority for all of us. We should put the well-being of all ahead of other concerns.
It's what families do.
You've heard the saying, "enough is enough". But we don't seem to have a real definition of 'enough'. The salaries for administrators, whether in business, politics, or education, seems to be off the table when we are trying to determine what is enough. When does the wealth of a family dynasty or even an individual entrepreneur reach an amount that is enough?
The disproportionate distribution of wealth is becoming more evident as services, such as postal service, are being cut back. How many positions that would maintain service in the postal system could be saved with the million plus bonus the head guy just received? How many million dollars does it take to satisfy the ego and greed that some think they are entitled to? How many million does one man's family deserve to inherit, while another man's family goes without decent provision for the day?
I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Concentration of wealth and power will destroy civilization." Go back in your history studies and you will see those two things have led to aggression of nation against nation and subjects against masters. All true internal rebellions, by the people, are because, the working class, whether slave or paid, have no hope for bettering their existence under unjust economic and social conditions.