Edwards’ most famous speech is his Two Americas speech and his endorsement of Obama thrums with that theme. I listen to Edwards and it echoes through me and sets off resonances. My life is not his life—my parents were rich, then poor, then middle class during my life. My father both made and lost a fortune in his thirties and forties. I went, paid for partially by the UN, to an elite private school. Then spent my twenties poor, often ill and on occasion only saved from the street by the kindness of friends.
When I think of class issues I think of them in terms of corridors. In every gleaming office tower they are there, in every upscale marble, glass and steel mall—they are there. They are dark concrete, engrimed, lit by harsh fluorescence behind steel cages, streaked with the residue of years of waste. They are the corridors that the service staff use—the maintenance staff, the cleaners, the truck drivers, the blue collar guys who cart the heavy boxes and fixtures around. They are ugly and often they stink.
The most disgusting set of corridors I ever encountered was in the Chateau Laurier. The Chateau Laurier, for those who don’t know, is an old hotel connected by tunnels to Parliament Hill in Ottawa itself. It is one of the hearts of power in Canada. And the sub-basement has a smell that is something between rotten meat and acrid cheese with something acid and chemical cutting through it. I quite literally gagged the day I delivered food meant for the gullets of the rich to the old majestic Chateau, that magnificent palace whose opulent restaurants are but feet from a stench laid down for decades.
It’s that squalor that underlies the worlds of both opulence and sterility – the opulence of the upper class, the sterility of the middle classes’ office buildings. It’s those corridors that those who earn little more, and sometimes less, than minimum wage work out of. For Lord save the clean little people in their white shirts and ties, their buffed oxfords and their clean fingernails—Lord save them from seeing the people who do the work to keep their white walled world clean and running—the people who keep the air conditioning and heat on, the carpets clean and the light fixtures working.
The trolls come out at night as the offices empty. Scurrying out from their tunnels they are allowed to move through the offices once the daytime denizens are gone, not to be offended by the sight of those who sweat for a living or those who deal with dirt and garbage. And when the daytime denizens do see you, if you are one of those night time trolls—they don’t see you. Their eyes don’t track, they move right over you as if you were a piece of moving furniture—an appliance. Only if they need something will they reluctantly approach you—then, after they’ve gotten what they wanted, whacked the machinery, as it were, next time you run into them you usually find you’ve gone back to being an invisible appliance with whom eye contact is to be avoided at all costs. And you are paid in scraps, for your labor you receive a pittance compared to those whose fingernails are clean, whose work involves the strain of typing on a keyboard, attending meetings and picking up the phone.
That’s my second world. It’s a world I inhabit no longer, but it’s a world that haunts me, that I know exists alongside the antiseptic office world. Those corridor dwellers are the ones whose labor makes that new world possible—they are the trolls of the modern world, who come out at night, or who scurry through tunnels in the day, never to be seen by those whom their work helps. If seen, they must be ignored.
And they are.
And so I listen to John Edwards and I marvel that he dares speak of the unspeakable, of the great fear—not just of the middle class, but of all Americans. For we choose not to look at that which we fear. It’s not that we fear the working poor, or their humbler cousins, the broken, those who don’t even have a bad job. It’s that we fear that in them, we might see people like ourselves.
For, to feel secure, in our beautiful world, we must believe that there is something fundamental that makes us different from the poor and the broken. We must think, "ah, but I’m smarter", or "I work much harder", or, less gratifying but still good "I have a better eduation than them."
We must think, then, "I am more valuable than them, I am different, what happened to them could never happen to me! I’m different! I am!"
We cannot see them as humans like us. That many of them work hard, or worked hard when they were allowed to. That most are not stupid, and that many are no worse educated than we (and isn’t that the easiest thing to fix anyway, as if everyone had a high school diploma, or a B.A. or a Ph.D there would be jobs for them all).
But I worked among them, lived among them, was one of them. And what I know is that they work as hard, indeed harder, than most of the soft office workers whose lives they make easy. And I remember the screams from the soft pampered bewildered sots when something went wrong in their pristine worlds and their inability to pick up a heavy box, or use a plunger on a toilet, or confront someone violent. Oh, yes, they disdained the goblins, but they’d coming running fast rather than soil those soft hands.
And yes, this sounds bitter. And yes, it is. And yet, I’ve long moved on from that world. My hands are the soft ones now, I’ve not picked up a shovel in over a decade.
But I don’t think that what I do is somehow innately more deserving than someone who cleans toilets for a living, or who sits at a security desk and patrols to make people safe, or who digs ditches, or who… but why go on, make your own list of the underpaid and under-appreciated.
And so I listen to John Edwards and I know why he lost twice. People don’t like you when you make them look at the other side, at the dark fate that may await them one day if they’re a little unlucky; if their company downsizes, if they’re 45 and the company wants a youngster, or if some guy in China is willing to do their job for one-tenth the wage.
Like the way the middle class says about death "she passed away", we don’t want to look firmly in the face of poverty and see that the face is our face, that its fate echoes ours. If seen, it must be ignored.
Mustn’t it?
Related posts:





Spotlight








Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search

Ian, what an amazing post. Thank you, thank you.
So! Beautiful post, Ian. Thanks.
