Sunday, December 8, 2013

America: Reduced to Anemia


America: Reduced to Anemia

                Dominating America is a form of malevolent and vindictive class warfare. Jobs are scarce while the economy is failing miserably. In his article “Real Unemployment Rate: 22.5%,” Jerome Corsi reports that the unemployment rate in America is at nearly twenty-two percent. As the unemployment rate is spiraling out of control, politicians are pointing fingers at one another claiming that the other is the cause of the worsening economy. Society is wholly exhausted from all of the work that it takes simply to find a decent, well-paying job. Some of these people find employment in areas in which they have not been trained for. Those who are not lucky enough to find jobs are on welfare that is provided by the government. Yet even those who do find jobs are not safe. Businesses are constantly firing employees because the businesses simply cannot afford to pay their employees. In succession, those in the government have finally turned to Socialistic views and policies as a last resort. Although some people are beginning to presume Socialistic views and imposing them upon an already economically unstable America, I think that there is still hope for America and its economy because Americans do not have to become dependent upon Socialism to provide for them since they have so much working potential instilled within them already.
                People are continually grasping for a solution to the failing economy. Both laborers and employees seem to be working extremely hard only to earn minimum wage. Karl Marx sympathizes with “these labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market,” (Manifesto 61). Seemingly, the only jobs to find are small jobs in which the pay is exceedingly low. The employers of these poor workers must be the cause of the financial problems of the laborers. Marx implies that the employers are extraordinarily avaricious and self-centered. He also insists that these employers are constantly lowering the minimum wage because of their lust for money. This leads them to underpay their own laborers.
                Although the Socialistic views of Karl Marx and The Communist Manifesto may seem logical and appealing in the extreme, there are faults with their ideas. It is true that some businessmen and employers are acquisitive and only care about money. However, to put all managers into this group is entirely unfair. There is a point in time in which one must take responsibility for one’s own actions and stop blaming other people for one’s faultiness.
The Socialist party has constructed its own remedy for the economy. It declares Unions to be the answer. The Communist Manifesto says that Unions “club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts,” (63). Unions support employees by providing for them and also by standing up for them against their greedy employers. These Unions compose rules and regulations which are voted on by employees who are part of any one Union. Unions could possibly be very beneficial because they aid the poor and the family unlike the employers who have “torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and [have] reduced the family relation to a mere money relation,” (58). In other words, managers seem not to care anything about the family of the individual who is working for them. They appear to be seeing their employees as mere money-makers who can profit the business owner himself.
Society views a job mainly as a source of income. However, Dorothy Sayers, in her popular dissertation Why Work?, explains that “work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the thing in which he find spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God,” (134-135). It is essential that one must work to his or her full capacity because that is how he or she can enjoy his or her work. So many people hate their jobs today because they have never been taught the principles that Dorothy Sayers clarifies. Unions, therefore, seem very appealing to people because they do not want to have to work hard at something that they hate doing. Unions provide an easy escape from tiresome and menial labor. In the end, this way of thinking and living teaches extreme irresponsibility and does not benefit society as a whole.
                One cannot, however, overlook what the Unions actually say they will do for people. For instance, in Article Three of the Communications Workers of America Constitution, it states that one of their objects is “to improve the conditions of the workers with respect to wages, hours, working conditions and other conditions of employment” (CWA Constitution. Art. III, Sec. b). This Union practically guarantees the financial success of their members. In order to avoid unfair wages and to guarantee the success of its members, this Union ensures its members that it will “do all things which may be necessary or proper to secure for the workers the enjoyment of their natural rights,” (CWA Constitution. Art. III, Sec. e). These Unions can help the economy by helping workers get paid more. As a result of people earning a better salary, people have the ability to spend more money and therefore promote the circulation of money and further benefit the overall success of the economy.
