Would You Like Fries With That Economy?

Once upon a time, industrial workers got very little respect in our economy.  The powers that controlled things thought of them as pretty much replaceable cogs in the industrial wheel.  They worked long hours for very little pay and zero benefits.

But thanks to the progressive movement of the early 20th century, labor unions, and the mobilization of the workforce to handle World War II, industrial workers gained stature and economic strength.  America had it's most vibrant middle class, with people's lives improving, and many families prospering.  For a couple of generations, there looked like a real surge of progress, as middle-class lives showed vitality and mobility.

And then came the Reagan Revolution.  Unions were attacked as evil things, the tax structures were retooled to reduce taxes for the wealthy while raising taxes on the middle class (some of the largest middle-class tax increases occurred during those years), and globalization encouraged large multi-national corporations to move jobs overseas to the lowest common denominator.

This trend accelerated during the first part of the twenty-first century.  More industrial jobs moved oversea and more wealth concentrated on the top.  It has only been in the last few years that the plunge in the manufacturing sector has stopped and stabilized.

But as manufacturing has declined, what has taken its place?  Jobs that are hard to move overseas.  Jobs that are in the service sector.  Fast-food workers, retail jobs, health care employees, motel maids, hairdressers, and lawn care; all these and many like them are the new center of the American economy.  The new largest employee in the United States is no longer General Motors, paying workers in the mid-twenties per hour, but Walmart, barely paying above minimum wage.

These jobs are no longer the "entry-level" jobs.  These jobs are now THE jobs.  And there is a lot of chatter that these people don't work hard enough, or aren't accomplished enough to deserve a good wage.  Someone gets bad service one day at a fast food place, and all of a sudden every fast-food worker is unworthy scum. There is no thought to the idea that they may be poorly trained, under-compensated, and lacking in motivation and job security.

Until these workers are given security, until they are paid a living wage, until they are properly trained and motivated, the American economy will always suffer.  Our middle class will never come back until we get the notion out of our head that service workers are second class citizens who don't deserve to make a proper living.

Are you okay with fast food works making wages below what it takes to sustain one's self?  Well, guess who is making up the difference?  That's right!  You, the American taxpayer!

When service workers make so little that they require public assistance to get by, when companies actually help their employees register for food stamps, something is horribly wrong.  Something has to give.  Something has to change.

Let's give service workers the dignity they deserve.  Let's have an education system that gives people the base of knowledge they need, let's train employees so they know how to handle the public well, and let's pay them so they can take care of themselves and their families.  Everyone who works full time (or should be allowed to work full time if employers structured their worker's time fairly), everyone who works hard (and service workers are among our hardest working employees) , deserves a living wage in this country.

Everyone.