Your post has many sharp edges
Do you have a bio out there somewhere?
Nope. :) There are pieces in various posts I’ve made over the years, however.
And I wish you would put them in a book. :)
You paint a vivid picture of this other world, a world that some of us live in now, some of us have passed through including me, and others who will never know or understand the desperation of being this poor.
Thank you for this thought-provoking essay on how we treat each other.
This is right, it seems to me. Here is a story. I am a bankruptcy lawyer. Not long ago, I got a call from a woman who has family income in the range of $110K. The family had moved here recently from another city, and bought a house before they sold the old one. They can’t handle two mortgages and the credit card debt, and were looking at bankruptcy. I explained the effect of the 2005 amendments, that they were designed to hurt this family by making them pay all of their disposable income for the next five years, and that this was done by the republicans. She was totally offended at the political implications of my statements, and was utterly unable to talk about the problems any further. Obviously, she could not imagine her situation as akin to the problems faced by the people you describe in the tunnels.
Digg this post
i know well whereof you speak…. as a former worker in some of those dark corridors you’ve hit that nail squarely on its head!!
I always look forward to your posts. This one, as always, was written beautifully. Thank you.
Ian, that’s a very powerful, beautiful post. Thank you.
Ian, thanks for this
masterfulpowerful post.I notice that no one these days says, “But we didn’t know we were poor. Everyone was.” That’s what I heard from my parents, who grew up during WW1 and were married in 1928.
Now I see poor people treated like they have a contagious disease, and it’s their fault they have it, too. No mercy.
beautiful.
also…. if one’s work were to be valued by the effort, the unpleasantness, the difficulty, the necessity, who’s work would be more highly valued? would it not be the person who unplugs the toilet? who collects the trash? i think on some level we turn away from that knowledge too.
It was because of the Two Americas speech that I was a supporter of Edwards. I worry about class divides more than any of our other problems. Good government types try to think of solutions to problems, solutions require political will, but huge numbers of people in the working class and in the worried class haven’t shown that kind of will.
Same here.
yes especially now that our racial divide is over/s
The first rule about Underclass is: Don’t talk about Underclass.
Thanks, Ian, most excellent.
I lived and worked among them for years too, as a warehouseman and as a carpenter. And now that I’m an engineer I always treat the working people with respect. And I’ve seen first hand that most of them are really smart, just as smart as college educated people.
I also argue with them about things like politics, racism, sexism and class. And I understand why they vote Puke. Almost every working person I’ve ever known says that the Democrats want to raise their taxes to pay for people who don’t want to work. Almost every one of them is a bigot.
So I have a hard time feeling sympathetic for people who are all too eager to vote against themselves solely because of their bigotry and class resentment.
If the class divide disappeared I think most of our other problems would as well. As Lincoln said “a house divided against itself cannot stand” – we are separated now, not by north and south but my rich and poor.
Ian, very powerful post. Today I canvassed some neighborhoods with my fellow Democrats and one home I went into had the same smell you described in your post above. The wife was in a wheelchair and smell of human urine was powerful. The urge to gag was instant, but I composed myself and said to myself that I would not show a reaction, but will instead treat this woman no differently than I had anyone all day. Well, we had a nice conversation. The most interesting part is this woman and her husband should not have been on my computer list because both were registered republicans. I asked why she and her husband were on the list and she said, “Well, the only thing I can think of is I’m against the war”. Good enough for me I told her!
Anyways, with the abject squalor around this woman, she truly was a sweet person. I don’t know her story on why she’s in a wheelchair or why her conditions are as such, but I do know it doesn’t matter if you have an “R” or a “D” after your name, poverty is real.
We can’t ignore it.
Thank you, Ian; you always enlighten me.
The people you describe, Ian, used to be known as serfs, and will again be so known should the BushCheney dream of voter suppression, fear, and intimidation come to pass.
Two-thirds of 3,000 NYU students surveyed said they’d give up their vote in the 2008 election in exchange for for free tuition. Fifty percent said they’d permanently give up their right to vote for one million dollars.
I wonder if they’d still consider themselves civically engaged Millennials, or serfs?
O M G!!! what hath bushco wrought?students have become this materialistic or what?