                Although the Unions claim that they will do everything in their power to ensure the financial gain of their workers, they cannot completely guarantee the success of any of their members. Historically, Unions have been known to go on strike and not work until they get paid higher wages. This has to do with an incessant desire for more money. What Union members fail to realize, however, is that by refusing to work and demanding higher wages leads employers to either raise their employees’ wages or fire their employees and hire new ones. What Union members fail to realize, however, is that in the event that their wages are raised, their employers will be forced to charge more for the product that he manufactures or the services he provides since he must be able to pay his employees more money. As a result of higher prices, customers will be discouraged from purchasing any products and the economy will therefore worsen.
In order to truly aid the economy, it is pertinent that people must find work doing things that they love. Sayers, in Why Work?, gives the example of a creator looking down upon his creation; the creator puts a “loving labor into some hobby which can never bring him any economically adequate return,” (135). As a result, the creator serves his work by loving it and not viewing it with the mindset that it is not work, but a joy to do. He creates because he genuinely loves to do so. As soon as the purpose of working is twisted into the need for money instead of pure enjoyment, people become greedy and restless. One will not simply be satisfied with simply doing his job because it is something that he loves to do, rather; he will constantly desire wealth above the simple pleasure of doing what he loves to do which, in turn, will allow him to become angry and bitter toward Society. He will begin to claim that Society does not pay them well enough and is responsible for his hardships and suffering. This is a factor which leads people to turn to Socialism and the Unions, since people believe that only Socialism and Unions can help them get more money out of their jobs.
                As a result of people acting upon their lustful desires for money, America has succumbed to an anemic work ethic. America’s economic strength and vitality are crumbling. The more citizens become dependent upon Unions or other people to provide for them, the greater the anemia spreads throughout the country. Also, if people are working only because they need money or they want to receive Union benefits, they will, undoubtedly, not care about the quality of work that they are doing (133). It is not surprising that people do not work hard at something they do not love because they are selfish. This attitude of irresponsibility and self-centeredness contributes to America’s anemic economy in that people may only want to look after themselves. 
                Because of this incessant irresponsibility that is being taught to society through the means of Socialism, the common consequence of reaping and sowing has been completely forgotten and is now only a distant memory or an old-fashioned parable told by people who seem too pious and cautious. Sayers agrees with this parable by saying, “what most of us demand from society is that we should always get out of it a little more than the value of the labor we give to it. By this process, we persuade ourselves that society is always in our debt—a conviction that not only piles up actual financial burdens, but leaves us with a grudge against society (136). Society is continuously expecting to get more out of their job than they put into it. For instance, one cannot fill up a tank of gas in a car half-way and then turn around and expect the car to produce an outcome that is dependent upon a full tank of gas. The same can be said of people in today’s culture and society. People do not work to their full potential because they are either apathetic and hate their jobs or else they are too dependent on the Unions and Socialism to pay them for their anemic work ethic. These people expect to gain as much income as those who actually work to their full potential. This laziness is spreading like a disease and that is exactly why Socialism was created; in order to be “fair” to both the hard workers who earn what they work for and the lazy, irresponsible ones who think they deserve more than what they work for.  
 Although some view Socialism as a possible remedy for America's poor economy, it is not a valid solution because if people are only working for financial gain then people will not work at all since they have the government to provide for them. Underpaid workers are being crushed by money-seeking employers. As a result, Unions coddle these so-called “poor” workers and demonize the employers and managers. However, society as a whole is the real issue. Society has become too expectant upon jobs to be the source of its income when, in reality, jobs should not be merely a source of income. Rather, one should love his or her job. In addition, society is becoming lazy and apathetic because they are expecting more out of their jobs than they are putting into their jobs. Even though there is not one answer to remedy the economy, one way in which to change the economy for the better is for people to work because they love it and are good it and not merely because they need an income.
                                                                                                                                                        

Works Cited

Beirne, Joe. "CWA Constitution." Communications Workers of America: Union for the Information Age
   Communications Workers of America, 2013. Web. 19 May 2013.
Corsi, Jerome. "Real Unemployment Rate: 22.5%." WND. N.p., 2 May 2012. Web. 20 May 2013.
Marx, Karl. The Communist Manifesto. London: Norton & Company, Inc., 1988. Print.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Letters to a Diminished Church. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc. 2004. Print.