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November is bearing down on us not only with a midterm Election Day early in the month but also a deadline at the other end that will pull the plug on benefits for millions of Americans — unless Congress does something about it.
The latest word from Washington: Don’t hold your breath. There’s no politically expedient way to bail out the heart of America the way the banks and auto makers were bailed out. So Congress isn’t even going to try, it appears, at least until after the Nov. 2 elections.
We’re told that anywhere from 5.5 million to 6 million people already have exhausted their benefits without being able to find work. But even that’s smoke and mirrors: Although the “posted unemployment rate” is 9.6%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the number at 16.7%.
And that doesn’t count those Americans who’ve had their hours cut, along with their benefits, or had to take part-time work because that was all that was available. The number then climbs to nearly ONE QUARTER of the country.
Jerry DeMarco Publisher/Editor
In the end, that leaves us with only one job for every six Americans. Not opinion. Not conjecture. Fact.
If lawmakers working on their stump speeches allow the federal unemployment extensions to lapse on Nov. 30 — without establishing a Tier V for high unemployment states SUCH AS NEW JERSEY — we‘re looking at nearly 10 million Americans out of work come Christmas.
No wonder Toys R Us is opening all those holiday outlets. It’s a sure-fire winner for the Wayne-based company, the equivalent of driving your landscaping truck past a Palisades Park corner and scooping up a bunch of migrants willing to work for cash and no benefits.
Just like the back-breaking workers, we’re not talking about shiftless, no-good leeches eating up the minimal pittance the government doles. They’re not deadbeats or money-grubbers. For the most part, they’re honest people looking for help up, not a handout.
And they’re not all old-timers who’ve been feasting on the public teat all their lives. Many are in their 20s and 30s and genuinely fearful of what’s to come. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder with middle-aged lifers still sharp enough to get things done but too close to retirement for companies to invest in them.
They look like you and me. They walk, talk and act the same. I should know: I’m one of them.
We’ve lost our homes — and, in some cases, our marriages, our families. Our cars have broken down — and fixing them only means we have to find the funds to fill ‘em up. And speaking of tune ups: We skip health insurance, playing Russian roulette with whatever assets we have against the possibility that we could end up in need of insanely expensive care.
I’m not calling for socialism. I’m talking humanism. The countless millions in American dollars sent overseas conjure images of my drunken stepfather squandering his paycheck on booze and broads, while we lighted candles at home because the electricity got turned off.
If charity truly does begins at home, then let’s get this party started right. A country is measured by the compassion it shows its people.
I remember learning of “the social contract,” one of the things our teachers said made this the greatest country on earth (as if such a distinction has any value when you‘re talking about a world of brothers and sisters). If I remember correctly, it promised nothing more than the guarantee of an opportunity to make a better life for ourselves. Work hard, study, find a job and the rest will take care of itself, we were told.
Sounded simple enough — only it wasn’t. The dream that didn’t come true for far too many of us is now a lie.
We worked hard. We gave it all we had. We believed that fairness would win out, that we wouldn’t get screwed. This was, after, all, the greatest country in the world. “We” can do anything!
Gullible, weren’t we?
The very people who have the ability to keep our moral center from eroding — and our people from taking to the streets in revolt — are also among some of the wealthiest. So where are their priorities? Not with you or me, friend. They’ve got commercials to shoot, speeches to make, palms to grease.
Meantime, WE’RE f***ed.
We keep pounding the pavement, looking here, there and everywhere, lowering our needs and expectations as each day without results passes, just so that we can maybe find something — or, better yet, it can find us — and we can hold onto our self-esteem, if not our homes, just a bit longer.
What I want to know is: If we’re Number 1, why are we being treated like Number 2? And why are our futures deliberately being putting on hold until after Nov. 2 by those who actually can keep the levees from breaking NOW?
Are we going to have to stand on our roofs, the way the poor Katrina victims did, holding signs that say “Please send help”?
Or are our “leaders” so consumed with having the dance band on the Titanic play their song that they won’t see us, anyway? Have they pulled a Robert Johnson, exchanging their empathy, if not their souls, at the crossroads, and in exchange getting the opportunity to remain in office? And if so, isn’t that a different kind of social contract?
If it were only possible for them to understand their roles in history, for the need for them to create jobs, to invest in America, to pull all of us into the effort, the way it was done on major public works projects in the past.
Without hope, I am nothing. And with each dispatch from Capitol Hill, more and more Americans feel themselves vanishing.
I’ve heard some great — and some not-so-great ideas: Flash mobs at Wal-Mart, or on Congress members’ lawns. Marches. Rallies. Protests. REVOLUTION, even (As someone recently pointed out, America was formed by a band of renegades who gave their government the high hat).
Here’s my idea: Get all the unemployed together and form a PAC. Then bring pressure on lawmakers to treat us like No. 1. As a quick fix, nix the minimum wage. Tax the shit out of imports. Keep the jobs here.
If that doesn’t work, pick one from among our group and get that person elected as a write-in come Nov. 2. Once that happens, begin branching out, filling seats everywhere, shifting the balance of power — to the people. Soon, we will have the Party of Us. We, the People.
Us versus “them.”
Has a nice ring to it.
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