well, Edwards was the person most of us wanted as our candidate, this is certain
however an important point is not made in his speech
the point that is not a privilege to be able to cure your wife, your kid, yourself when you are ill
it is your right
and it is the OBLIGATION of the companies that use us as their workforce to provide us with the assets necessary to do this
to bring our child to the hospital when they break their arm, to fix the their teeth so they don’t rot in their mouth
to keep each of us as productive as possible, this is an expense of those that use people for their labor just as they have to pay their heating bills and their rent
and since we need this protection even when we are out of work, there must be a fund, payed for by employers, not payed for by the work force, and this fund is used for those out of work as well as those who do work
the only way to accomplish that goal is of course single payer, administered by the government and funded by those corporations THAT DO BUSINESS IN THIS COUNTRY
not only those that use our labor but those who count on our health to sell their goods
I do believe there should be a token payment by the laborer as well and this payment really should rise with the size of the family, however the cost must be born by those who turn profit in our country, since they rely on the health of our people to make their profit
there is the analogy that has to be alluded to when we talk about health care, not as though it is a privilege but a necessity
and something that is never addressed;
when health care is provided for an individual, pay rates are almost always lower
this because there is an obvious expense that is already payed, most laborers consider this as part of their requirements being satisfied
in addition, we must make absolutely certain businesses that choose to do business here cannot defer their costs to others, and that means others in another country as well as ours
if they have exported their workforce to a country that does not force them to provide the basic requirements for their labor force, then their product MUST be charged back the expenses of their own they have not payed
this should NOT be called a “tax” or a “levy”, it needs to be called “paying the charges they have incurred”
here is the platform we really have to adopt, that what was once called “taxes” must now be pointed out are NOT taxes, they are bills the companies have caused them self
well, the “right to vote” is sort of a wrong term in the first place
we not only have “the right” to vote, we also have the obligation
I will gladly sell my “right to vote” since it could not possibly create immunity from my “obligation to vote”
hey, here’s an idea
I believe there should actually be a fee for those who do not vote
that would be great, you could get some dispensation simply by applying for it, but you have to be pro active in the election, lest a fine
me likey
or maybe they just don’t see the value in voting? or that with an education and without debt they would be able to do more to affect change than with their vote?
i’d have to know more before i’d freak out over that one. i’m more bothered by the possible disdain for independent critical thought (from book salon).
May be an expression of how hard students are struggling financially.
Me, too, Selise. Creeps me out. Sheeple.
Your potential client is the very sort of person who loves to spout “personal responsibility” crap. Someone should tell her that she brought this on herself and needs to take “personal responsibility.” In this case, it sounds more like she’s getting her own comeupance but doesn’t want to admit it.
I saw that survey and DKos had a little poll yesterday with the same question. I was floored by the number of people who would permanently give up their vote for one millions dollars. I immediately thought, would they give up a child for a sum of money? Are status and the things money can buy so important as to give up the things we used to cherish most? I would like to hear the rationalization of just one of those who chose money over their vote.
Powerful, powerful post, Ian. Thank you.
No war but class war.
Oh…boy..Ian, you hit a home run….
“Upstairs, Downstairs”
“Charles Dickens”
Here we go again.
Aye, there’s the crux.
When one revolution succeeds, the next one begins….
Illusion.
Class war has always been waged, and our side stopped waging it in the 1980s, in my view. Now, whenever a politician attempts to re-engage, the shouts of “class war!” from the FOX box are shrill.
It’s most telling to me that Edwards, whose message was about the forty million Americans without health insurance, was drowned out by two candidates who talk more about the problems for those who have health insurance, with the talk about HMOs and “clerks in cubicles far from your doctor.” Even Democrats are more swayed, I think, by the appeal to self interest (”correct my problem with my HMO, please”) than by the appeal to our common interest (”correct our health care crisis, please”).
I hope our next President feels a strong wind to radically change much about our current systems, but that pressure will likely come from Congress if at all.
More, better Democrats, please!
Holy shizzola…
Yes, our society is based on the drug, moolah.
Oy, vey.
well, i answered that dkos poll with the “thinking about it” choice.
it’s not about status or things – it’s about freedom. it’s a choice between never having to be a wage slave again or voting. i don’t think i’d pick voting.
this here democracy…. this here democracy wont stand much longer if folk are willing to sell their votes for a million or whatever…..and if a vote is worth a million then a million isnt going to be all that they think – at least in my convoluted mind…. jus sayin
No sh*t.
One of the basic tenets of capitalism, as discussed at length by Marx in Capital.
The Industrial Revolution changed that, of course. The capitalist no longer had to depend on having the children of his workers as future workers. The labour force grew to such an extent that the capitalist could cut wages, increase working hours and productivity levels and still have no shortage of workers.
We’re definitely on the same page on this one.
and then send those same jobs off-shore
I don’t understand the rationale or benefit of expecting employers to bear all costs associated with health care.
wow.
does everyone here have work that is intellectually challenging, emotionally satisfying and creative? bosses that never make you want to tell them to fuck off?
I see references to the public forcing FDR to enact what would become the New Deal. It wasn’t FDR who was forced to act, it was Congress. That dynamic has not changed. We cannot rely on the occupant of the WH to initiate change. It is we, the people, who must do that.
I see. Your solidarity with the working class is underwhelming, to the say the least. Superior much?
My favorite thing is to tell “bosses” to fuck off. :)
ohhhhhh yeah!! as a retired worker i have had my share of jobs that make you wanna holla!!
“bosses”“egos”Am I reading you correctly? You would give up your right to vote for financial security for life?
I come into contact very frequently with lots of regular people who are trying to have good moments in their lives….I find them, nevermind their politics, to be affectionate and open and well-intentioned.
My hackles go up substantially when domineering “personalities” arise; which is not often. Then…I just ignore them.
This is a great post, Ian.
Nothing bothers me more than to see someone knocking something that they’ve been through themselves. I’ve been from middle class to poor to middle class again and now I’m back to poor, although just over the federal poverty line, which is ridiculously low. Once, when I had finally achieved middle class status as a single mother, I happened to get on a bus with someone I knew during my poor years. At the time when we were poor, both of us lived in a housing project, she due to having finished her tour of duty in the army and not yet employed, she and her child were scraping by with a small government stipend, and a government rent supplement, and food stamps. She was what I like to call “the walking wounded” after her divorce. This went on for several years before she remarried and found a job and was more able to rejoin the human race as a useful, productive citizen. Yet damned if I didn’t hear her knocking people doing just what she did for those couple of years…taking money from the government instead of going to work. I find it so astonishing that people forget what they went through themselves at the nearest possible opportunity just to puff their own egos.
