The percentage of working age men with a job “any job” Business Week reports, has fallen to 63.5%, the lowest since 1948. For those in what they call their “prime” working age, 25 to 54, only 81.2% have jobs. In 1969, 95% of men in the prime working age category had a job. Business Week points out that the social consequences of this permanent state of the unemployed or underemployed as those who do find jobs find that wages are not what they used to be. Taking inflation in to account, median wages of working men between 30 and 50 fell 27% between 1969 and 2009 according to one analysis.*
In 1969 fewer than 50% of women held a job (outside of family maintenance that is). After the end of the post war boom, millions of women entered the workforce and by 2008 72% held jobs but women too have suffered through this economic crisis falling to 68.9% this summer. Business Week reminds us that women still earn 16% less than men which if correct is a significant change from what was the 70 cents to a man’s dollar gap for many years. But women still do most of the family maintenance, housekeeping, child rearing etc. as well as working outside the home. They also suffer gender discrimination as well as setbacks in their careers and job opportunities as they are victimized in capitalist society for being the carrier of future workers.
In 1969 fewer than 50% of women held a job (outside of family maintenance that is). After the end of the post war boom, millions of women entered the workforce and by 2008 72% held jobs but women too have suffered through this economic crisis falling to 68.9% this summer. Business Week reminds us that women still earn 16% less than men which if correct is a significant change from what was the 70 cents to a man’s dollar gap for many years. But women still do most of the family maintenance, housekeeping, child rearing etc. as well as working outside the home. They also suffer gender discrimination as well as setbacks in their careers and job opportunities as they are victimized in capitalist society for being the carrier of future workers.
The coupon clippers are concerned about the loss of jobs among the male population as this has other negative effects. “While unemployment is an ordeal for anyone, it still appears to be more traumatic for men. Men without jobs are more likely to commit crimes and go to prison” BW says. I know after following some of the family annihilation's that have occurred after which fathers have taken their own lives that these often occur after job losses or being unable to “provide” for the family which is supposed to be their role. A tremendous feeling of failure is common among men who cannot fulfill this gender role. They did everything right, worked hard, sacrificed and end up with nothing, losing all they have worked for to the tumultuous eruptions of market forces.
W Bradford Wilcox of the National Marriage project points out that unemployed men or husbands actually do less work in the home as the result of unemployment and the loss of a means of subsistence leads them to withdraw from family life altogether. This is a result of the powerful effect of gender roles in society as hopelessness and failure consume people and destroy their self worth because they have absorbed all the macho garbage that is perpetuated in film, television, religion and in every day life through the institutions of the state.
The bourgeois will build more prisons but the US already has two million people in prison, more than any other country in the world. The fact that some 50% of this overwhelmingly working class population is black folks is an unshakable confirmation of the racism that is inherent and institutionalized in US society. Racism and sexism will never be completely eliminated without transforming the organization of society.
We can see the predicament the ruling class is in as their system is convulsed in crisis. One of the solutions is education, BW says, “reducing financial barriers to higher education would be a start” the magazine adds. But we are heading in the completely opposite direction. Also, new technology and capitalist globalization, has created a much larger Labor market in areas where wages are much lower and workers’ rights much weaker, capital is naturally drawn there. So even if education were to become more affordable which is not likely, the jobs are not there.
We can see the predicament the ruling class is in as their system is convulsed in crisis. One of the solutions is education, BW says, “reducing financial barriers to higher education would be a start” the magazine adds. But we are heading in the completely opposite direction. Also, new technology and capitalist globalization, has created a much larger Labor market in areas where wages are much lower and workers’ rights much weaker, capital is naturally drawn there. So even if education were to become more affordable which is not likely, the jobs are not there.
Obama’s proposal is to give the private employers taxpayer money in the form of tax credits to hire us. We give an individual or group of individuals our money so they can use it to pay us wages in return for work—after they skim their share off the top that is.
But the best ideas, or the ones that express in complete honesty the way bosses really view working people are to reduce unemployment benefits extensions for those workers who have been unemployed for a year or more in order to get those lazy bums to work. It gives those of us “getting by on an unemployment check a stronger incentive to take a job…” BW writes. We all know how wonderful a year out of work is, it brings the family together, improves personal relations, makes the kids happy as dad or mum are at home even if little league, cello lessons and the summer camp have to go.
Another proposal from the capitalist economists is to give someone who doesn’t want to work but wants to hire others to do so skimming their share off the top taxpayer money to hire retired disabled people to get them off social security. “Since 1970, the fraction of 25 to 60 year old men on disability has more than doubled from 2.4% to 5%. Once they begin receiving disability payments, few return to work” Business Week whines.
Another proposal from the capitalist economists is to give someone who doesn’t want to work but wants to hire others to do so skimming their share off the top taxpayer money to hire retired disabled people to get them off social security. “Since 1970, the fraction of 25 to 60 year old men on disability has more than doubled from 2.4% to 5%. Once they begin receiving disability payments, few return to work” Business Week whines.
Now there’s nothing wrong with people with disabilities being productive. It’s healthy to produce, we all need to go home at the end of the day and feel we have contributed to the collective good, that we have produced something. But the bosses and those unelected folks that run society see it merely as reducing some social costs while creating an opportunity for a budding Donald Trump to profit off of the Labor of others.
We only have to think of how social workers or people that look after our children in capitalist society are treated or paid to remind ourselves of how much it values human life.
*Michael Greenstone MIT
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