Po
Boy Views
By
Phil
LaMancusa
The Silenced
Minority
Or
Who
Needs Me?
Look at the poor Sad
Sack on the corner standing in traffic with a cardboard sign:
“Old
And In The Way”.
“Help
Feed Me, I Fed You”.
“God
Bless”.
See
that guy? He used to be a famous chef, now nobody wants him; I guess they think
he’s too old to cut the mustard. Give him a buck.
In
2016, 23% of adults in this country
were older than 60; that percentage is estimated to grow by 28% by next year
(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published in 2018). From 2006-2016 the percentage went up 36%.
That means today there are over 68,700,000 geezers lurking about; almost one in
four American citizens and the numbers
are going up. I am in that number and sooner or later (Lord willing and if
the virus don’t gitcha) you will be too. Note: this age group is growing because
we’re taking better care of ourselves, being healthy equals a longer life. There
are almost 50,000,000 officially ‘retired’ Americans out there (dgydj.com) taking up valuable oxygen, real estate and
bathroom facilities and giving back bupkis.
One
in three Americans are under 19 years old, which figures out, if you’ve follow
my math, that 45% of Americans are doing 100% of the work not done by migrants,
and the rest of us are dead weight. We
could round up all the kids and geezers send them to a third world country,
build a wall… (wait, didn’t somebody already think of that?) Until that time
you’re stuck with us, so why not put us to work? I’m not advocating child labor
(although it wouldn’t hurt some of these miscreants), but I’m sure for seeing more
gray hair in the work force.
One
of the things most retirees have in common is that we feel we’re relegated out
to pasture, unemployed, underutilized, retired, and wasted. Most of us miss having
a job, we’d like to work, get that paycheck and spend disposable income
contributing to our sense of self worth, dignity and the economy; however --- and
here’s a big however --- there is age discrimination when it comes to hiring processes,
and even though we have more experience and wisdom (hopefully), we’re passed
over without pause for someone young, dumb and full of flowing body fluids. Do employers
think we’re gonna stroke out on their watch?
Perhaps
subconsciously they realize that us older folks know from experience how much
of a screwing inexperienced younger employees are apt to get when it comes to
making a fair wage, working a reasonable schedule. Also we know the value that comes when the
person that you answer to relates to you from logic and not from their ego/libido;
ergo: when it comes to laboring in wacko circumstances we’re more likely to
leave than suck it up or stick it out. We’ve been there and done that, know
that there’s no future in abuse and, as opposed to our younger counterparts, we
don’t come cheap or easy.
Well,
sure you might say that unemployment is the lowest it’s been in decades and
there just might not be room for older folks to take jobs that the young need
to get a jump start on the future as they see it; yet, the majority of jobs out
there being filled are for low wage poor or no benefit temporary or part time
positions and a person having two or three jobs does not mean three jobs, it
means one person working three times as hard. The amount of people that have
stopped looking for jobs and are off the rolls of the unemployed also brings
down the unemployment statistics. I’ve researched and it appears to me that
wages have not increased in the last couple of decades to match the rising cost
of living and neither has workers equality or benefits. Yes, unemployment is
down; but, the same numbers of people are working. Get it? 45%? We have created
a culture of massive amounts of underpaid overworked bees and a few rich bitch queens.
In America, food service and drinking place
jobs were up over two and a half times in 2019. Louisiana has the third highest
unemployment rate in the country at 4.9% (USA Today), yet there is a shortage
of skilled labor jobs being filled; we’re busy taking that second job slinging
hash and beer.
5,600,000 people are either working part time
jobs or are just marginally attached to employment, average weekly hours is
34.4 hours (U.S. Department of Labor 11/19).
In
Louisiana we have only an 82% high school graduation rate and 20% illiteracy
rate (worldatlas.com). I suspect there
are many skilled workers that have retired or been sent to pasture who are
needed in our work force, heaven knows, we’re not skilling our children, we’re
graduating dishwashers. I want to re-enter the job market as a retired skilled
worker, I’ll leave the unskilled job market alone, god knows there are people
desperate enough to take those jobs; And if I’m as old as the person who’ll be
your President (and you elect them for four years), I should be more than
viable!
So,
the answer to my dilemma is simple: raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, insure
income equality and freeze housing prices. From the bottom in this country Louisiana
is third in poverty, fourth in income inequality and seventh in medium
household income; blacks average half the income whites earn (labudget.org).
By
doing those things more people will quit their second jobs, moms will stay home
with the kids, the economy will realistically boom. Greedy bosses will have to
live with a fair profit and I’ll get back to work; believe me, finding a
lucrative corner to work is not as easy as you might think, although with the
current health crisis it might be the only safe place to be.
