I suppose that's why I write. I've worked at a string of jobs that have been frustrating, mind numbing, and simply heart-wrenching. I've been yelled at, cursed, and treated like an idiot child. Sadly, these conditions are nothing outside the normal fare. I'm not going out and punching puppies for a living or throwing revolutions in cheerful democracies. I've been tromping through the normal 9-5 most of my life, jobs that earn "an honest day's buck."
These are the jobs that are grinding people under heel. Retail, customer service, fast food, they're the foundation of our consumer culture, where the customer is right, the employee is wrong, with the assumption the latter is a full human being. And why would they be? I see people drag into work, sad, frustrated, dreading yet another day of toil and abuse. They go in not because they want to, but because they have no choice. Some might say they can make a decision in the process, but it's a poor argument. If you have a gun to your head, you can choose to live or die.
It's the same sort of logic.
Some don't have degrees, others have found those pieces of paper to be just that, and neither have the luxury of returning to school. They have families, siblings, husbands, wives, and children, people who are depending on their meager wage to make it through. If it's a toss up between starvation and misery, and misery will be the winner nine times out of ten. Through their sacrifice, they might be able to save those they love. So they enter a situation that's terrible and yet acceptable, confining any happiness to too-short weekends and holidays (if they can get the days off).
It's the plight of the American worker, and it's simply unforgivable. It's worse in other places, no doubt. There are sweatshops, slavery, and maybe even worse in this wide world, third world hell holes that the corporate elite exploit. We have it head and shoulders above the rest of the world, but that doesn't mean we have it right. We claim to be first world, but we can't even treat our people first-rate.
Employers shy away from healthcare despite government mandates, slashing hours for their employees (hey there, Home Depot!). While corporations make record profits, they weed out the wages of their top earners (I'm looking at you, Walgreens!). They can't pay a livable wage, so they suggest their workers should honorably work an 80 hour week (McDonalds, you card!). This doesn't even begin to cover abusive work practices where the talk equals the treatment. Of course, some proponents of this shout trickle down economics, others say better benefits can't be sustained, but they're just rationalizations for disposable people.
We consume our countrymen and don't think twice as to why.
When will enough be enough? When we look at the majority of our nation, those who struggle for healthcare, food, dignity, and give them all three? When will we stop sneering at those who need help, when it's the vast majority of us that do? When will we save our countrymen rather than damning them? I'm miserable, but I can write. No matter how slight, I have a way out to a better future.
So many others don't.
When will we decide to change that?
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