Cutting off the ladder just below our own level seems to be an odd, but prevalent trait. It explains the success of the GOP in many areas, I believe.
Had that once! Consider myself lucky. Many never have it!
Animal nature.
damn tsf!! you took the words out of my mouth ;o)….. of course mine wouldnt have been as well said tho lol
the rational is the same as the rattional that they have to pay to maintain their equiptment
well, there’s no such thing as financial security. chasing that seems futile and dangerous. so it’s not about security – it’s about freedom and not having to be a wage slave. of being my own boss and working on whatever i want to. that’s not something i’d easily pass up.
i’d at least have to think about it… and yeah, not sure, but i might.
i don’t see my vote as the end all and be all of my participation in our civic life. in fact, it seems a very small thing to me nowadays. there are so many other ways to participate.
Upton Sinclair
John Steinbeck
Woody Guthrie and protest songs…
FunnyD
me too. have also had jobs were i ended up doing work which, when i was honest with myself, the world would be better off without. hate, hate, hate being tempted to sell my soul.
Correct me if I’ve got this turned around, but that means you’d be willing to gamble with whatever amount that enabled you to do whatever you wanted to. If that didn’t work out wouldn’t you be back where you started, less whatever you gave up for that opportunity?
But why should they have the responsibility to keep the whole population healthy, not just their own employees.
Do you know of any company that pays into health insurance for non-employees?
No. But I’m not arguing that they should. I disagree with Perris’s focus on employer responsibility to pay for health care.
WOW Ian you nailed it …….. This post is a 10 and all the judges even the Bulgarian Judge gave you a 10…. [cheers heard all around]
All my working life I have made sure that I knew someone from the departments that helped me do my job. As a floor RN, housekeeping, engineering and the orderlies always made my life so much better. They used to call me the Radar or Klinger of my unit….
Trick question, right? Non-employees like spouses and depedents?
FunnyD
Aloha, Ian! Sorry that I’m late to the party! I’ve trod the steps up to the Clock in Parliament and toured the Chateau…!
Bless you, katymine. I let all the med students I teach know the hospital is just a big community – and as in any other community, people will help you when they know you. In other words, learn the ward clerks’ and housekeepers’ and nurses’ names.
Thanks for your observations.
And Ian, thanks again for (yet another) eloquent post.
Hey LS, thanks for annointing me a DFH! :) I can feel my long beautiful hair down to there, gleaming, flaxin’, waxin’.
BTW I also saw your note about age of aquarius. I only recently dove into astrology and there is a mention that right about now we should see established institutions breaking down like organized religion? political parties? etc.? to reinvent themselves.
I know I know. what am i smokin’?
Employers paying into health insurance for the employees came about during union contract negotiations, starting in the 60’s I think. Other companies followed suit in order to attract workers. At the time the cost of health insurance was nowhere near what it is today and the amounts paid into the system were not seen as a financial burden. That is no longer true. A single payer health system would solve that problem. And contrary to popular belief it wouldn’t be free. We all pay a payroll tax for Medicare. If a single payer system was introduced Medicare would be incorporated into the overall system and the payroll tax would be increased to pay the cost. That tax increase would raise holy hell everywhere but would most likely be far less than what people pay for private health insurance today. Employers would be freed from paying into the system but, hopefully, be pressured into raising wages for those in the lower brackets.
Ian, this is beautifully written!
What I notice is that people who, of course, have been taught to dream the American Dream and have enjoyed success of no small measure feel that they are right up there with the incredibly uber-wealthy and self identify with the private jet, continent hopping, TFB, financial secure forevah, Paris Hilton crowd, when in reality they are closer to the rest of us.
I mean, if I own a successful drycleaning operation,that’s great, but it doesn’t make me Ken Lay.
It always behooves ya to be friendly with the natives, in all my experiences in the military, I’ve had no problems with the Supply Sgt, Personnel Sgt, and the Mess Sgt… It paid great dividends to me in all my endeavors and my troops never lacked for my efforts…! ;-)
No, I’m don’t include spouses and dependents of employees in that category.
i’m not sure what you mean by gamble. aren’t all our choices are, at least in part, gambles?
because they are doing business with the entire polulation, not just their workers
we all have a stake in the health of this nation, I have a stake in your childs health and you have a stake in mine
And because we all have a stake in health, costs should be borne by all, proportionally to income, not just employers.
Ian, thank you. Have been moved by your other articles, too. Thanks for being so personal and graphic. The look and smell of the tunnels. We need to become unburrowed in this society.
All week I have been trying to wrap my mind around a new statistic, how 25% of the American income now goes to the top 1%. There is now the class of the SUPER-rich. The one percenters. And that class in a patriarchal-corporate system enslaves the non-ruling classes. ClassES!!!!
