New Hustle Economy

 

In 1992 Ross Parrot ran for President of the United States. A wealthy businessman, he used charts and slogans to make his points for the American public. He is famous for many things, but his phrase, “The great sucking sound” that would be the result of passing the Free Trade Agreement became a catch phrase for all sudden job transfers between countries or regions.

Parrot was referring to the loss of American jobs to Mexico and over seas if what came to be known as NAFTA was passed. Bill Clinton won the election and he signed NAFTA in January of 1994.

Elements of NAFTA offered incentives for business owners to outsource, allowing a path for the destruction of what remained of the American labor movement. With that last shred of protection from big business the great transfer of wealth from the populace to the very wealthy could continue and has up to recent times. Deregulation and the housing bust, supported by both political parties over time sealed the fate of the American worker’s safety nets and hard fought rights to collective bargaining.

Recent GOP policy shifts have provided a path for the total dismantling of even government collective bargaining groups at the state level in Wisconsin, with many other states in the process of attempting to follow suit. The rallying cry was that state unions were hurting the economy and state budgets. History showed us the need for collective bargaining from the free economy days of monopolies, particularly in American history.

Socialism on a world level was given greater credit when it was observed that the “hidden hand” of capitalism flat our failed to work as predicted to prevent the support of the workers for safe working conditions, among other things. Why should anyone want to be an economic slave? Better to share the economy and live than to return to some version of debtors prisons was one of the rationals.

More and more people are seeing their safety nets evaporating as one business after another is taking pension funds and health care and either canceling them or reworking them to off load the responsibility to someone else, often the tax payers in the case of air lines and steel companies, not to mention several others.

Several businessmen have followed the money and bought companies for their lucrative pension funds and health care, only to take the company into debt to pay off the investment stakeholders and then let the company sail on it’s merry way to either sink or swim.

 

Mitt Romney, a recent GOP candidate for U. S. President was highly successful at taking companies, loading them up with debt and sending them on their merry way to sink or swim. He made a fortune at this type of activity, following a long and illustrious list of previous businessmen who had blazed that trail ahead of him. He also used outsourcing as a wonderful leverage option, resulting in the loss of jobs according to many reports posted during the election cycle.

For the empowered volunteer all this is simply a basic review of recent history, but so what? Well, it matters a bunch. The people who have lost their jobs are now hustling for a living. The people who have a job are sweating losing theirs. Big business has recaptured the position of the 800 pound gorilla. Jobs that have been lost are now often combined into what used to be two or three previous jobs. The increased stress of doing the responsibility of what used to be two or three jobs will show up in the health patterns of U.S. workers in the future, but by then it will be too late. With no protections from big business, the negative pattern of the industrialization age will repeat itself in modern times, with predictable results of continued wealth transfer and depreciating social capital for those who survive.

None of those results involve the upward mobility of most Americans. The gap between the quote, “haves and have nots” has even captured the attention of economists now, with no solution in sight. The Reagan “Trickle down economy” failed at its most basic level. When you guide the flow of money to a tiny and select group and then hope it will be transferred to the rest of society, you ignore basic human motivation. I personally found much to admire about President Reagan, but his degree in economics gave him ideas which were found to be unworthy of a large economy like the United States.

What can those people who have either dropped off the hunt for entering the great middle class of Americans and just hope to be allowed to float or hover in the working class do to help alleviate the new physical body stresses they find themselves in? Beyond work outs and socializing, meditation and other relaxing programs they should volunteer.

I have elaborated on many earlier posts on the benefits of volunteering for the individuals health. The science is real, the benefits are too. However, in this new hustle economy where the labor force is now returning to the days before unification, where giant companies can and will again squash the individual spirit of any who don’t accept low wages and deregulating safety in the name of productivity, one must look towards their individual safety first. Everyone must return to survival mode and it is truly a survive until you can thrive situation in America today.

The uncounted thousands of American workers who have resorted to such things as freelancing their skills to cobble together an unfocused path towards making a living will likely in the future produce the first generation who can’t afford to retire.

Accountants, computer specialists, skilled trades, so many have turned towards this path of employment that it has spawned websites and other social media in support. Their efforts to find economies of scale in order to make a profit will find an end as big business notices and take action. Often, small businesses sacrifice health care and future retirement savings to simply survive the moment, while competing for the scraps of work that can be found from businesses who have downsized and now claim that they can’t find workers who have the skills needed to be employed.

This cycle is repetitive and unless some kind of outside stimulus emerges, such as a world war it will not be broken. In America we have a history of economic success after a war though, a positive one for society too.

Keep in mind that the American GI Bill was the result of the huge failure of efforts to reintroduce servicemen back into society after WWI. So Congress  passed the act to encourage regular American’s to go to college. It worked very well and produced an American middle class that felt empowered and enlightened. Before the end of WWII, regular citizens had no chance of going to college! Only the elite could do that.

Today, education and the public support of it is under enormous stress from the political party who doesn’t see educated workers as worthy. In many states the public funds have been cut so much that real free public high school education is no longer worthy of helping drive our kids into good jobs. Only the wealthy can assure themselves of a post secondary education if this continues. Sound familiar from the short history lesson reviewed above?

It is not in the interest of a free capitalist economy for big business to allow the freelancers to associate or to empower themselves into any kind of actions which lead to unionization. Thus it is very unlikely to be allowed. There is an attempt right now for this to happen. I don’t give their chances much hope though.

Now that deregulation of some industries like banking has been shown to be dumb, again showing how human motivations conflict with a few theories that only a free economy can harvest the engine of American creativity and energy, the regular American family is left destitute and without a clear future while those who caused this failure profited enormously from their actions.

The empowered volunteer can’t fight this pattern and should not try to do so. But on an individual basis these people can be helped if they are willing to step outside of their hustling and just serve others. They can also improve their resources and their personal network, all good reasons to volunteer too. But the biggest reason is that volunteering has been scientifically shown to extend lives and positively affect an individuals health.

As a point of interest, a volunteer group was front and center in the push to pass the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act of 1944. The American Legion helped 8.8 million veterans get college or training which resulted in the transfer of many into the great middle class!

Help this growing segment of society live longer and better by inviting them to volunteer!