Unemployment Has Many Faces- Here is One

I saw an Arizona Senator not named McCain the other day say that unemployment extensions and the cost of them should be offset in the budget to keep deficits under control. In the next sentence he stated that the Bush tax cuts should be kept in place( they are set to expire) but that of course there would be no reason to offset the cost of these as tax cuts do not need to be paid for. I do not think anything quite so illustrates the feeling that Republicans are looking our for your interests --providing of course that you are wealthy.

I saw a fellow I have known for years at my sons baseball game the other night. One of the most upbeat people I have ever known you can imagine my surprise when I asked him how things were and his response was " Well, ok considering." I did not know what that meant so when he told me a few moments later he had been let go from his job it all came into focus. He had worked the same job for 29 years. Since high school. His company was closing his department, outsourcing it. As you can imagine working 29 years he was making a pretty good salary. I too went thru unemployment last year as my company was purchased by a much larger company. In effect we had been so successful turning our companies fortunes around and thus the stock price that we made it very profitable for our company to sell out...and thus make our jobs go away. It is a sad thing, all this merging and combining. 100 years ago Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts and put in place departments like the FDA. Since Reagan and thru Clinton, enthusiastically thru Clinton it must be noted, deregulation has brought about mergers and acquisitions which have brought banks, airlines, petro companies, insurance and many other interests. None of this has been good for you and me.

So this friend of mine was six weeks out still hurting. Bitter and not understanding of how this could happen he was not himself. We all go thru tough times and he certainly will recover. But like me, having been someone who worked always, never missing time and was proud of his work ethic this is a shock. His son is going away to college in the fall and now his happiness about that is tinged with worry. I know that feeling, we are now a one income family. My situation is a little different, as I am no longer unemployed but am now disabled. I have to wonder sometimes if I would have got sick if I had not lost my job. It is a genetic condition that i have, I was born with it. But as the adult onset version of this one does wonder what switch was tripped. Was it the stress from the events, one will never know.

Like all things however once events are set in motion a life is changed. My friend is not out of work and even should he be fortunate to find a job he will make much less and never feel secure. This man is raising a fine family with three boys, is active in his community, does all the right things. He in the last two months has had globalization and the merging and outsourcing problem take a piece of him away.

I used to tell another good friend that all big business was evil. He would laugh and for the last 5 years tell me who do you think produces the things that make this country work, including jobs. Well the sad fact is the jobs they produce is like getting energy from the production of coal. You get something you need but at what cost is this. Last year when he and I were let go of our company --and the way that it was done, made clear to him that I was right. Big business is evil. When you realize you are just a cog, even a very good cog, in the machine and how unimportant and replaceable you are you lose a sense of yourself.

Loyalty is a big part of my life. I believe in it strongly. It is disappearing from American life. My friend had the lack of loyalty hit him in the face this spring. I hope that he recovers. Even if he does however, he will never be the same.