I grew up with a Dad whose favorite song was “16 Tons”…. the line about owing your soul to the company store, so you have to tell St. Peter you can’t even afford to die when he beckons you. My Dad sang it enthusiastically, but the words haunted me. Especially as I watched him work three jobs most of my life. Three different uniforms. Having served his country as an infantryman in WWII before then. Weathered the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
I have had service jobs. Jobs where you keep a “dog face” of non-recognition in your uniform. I have had nicer jobs where at times I naively felt a bond was established in appreciation of my strong work ethic between me and my “superior”, only to see I wasn’t even recognized by that same person a day or so later. I was apparently simply an attachment to the piece of equipment I was working with. I had built a fantasy of mutuality for the sake of my own morale and self respect. (And I have also worked with decent employers who did validate me.) But the issue of entitlement and the double standard is a tender one to be considered.
Also, I think there has been such a psychological focus on not being “codependent” we have gone to the other extreme as a social community. And we have a government that wedges and divides us with every opportunity to keep us separated for their own manipulative advantage. Stress promotes narcissism.
Kenya this week is prosecuting soldiers for illegal torture. And the president of China got to the earthquake desecration within 90 minutes. Our government does not prioritize the common good anymore. What has happened to my America? Yes, a sentimental fantasy existed. I am getting older, more cynical. But something critically WRONG is going on.
Out tax dollars are spent on an insane war, building up the coffers of the one percenters. The documentary The Corporation says that a corporation is regarded as a “legal” person and the psychological profile of such “person” is of a pscyhopath. So we are all enslaved by the psychopath’s economic priorities? And what is morally worse, we have been unwitting ENABLERS of their actions. Our tax dollars are contributing to massive death and destruction.
We need to create a counter-culture that pushes it back, this injustice. This slide to the two Americas, becoming more and more chasmed from each with each passing day. We need a MIGHTY counter-culture at this point.
There was a toxic conservative, patriarchal amoral counter-culture that dismantled our democracy and got us here. We were passive and naive and distracted. We need to form a partnership counter-culture to push it right again.
John Edwards was rolling up his sleeves to take on the Corporate exploiters and build that counter-culture. He called on us to “face down the moral test of our generation.” I saved one of his promo ads. I’ll share it at the end.
He may not become president … this year, anyway, but I trust he is walking his walk with strong effect. I also trust more and more of us are joining the solution. Louse Hay says “Energy follows attention.” And we are pooling our energies here and enlarging our collective attention.
Thanks for your profound contribution to it, above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…..related%20
this is interesting. you use “freedom” and i was going to say “financial security”.
It’s an interesting question…my mind wanders to how long I could hang onto the million dollars if I lost a say in the government who had the power to tax it all away. or businesses to raise prices or whatever to get it back. money has to flow. hmm.
707…probably the same thing I am…the Aquarius thing is pretty interesting isn’t it…?
Oh, well, I like a good story…especially when it comes true!! One never knows until after the fact.
if the employer doesn’t pay it then the employee pays it
if the employee pays it that’s the exact same thing as the employee paying it
the differnace is that the employer will get better rates then the employee, they have a larger pool
in addition, they might even wind up paying less then if the just payed enough and had the employees get their own
without health care an employee has to pay me enough where I can afford the other necessities and health care
however I will pay more then the employee will pay, therefore he can pay me less if he provides the health care and he will wind up paying less over all
in any event, the fee must be payed, if it is a single payer the fee is going to be payed by either the employee or the employer
I am saying the employer gets a return on the health of their labor force and they have to pay the fee to maintain that health just as they pay to maintain their equiptment
a company who has a labor force must provide that wage where the labor force can have health care for the entire family.
i find this interesting – of my 3 kids who work full-time – only 1 has healthcare coverage… she’s a federal employee and a musician…. the other 2 work for private industry – no healthcare coverage provided by their respective employers…. jus sayin…. maybe its b/c they dont work on a job that has a union………..
Seconded on the 10s.
Having met you and read your comments, what you say about treating support staff like human beings rings true. I wasn’t perfect at it at my last job (janitorial and security were outside contractors), but I made a conscious effort to respect and work with many who “always made my life so much better.” Mostly because I’d just been a grad student (lowest of the low on the totem-pole), partly because when I’m at my best I know it’s the right thing to do. Funny thing is, that way of dealing with people very often becomes self-reinforcing: it’s easier for us all to be responsive to people we have a good working relationship with at a person-to-person level. I always felt like I not only had good interactions with support staff, but that things often got taken care of sooner or more willingly–sometimes things were even anticipated and I didn’t have to ask–and that I got some slack for my lapses and it was easier to cut others slack for theirs.
Long-winded response. But it’s something I learned relatively early in working life, and I’m glad of that. Not least because I can see the “self-interested” benefits of behaving well, which are a bit of a buffer when I’m not able to be my best self.
FunnyD
Dr. Murphy is upstairs!
I don’t mind the employees paying as well as the employers, but it all comes down to the employer regardless
whatever is shared the employee is paying from his wages, we therefore have to get payed more wage because we are contributing to the cost of health care
Joe and the Volcano (16 tons).
Love Dan Hedaya. I know he can get the job, but can he do the job…
You know – the difference here is that you are talking about health insurance and I am talking about health care. I live under a single-payer health system, so I sometimes have a hard time really understanding the American system.
