There was a science fiction short story, I cannot recall the name, which predicted in the future that meaningful work would be the great luxury. The only job the poor had in this story was consuming.
We are getting there. Our poor have stuff, are encouraged to borrow to get more stuff, and are not starving, but they cannot find meaningful work.
When I went back to work after Christmas break, I felt so happy. My job is ideal, my bosses awesome, and my teammates hard working, creative, and strong. I love what The Saint Constantine School is doing. I posted about this tagged to a piece from The Onion about how a Christmas break had strengthened a worker’s…hatred for his job.
I thought this funny until I was reminded how many of my friends have jobs they hate and how many cannot get meaningful full time work.
These are not lazy people. These are not “losers” or folks who majored in “art history” and demand a job teaching art history. These are people looking for decent middle class jobs where they are treated with dignity, as human beings, and allowed a living wage. They don’t want to be rich, they want work.
One of my grandfathers once told me about finally getting a job during the Great Depression. He would look at me and say that he finally received “wages” and the way he made that word sound made it a holy thing to me. Wages. Work. Dignity.
My dad pounded this home to me when he told me (as a very little kid) that given the way the economy was going, my brother and I would be “OK.” What about those who did not go to college? What about the two-thirds of the population that plays by the rules but is not college material? We were never to forget that a society with nothing for the working person was an unjust society.
The Declaration of Independence is right: we have a God given right to human happiness. That right means “flourishing” as a human being and meaningful work, or work that allows for meaningful work, is necessary for a man or woman to flourish. Of course, a person may do a job to pay for his main love . . . I have had friends who worked hard to support their real mission in life: family. They spent the time at work so they could do the great, good thing: raise wonderful kids.
The free market is a good thing, but it is not the only thing. Sometimes, as Ronald Reagan knew, there was a need for a social safety net. That’s why we have Social Security and unemployment insurance. Government is a good thing. The rule of law keeps us safe from chaos, but when government grows bloated and gets in bed with big business, then it no longer acts for justice, but becomes oppressive. The coal companies of West Virginia abused their money and power to buy government and kill workers. One of my grandparents was killed by Union Carbide, a company that could not be bothered to protect him from asbestos when they knew it would kill him. Big business and big government got together to hurt the working man and woman.
Christians need to demand that our politicians and business leaders acknowledge that everyone deserves a chance. It is one thing for a man or woman to choose vice and reap the results. It is another case to create an economy where the powerful in government and business belong to the same interchangeable class and act only for each other’s needs.
We are not there yet, but we are getting there. President Obama has failed to check either big business or big government. He has increased the size and power of both. Too many Americans cannot get jobs to support the good life. I don’t mean “consumption,” but the time for meaningful living. The forty hour work week allowed my grandparents to focus on church and community. That was their life, not the job that allowed that life, but at least they had jobs.
Yes. They worked for companies that needed to be checked by government, but now the government and the companies have become one. The libertine Left preaches a lifestyle only the upper middleclass and rich can survive, sin impoverishes the rest quickly. The right forgets that allowing my grandfather to die while the market slowly adjusts is evil.
President Theodore Roosevelt understood these truths. He loved liberty and he knew that socialism would kill liberty. As a child of privilege, he did not hate wealth, but enjoyed it. TR knew, however, that if “big business” ran roughshod over workers, used money to control Congress, then revolution was inevitable. It might be a revolution from the right (fascism) 0r from the left (communism), but the loss would be the “muddle along” liberty that is the best any human can hope to find.
We need just now leaders who will tell us how we can find meaningful work for the millions of Americans who cannot find work and have given up looking. We need leaders who will reject socialism and Ayn Rand libertarian cruelty. We need leaders in the private and public sector who will fight for the working man and woman who cannot find work that is meaningful . If we do not, the Republic will not “muddle through.” Extremists will gain office.
Perhaps worst of all, many “Christian” ministries have become dominated by grifters who are in bed with their own “big” religion. They are prophets for profit growing rich on schools, ministries, or churches that they loot for personal gain. They count nickels and noses and their salaries grow while their staff suffers.
Where is our Theodore Roosevelt? Where are our business leaders who voluntarily give up their wealth? Where is our Saint Francis or RA Torrey who will give up privilege to serve the Church? We can name a few, but we need more and we need them now. There is a rebellion brewing on both the left and right . . . and revolution is ugly. Let’s head it off with social change that will provide liberty while checking the excesses of the powerful.
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