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.
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