True. I agree with that.
i don’t think my vote gives me much of a say. and i NEVER said i would give up having my say – how did it get to be that a vote is seen as the only way we have a say?
Aw, dang Dr Kirk! You put it so much more succinctly. That’s why they pay you the big bucks, I’m sure.
Good for you for drilling that into your med students. Med school can be an awfully self-centered and selfish stage of life, I’ve heard. Probably of necessity to a great extent. And I imagine a lot of your students are a bit young to temper that with wisdom and perspective on their own.
FunnyD
Easy. We have no health care “system”. We have insurance companies that make money because we pay them to promise that they will pay when we get sick, but they don’t always do that. The rest of the people…sink, die, or swim.
We are “America”…the greatest nation in the world….
We are really backward.
I’ve worked for many private industries that paid heatlth care costs and none of them had unions.
Very few white collar jobs I know of have unions.
Nothing against unions. I think they’re great.
Most people I know consider whether the employer pays health benefits Before they accept a position with said company.
I don’t know. that’s how I feel, that’s all! just thinking out loud, dood.
Ian, you never let us down, thank you so very much. Years ago, when I was but a young man, I worked at a very nice club. As a busboy, I learned fast what class warfare was. We had a cook, a black man, probably 350 lbs. or more, huge man, who didn’t take any shit from anyone. One friday night, the place was packed with some of the areas “well off’s”. This cook had just finished cooking a big tub, full of porterhouse and t-bone steaks. As he went to put them up to be platted , he dropped them on this dirty ,nasty floor. The kitchen went silent. As he stood there in anger, at what he had done, he looked around to see if anybody dared to say a word. None did. He reached down, picked them up, and served them . I learned fast, what dealing with people who look down on others, as less than equal ,will get you. Period.
thanks, dosido.
Dad sang it better, of course. :)
I got a chill hearing the lyrics again.
Absolutely. There are no quarantees. I guess I’m looking at this at a purely abstract level. An example of what I’m thinking (hypothetical):
I have an opportunity to get x amount, which would enable me to quit my job and become a full time science fiction writer. But I have to give up my right to vote forever. I’ve had some stuff published and think I can make it work. The money will be used to support myself and family until I become a successful author and can live on the money I make writing books. If I’m not successful that original money will be used up and I will be right back where I started. That may be some years down the road and now I don’t have the skills to compete in the workplace. Nor can I vote. Seems like a small thing but all I got for selling my vote was a period of time where I could do what I wanted. If I were successful it’s a moot point.
Does that make sense?
me too. sorry if that sounded too critical.
Yeah, it’s like a recession, that Age of Aquarius. hindsight 20/20.
no no! I think it’s funny when two people start yelling about the same thing with the same opinion cuz they’re both stirred up. :) yeah! YEAH!
Today now that I am a telecommuter…. I know my mailman…. the Fedex and the UPS drivers that usually deliver to my house……. Chat up the neighbors [which is a no-no in Phoenix] and now we know each other and help each other out…. Though 3 different subdivisions I am know as the “that lady who walks” …..
I know the checkers at the Trader Joe’s and the other health food store I shop at….. great relationship with the auto repair guy…. and the employees at Costco….. and the vendors at the Downtown Phoenix Market…. the veggie market now want me to bring in my recipes.
Now there is another reason too…. when the months up to the Nov election… guess who I will be talking to….. to get out the vote, to support my candidates….
Yes. It also makes sense according to the “Sermon on the Mount”…
I have actually talking about care for all of us without insurance
I am talking about health care becoming part of “the commons”
“the commons” are goods and services that everyone uses and is best provided as single payer, through the government
my problem with this is that while “the commons” gives dividends mostly to businesses, the people wind up paying most of the bills
let’s take roads, which are payed for with gas tax, gas tax is payed mostly by those of us with cars
yet these roads serve the businesses more then us, we use those roads to get to work in the first place, we use them to buy our product
rarely are these roads actually used for our personal lives
yet we pay the majority of the fees to maintain those roads
I would prefer the business world pay a more appropriate share compared to our respective use
and that is what I mean by “business should provide the funding for single payer”
I have no problem with us contributing, sort of an acknowledgment that we benefit just as the businesses do, but I believe the majority needs to be born by business, not individual
I’m positive your dad sang it better than Dennis Kucinich! I would love to hear a really deep baritone sing it. Maybe Suzanne will treat us some late nite.
I was just doing a drive-by tonight, but your post took my breath away. Ian, thank you for the eloquent and soulful post. This is why I wanted John Edwards to be President so much — he has the balls to point out the injustices and atrocities that need to be addressed from the poverty in our nation and the ever increasing gulf between the classes. And JRE spoke out in spite of the media attempting to shut his voice down.
And we must make our selves and our leaders look so that there can be change. Once again, thank you Ian…
Didn’t know about Dennis’ rendition. Looking forward to hearing that. My dad sang it happily, but the words whammied me and were in such contradiction to his spiritedness.
I absolutely Love that version of that song!
Coupla years ago my husband and I were asked to do a set at a charity thingy.
The group had years and years earlier had Tennisee Ernie Ford as a member and one of the songs we did was that one, and, that kinda version take of it. I asked the audience how many people remembered him and they all did and then when we performed that version of the song, they all kind a sat there with their mouths hanging open. Not that bad, really, ’cause they love us. They just never heard that version before.
