Unemployed activists have clamored for news attention to the plight of the “99ers,” people who have exhausted the unprecedented 99 weeks of unemployment benefits made available in some states to fight the worst recession since the Great Depression. They got some attention they might not have wanted on Monday, when Fox News host Glenn Beck introduced them to his viewers. “Have you heard of the 99ers?” said Beck, showing video from a New York rally last Thursday. “Some of these people, I bet you’d be ashamed to call them Americans.”
Amazing isn’t it, how some (gainfully employed) folks think that they have fool-proof advice for those of us who are currently unemployed? “Just get a job!”, they say…as if that wasn’t exactly what the vast majority of us are actively engaged in trying to do.
“Just get a job!”, as if it was just that easy. I don’t know; perhaps people like Glenn Beck thinks we’re all hanging out at the club getting in 18 holes before we take our polo ponies out for a ride. And when we’re not doing that, we’re snorting Bolivian marching powder off the naked backsides of supermodels. As if….
“Just get a job!”, as if we should be grateful that someone will hire us to work a dead-end minimum wage job. Or two. Or three. Never mind that many of us have mouths to feed, or mortgages to meet, lights to keep on, and who knows what else. Personally, I’m sick and tired of being told what I should be doing by people who have well-paying jobs and have NO idea what realities and obligations I or anyone else in my situation have to meet, whether or not we have an income.
Beck can regale us with all the “I remember when….” stories he wants, but his gross insensitivity and lack of compassion doesn’t change the reality that I and millions like me can’t find jobs that pay a living wage. It’s easy for Beck to pontificate from his soapbox, making untold millions of dollars per year as he does. He has no idea what millions of Americans have to deal with on a daily basis. That his dismissive, arrogant distaste for the unemployed is shared by many in Congress is indicative of what can only be described as a metaphorical war on the unemployed by those too full of themselves to entertain anything resembling compassion. Far too many business owners complain about people who prefer to remain on unemployment…yet they refuse to pay a living wage. It’s a buyer’s labor market, and too many are trying to take advantage of the unemployed by keeping wages low. Hey, if you don’t want to work for $10 an hour, there are others lined up outside the door who will. Take it or leave it, buddy….
Even worse are the growing numbers of businesses refusing to hire anyone who’s unemployed. “Just get a job!”, they say. It’s easy to kibbitz and cast aspersions when you can do so from behind the security of a paycheck, knowing that you’ll be able to pay your bills and feed your family. It’s easy to feel superior, but I hope that those of you who feel justified in regarding the unemployed as pond scum never find yourself in this position. In the meantime, those of you who do feel that way can go fornicate yourself…and take Glenn Beck with you.
