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Wendy’s Story – Cleveland Jobs Challenge

Courtesy of Bruce Krasting

I wrote an article recently that was critical of Congress’s action to pass a bill extending unemployment benefits. My primary objection was that our lawmakers chose to pass yet another deficit spending bill and used the “emergency” loophole that eliminates the need for Pay Go.

I got lots of feedback from this. Everyone hated my position. Some said that we needed a $500b deficit package (ala Krugman) and that my objection to a lousy $34b was misguided. Others said that there should be no extension of UI at all. A good number suggested that I was a heartless S.O.B. that had no idea what it was like to be unemployed in America today. The later group got to me. I have had an exchange of emails from one person that is facing a wall. She is from Cleveland. Her name is Wendy. Some comments from her:

I was wondering…. Have you ever been scared, really scared?

 

You speak about H.R. 5618 because it is adding to the debt of the country. My thought is you are so self absorbed that you would stop reading this email right now because “unemployed Americans are not worth it”

 

Have another martini in your condo in Miami and rest easy knowing you will never be me. Make sure your children and grandchildren know what you are and what you believe, maybe they already know dad is a selfish cruel Bastard who believes money is the most important thing. Thanks to people like you I will continue to go to bed scared of tomorrow. Sleep well
Wendy,
Children: Jessy and Parker

 

I live in Cleveland, Ohio and am the sole supporter of my children. We can’t pay the mortgage, utilities etc. today. The point for those like me there is no future- we have to get through today- eat, clothing- I can’t buy detergent today.

 

I am a Special education teacher with my Masters degree-- with out a job. I did what the President said, “go back to school”. I took out loans and studied hard to fulfill the dream of being a Special Education teacher. I don’t want a hand out, just a hand up.

I have to admit that this exchange got to me. There have always been people like Wendy who fall through the cracks.  But we have not been through times like the ones we are living through for 80 years. I feel sorry for Wendy, I wish she and all the other Wendy’s did not have to wake up feeling scared. I would like to help her get a job so she could get through this period. I know no one in Cleveland and I doubt that the great state of Ohio is hiring any teachers these days. So she is out of luck.

Possibly someone can help her. I would like to provide some inducement. Here is my proposal:

I will put up $6,000 in cash. $3,000 goes to the employer as an incentive to hire Wendy. No strings attached to that. If a job is offered and accepted they get the money. They can do with it what they wish. The other $3,000 goes to Wendy. She gets the money when she takes the job. This is no freebie.

There is a caveat to this. The job that is offered must provide compensation to Wendy that is equal to or greater than the unemployment benefits she is getting. I would like to see that there were health benefits available at some point. She needs that. The goal here is to get one person back to work and one less person unemployed. The goal is to minimize the fear factor. That is no way to live.

So Cleveland, do you have a job for Wendy? If anyone wants to see the color of my money I would prepay it to one of the Cleveland media to hold pending a job offer. I have nothing to gain here. Just trying to help someone out who clearly needs a little help.

I don’t know Wendy. My guess, just from reading her words, is that she would be a good hire for someone. If an employer with a job wants to take advantage of this offer they should contact Wendy at kindnessmatters2010@gmail.com.  Alternatively you could contact me, Bkrasting@gmail.com.

There is a flip side to this proposal. What if no one makes her a job offer even with a $3,000 incentive to do so? That much money makes her a free hire for a while. If no jobs are forthcoming it implies that there is no work for anyone looking. Should that be the case we would have to conclude that we are in very serious trouble. It would imply that Wendy, and a few million others, are going fall off a cliff pretty soon.

I’ll let you know the results of this experiment.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 11th, 2010 at 3:28 pm and is filed under Immediately available to public. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Comments


  1. flipspiceland
    July 11th, 2010 at 5:32 pm |     PermalinkIgnore this user

    Wendy is only one tiny atom at the tip of growing iceberg and one more statistic to add to the reality that jobs  for billions of people all over the world are just not there and will never be.
    For many years we have simply assumed that there will always be jobs available for those who get an education, and work hard.  This has been patently false.  Having worked for 30 years in the employment agency and executive search business, it has been my experience to see millions of jobs disappearing while the population in the disUnited States kept on rising by tens of millions, this among the educated class. Mostly these jobs disappeared forever  because they were redundand elminated one by one by the great wave of consolidation of thousands of companies financed by the infamous junk bonds that put the purchasing companies on the hook for trillions in debt.  How many administrative types does one company need, a company which buys ten other companies?  How many CFOs (and their support staff) now need to find new jobs?
    I first began to notice this in the late 70s and early 80s in my city where one employer in the Fortune 500 sold itself to another company throwing thousands out of work at corporate headquarters. Being called in to interview these forsaken professionals I was struck by the unique positions they held and the salaries and benefits they were given.  There were no comparable jobs for these mostly adminsitrative and engineering types to be had in our city from any other company and for sure not at the money they were then making.
    Within ten years even more consolidation thru LBOs happened and I kept saying one day there will only be one employer and then what?  It was about this time that I accidentally picked up a copy of, "Player Piano", by Kurt Vonnegut. From him we learn what happens when all the work to be done in the world can be handled by a few people and the rest are put into a false world of ‘work’ in order to give them something to do with their time to feel somewhat valuable.
    Vonnegut was a bit early but his vision now looks to be manifest. What are we going to do in the post-labor world with the ever increasing numbers of people who will find themselves in this rapidly growing class of people with nothing to do?
    Helping out of these people with a 3,000 payoff will do nothing to solve the issue.  You will find others, millons of others bobbing around in the same lifeboats with no direction in which to sail to reach the shores of employment and a return to productive living.

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