Ford lays off thousands of workers to keep lean. To improve efficiency, Nissan eliminates jobs. Enron’s top execs are exposed as greedy charlatans whose actions ultimately sacrifice the incomes ~ both present and future ~ of all its employees, no matter the rank or tenure. What on earth will these poor folk do now to earn a living?
Well, you ask good questions, and I think I have some valid answers. But first, let me ask you: who, ultimately, is responsible for keeping these individuals employed. Is it the state? Is it the community or the church or friends or family? How about their employers?
Now, if your dad’s a faithful member of Jaycee Local #237, or if your mom’s been an employee of the local municipality since time immemorial, or if you personally have worked as a teacher, policeman or postal worker, then your answer is likely to be something like: “that’s why we have unions, so “big business” can’t bag us at will or otherwise prevent us from our right to the American Dream.”
I won’t even take time here to comment on the validity of this age-old notion.
However, I will say – emphatically – that the responsibility for a person’s livelihood, earning-power, and vocational preservation lies squarely and undeniably on his or her own shoulders. No union, no employer, no benevolent government entity is the least bit obligated to serve as benefactor to the welfare of any able-bodied person.
You know, just 150 years ago or so, most folk in this country were opposed to the idea of working for some large corporation, preferring instead to work for themselves or in a family business. Indeed, the concept of “big business” was still quite new to the masses. People simply tended to their own businesses…some productive, moderately lucrative “cottage industry” that served to supply the needs of both the immediate family, as well as those of the surrounding community. Many nostalgically call these times the Farming or Agrarian Age.
Along came the Industrial Age; the age of machinery, mechanization, mass production, giving rise to advancing technology and a demand for more skilled labor. Fast forward through the corporate down-sizing, the hostile mergers and hyper-advancement of technology of the 80s and 90s, the general consensus is that the industrial age has surely run its course. Or at least has been permanently and dramatically transformed.
Things have undeniably changed. Hello, Information Age, and with it, a new form of business evolution, in which newer ideas and technology piggy-back and are dependent on older ones (e.g.: the telephone line and the Internet).
In years past, it seemed only the most aggressively entrepreneurial and driven folks would even consider opening a business and making customers of their neighbors. But now, we see in this age of easy information and cheapening technology that same sort of initiative in more and more lives throughout our communities.
It seems clear things are coming full circle…or perhaps full revolution.
I think this is needful, because in this relatively new Information Age, the outdated notions of job security, retirement benefits and such are quickly fading. Consequently, it’s becoming clearer almost by the day that it’s ultimately up to the individual to make the most of his or her own resources to continue “earning a living.”
Be Free!
