WriteAway

Ms. Clinton, Mr. McCain: Guess who’s really out of touch? It’s not Barack Obama this time.

In the last few months, the earnings of this writer have gone from comfortably more than the average middle class family of four to a Social Security check and a few thousand in freelance earnings. Anybody who thinks that doesn’t make you bitter is seriously out of touch.

A recent article in the New York Times went into great detail about the buyouts three large automobile manufacturers are offering to get rid of thousands of employees. According to the Times article, Ford frankly admitted that they wanted to get rid of their highly experienced best employees and replace them with lower cost, inexperienced entry level workers.

This seems to be a trend: dump your most loyal, long term workers, the ones with the tribal knowledge and the experience to help your business and replace them with entry-level people with little or no experience.

I encountered this when I applied to a well-known, national temp agency after a cross-country move. I’ve counted on temp work in the past when I was laid off or moved. My skills were above average. I could work as much as I wanted to. A couple of those temp jobs led to full-time employment.

I headed to the temp agency as soon as I unpacked the important stuff and took the computer and clerical tests. The young woman who administered the tests reported that nobody had ever scored that high in their office. They didn’t sign me on. I was told they were unable to verify my previous employment because “they’ never answer their phone.” Either that was an out-and-out lie or she hadn’t heard of voice mail. What I believe happened: they didn’t try, since their clients probably would be unwilling to pay what the agency felt they should charge for me.

I called another agency. They weren’t accepting applications since they didn’t have enough requests to place their existing employees. I went to a regular employment agency. They liked me and my resume. They recommended me to an employer who was looking for a mature, experienced executive assistant. They showed him my resume. I didn’t even get an interview.

I did get a few interviews after I “dumbed down” my resume. Nobody would hire me for a regular job, but a couple took me on as an independent contractor for special projects.

I couldn’t get a job in a grocery store or fast food restaurant: the hiring managers believed that I’d leave as soon as something better came along (not likely these days). Basically, they seem to be quite willing to have their taxes raised to pay for my welfare, but didn’t want to risk hiring me and then possibly having me leave.

Most of the jobs I thought I was qualified for and that didn’t require an inside contact, required a high school diploma or equivalent and 6 months to a year of experience. I thought that was the minimum. I was wrong.

There is no way to undo the past. What would I do differently if I could? I’d have partied more and skipped college. Okay, maybe I would have gone to college for a while, but I certainly wouldn’t have completed a degree. I’d have worked for a GPA of 2.5 or 3. I’d have skipped around from one low-paying job to another and maybe taken a few years off to just bum around instead of going to college.

But I didn’t have that kind of foresight. I went to college whenever I had an employer who would pay my tuition. I was a systems design major when I worked for an insurance company: half of each day I was the executive assistant to the V.P. of Operations and the other half I worked in IT, repairing hardware, creating a database tracking application, and training and coaching software end-users.

Later, I was a business major and, before that, studied geology when I worked for a major oil company. I finally finished up a degree, thanks to a full tuition scholarship, 3 or 4 work-study jobs, and a few government loans to pay for books and lodging. Graduated high in my class. Could have graduated higher if only I hadn’t had all those work-study jobs, but I enjoyed being a T.A. and tutor, and even liked working occasionally as a seamstress and dramaturge in the theatre department. And as a non-traditional student working her way through college, I really needed the money.

My education was enough to not only disqualify me to work in today’s market, but to bring me to the very brink of applying for welfare and food stamps (for the first time in 40 years of almost constant employment). I added to the problem by returning to school for a professional certificate in Web Design and Multimedia.

I was not only bitter; I was terrified. And very angry. I still am. I fulfilled a long-time dream of returning to my home state when I retired. My work history and references are excellent. I’m unemployable.

What continues to make me angry and bitter is that people who have been successful, who have a variety of skills and experience, and who have always been contributing members of society; people willing and able to work at any job that would let them to do an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, are reduced to, essentially, stealing welfare money from people who haven’t been as fortunate and need that help much more than we should need it.

I became a member of the vanishing middle class, productive and experienced people who worked hard throughout their lives and found themselves suddenly living below the poverty line, sucking up welfare and food stamp money. I’ve met dozens of people who had been unemployed for 2 years or more. I imagine that there are many thousands—if not millions—of others in exactly the same position.

Another reality that too many politicians don’t seem to be aware of: unemployment is not really down. Since those figures are based on the number of new claims, you really shouldn’t believe them: many of us have either given up or couldn’t apply for it in the first place because we voluntarily left our jobs.

Me? I’ve joined the millions of others who are trying to pick up some of the outsourced work that requires more skills, more experience, and more knowledge to do, usually at a fraction of what we were formerly paid for the same work. The new hires, the ones with a high school diploma and 6 months of experience, simply don’t have the specialized skills. They should thank their lucky stars that they don’t have the skills or education to do the outsourced work that often provides the only income for many freelancers. The less skilled people are employed. Many highly qualified freelancers are learning to love canned soup and peanut butter!

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that on any given day, the news reports that unemployment is holding steady, and that three manufacturers are cutting thousands of jobs? What was it last month? Eighty thousand jobs cut?

Perhaps the 2008 election will bless us with a President who’s in touch with reality, who understands that millions of us are definitely bitter and who understands why we are. We’ve had the rug pulled out from under us; we’ve been brought to our knees. We worked hard all our lives to be self-sufficient, to contribute to the well-being of our families, employers, communities, and our country. We’ve now been discarded, not because of age, color or gender, but because we did what we were always taught to do and we did it well.

I’m fortunate: I was rescued by people who care very much for me. They helped me move back to where I started and provided me with a rent-free place to live for as long as I need it. The great part: I didn’t have to go to a homeless shelter or live on the streets. I’m living in a beautiful and familiar environment that’s very isolated: 17 miles each way to the outskirts of the nearest civilization. With gas at or over $3.50/gallon, even if I could find a job. I couldn’t afford to accept it.

That’s the reality that almost no one in the government wants to acknowledge. There are thousands, maybe even millions of us, who are very bitter, have lost faith in our country, in the government of the government, by the government and, evidently, for the government. The rest of the population of the US is no longer a concern and is becoming simply an afterthought.

As our Vice President put it recently when the majority of “the people” expressed their opposition to the war in Iraq:
“So?”

Some thoughts from Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

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