The cute checker at Trader Joe’s?
Everyone at my TJ’s is cute.
some may have the luxury to do that but people have to work so they take what they can get – jus sayin….. i know thats what i did
yes.
but it’s only me and my cats, and i’m not in debt and have a home. so i’m thinking how much would it take for me to be able to never have to work for a wage again (unless i wanted to)? could i stick it all in some kind of CD-like thing (ok, i don’t know, i’d have to ask ian, lol) and live off of the interest? well, not if inflation is higher than interest rates… but that’s the kind of thing i was thinking of. how simply could i live to never have to be a wage slave again?
Reverse mortgage?
I hear ya, but I don’t consider health care benefits a luxery. I work temp jobs now, just got off a dog job at a customer service place and they paid great benefits. My temp agency pays health benefits too. But, I live in luxerious LA. Ha. Where do you live?
lots of those white collar jobs got those bennies because the unions led the way. my dad used to participate (on the side of managment) in the every three years (i think) negotiations with the cwa (he worked for bell labs back in the day). he used to say the whole thing was a big joke because he was on the union’s side and even if he wasn’t, all the non-union employees got the same bennies as the union employees. so why would any manager want to work to negotiate their own bennies away?
If you say so.
i live in new jersey… i’ve had many jobs… in my early years i had benefits but in later jobs healthcare wasn’t offered – of course i could always buy it at great expense to myself but i didnt b/c it would’ve taken too much of my salary….
I agree with that. My concern is what I would have to give up. If I hit the Lotto it’s not an issue. With me, as a principled stance I say I don’t have a price. Nobody is going to give me a ton of money without wanting something in return, even the aforementioned Lotto, they already got my puny 5 bucks.
Please don’t get me wrong. I live in a manufactured house — a fancy trailer ,if you will.
Thank God for my husband’s insurance.
I live paycheck to paycheck and shop at the 99 cents store.
No elitist here. Really.
PS…I buy the cat and dog food at Food For Less…Ha!
As a toilet cleaner (in my most recent job, before being laid off a year ago), usually one step ahead of, or one step behind, homelessness, I thank you, personally, Ian.
I’d add that it’s not about IQ (mine’s up a little) nor even opportunity. Sometimes it boils down to nothing more than the luck o’ the draw. I’ve always joked that I’m simply allergic to money.
I’d add, too, that while voting Republican is almost always voting against my self-interest – so I’ve shined on that option – there have been times when voting Democratic wasn’t in my best interests either. It’s not always an either-or proposition, no matter what the rabidly partisan say.
You are spot on, though, about the fact that Americans love a winner. Born losers, not so much. Even now, as a blogger, I’ve tried fundraising on my blog where I’ve given up after two months where I gathered about $200. Believe me, there’s far more dignity in scraping toilets.
lol – i didnt think you were – we’re all trying to make it nowadays…. since all my kids are grown i get by but you’d be amazed at what you don’t need anymore ;o)
every day that you go to work for someone else is a day of your life that you have sold. that’s my point. who exactly isn’t selling something?
Tell me about it.
Who doesn’t have a cell phone? That would be me.
I’m also on a dinosaur computer.
The dishwasher broke and we haven’t even talked about fixing it.
Ha. I discovered these things called paper plates. And, I went to the 99 cent store and got one of those plastic racks you put the dishes in after you wash them in the sink.
Every vacation I’ve been on for 10 years has been camping.
But, I do love camping. I do.
OK That’s what I thought you were saying.=-)
I always find your comments interesting, and frequently thought provoking.
never claimed i wasn’t full of shit. :)
It’s not that I feel superior, but I just think working people are bitter and that’s why they cling to guns and religion.
That sort od exists in Australia which I believe is the only democracy with compulsory voting where you get fined for not participating. If one is really disinclined to vote, nobody can stop that person from casting a spoiled ballot but that’s just too much after one has taken the trouble to turn up at a polling booth.
sorry, the comment @ 123 was in response to perris @ 27
ahhhhh!! welcome to my world……
My, aren’t we clever!
It wasn’t senseless– I believe he made a deal with Obama to stand with him in his fight against poverty.
Let’s pull together now that Obama has clearly won the nomination.
random thoughts led me to recall this poem. sort of on topic, so
i sing of Olaf glad and big
whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
a conscientious object-or
his wellbelovéd colonel(trig
westpointer most succinctly bred)
took erring Olaf soon in hand;
but–though an host of overjoyed
noncoms(first knocking on the head
him)do through icy waters roll
that helplessness which others stroke
with brushes recently employed
anent this muddy toiletbowl,
while kindred intellects evoke
allegiance per blunt instruments–
Olaf(being to all intents
a corpse and wanting any rag
upon what God unto him gave)
responds,without getting annoyed
“I will not kiss your fucking flag”
straightway the silver bird looked grave
(departing hurriedly to shave)
but–though all kinds of officers
(a yearning nation’s blueeyed pride)
their passive prey did kick and curse
until for wear their clarion
voices and boots were much the worse,
and egged the firstclassprivates on
his rectum wickedly to tease
by means of skilfully applied
bayonets roasted hot with heat–
Olaf(upon what were once knees)
does almost ceaselessly repeat
“there is some shit I will not eat”
our president,being of which
assertions duly notified
threw the yellowsonofabitch
into a dungeon,where he died
Christ(of His mercy infinite)
i pray to see;and Olaf,too
preponderatingly because
unless statistics lie he was
more brave than me:more blond than you.
Coming in very late before going to bed.
Beautiful post Ian, and very astute observation. It brings to mind an old song of Phil Ochs
We are all one illness or one lost job away from poverty. As long as we remember that we hold on to the compassion that makes us human. I hope.
Well, I can’t argue that point.
Fuck, dude.
One of the all-time great posts of the blogosphere. It’s like you crawled inside me head and transcribed me thoughts.
I’ve always been fascinated with this interaction you describe. I come from a long line of late night underground corridor walkers, and have started that way myself. Not sure where it came from, but eventually ended up having the drive to start me own biz. Now, I fluctuate between the worlds of nicely folded linen napkins and the washing machines below that wash them. When a table busser comes by and takes my dirty plate now and we make eye contact, there’s a nod and an understanding of what’s going on. They seem to sense I’m not like the others they’re serving that are bitching about their creme brulees.
I’ve never understood why it so hard for so many to understand that we’re all in this boat together. We all contribute to this grand system we call civilization. Every aspect of this system has value.
Thanks again for this fantastic insight.
And that’s why Al Gore is so hated in this country. People don’t want to look global warming in the face.
My rules:
1) if I ask someone to stay late, I stay until the job’s done.
2) If they need permission from their boss, I will get it.
3) if anyone gets in their way doing the job I asked them to do, or complains they are doing something for me rather than someone else, they are to let me know and I will deal with it and/or remove the obstacle.
3a) any blame is to be deflected onto me.
4) If you do good work for me I will praise you to your boss, and I will praise you publicly in front of your peers.
5) Whatever you need to get the job done, you tell me and I will get it for you.
I rarely had any trouble getting folks to do me favors, stay late, etc… In fact, I daresay I could get more people to stay late to help me than most of the supervisors, despite not having formal authority (senior, but not in line of command.)
Exactly. Spread a network of contacts through the company (and beyond) and you can get things done. I was very good at that also, though I had too many clashes with senior management. (Good with lower management and with peers. But I don’t “pay respect” very well to people I don’t feel deserve it. Foolish of me, and I mean it sincerely.)
Freedom to vote, doesn’t mean much to people who are scared all the time that they might lose their home, or starve. It’s when people really start to lose things, when they feel they have nothing left to lose, that suddenly they get real picky about having the right to vote.
Bravo, Ian.
We need to get to the point where we see income inequality as morally wrong and socially dysfunctional.
Ian, wonderful post, as always. I am and have been a huge Edwards supporter, and hope he’ll be offered and accept the position of Attorney General – a post where I think he could do a hell of a lot of good.
I wonder if you’ve seen this related economics and class post by Carl Bloice from the Black Commentator? (Scroll down just a bit to read article). It speaks to my anger and frustration as an African American at being lumped into one monolithic group by the media. As far as this Primary season goes, amazingly enough, somehow we aren’t women, we aren’t blue collar, and we certainly aren’t “hard working”.
(I hope the link worked. It didn’t show up in the “preview”)
Very fine post, Ian. You’ve described the problem sincerely and movingly. A symbolic tunnel of which you might not be aware underlies Jefferson’s Montecello. It seemed to me to symbolize both his inventiveness and the delimma in his beliefs. It is a system of sewage tunnels which extend vertically from the house, and then horizontally from the center of the hill on which the house sits, to the outer perimeter of the hill on which the house sits. With in the horizontal tunnels is a system of rails and rope drawn carts. Defecation drops from the lovely Montecello down to a cart on the rail, and the cart is drawn by the rope system to the tunnel opening farther down the hill. Slaves emptied the carts, a hundred yards or so away from the house and out of sight down the hill. It somehow symbolizes the whole delimma of the goal of equality, even in the best of societies and individuals. I don’t know the answer, but your post was excellent and, having experienced much of what you describe, I’ll have to think about it.
Precisely. It all cuts too close to the bone. “Please let it not pertain to me, and even if it does, I cannot bear to here you say so.” You’ve articulated this well.
Are you ready for utopia, the classless, moneyless society? Doubt it. The urge to class (hierarchy) runs deep. Most jobs are crap having nothing to do with providing food, clothing, shelter or anything useful. The biggest payoffs shuffle paper, do LBO’s, outsource and downsize. Clearly capitalism and hierarchy cannot provide jobs, in tunnel or out, for everyone who wants one.
So are you ready for the alternative, equality? Utopia gets by with as few jobs as possible so people do as they please which means nothing if they are so inclined, but would you settle for one style of motor vehicle rather than the status laden hundreds of models we now have? Equality means no money and no desire to establish difference from your fellows. It means cooperation, contributing to the group, rather than trying to invent something major and going to the head of the class.
Derrick Bell, in “Faces at the Bottom of the Well” claims that bigotry can never depart because low class whites cannot see themselves as the bottom of the barrel. That’s where blacks come in.
We suffer from a mental disorder which has us trying to establish difference from our fellows, when difference is impossible. This does not mean we are identical. We come in different sizes, colors, and abilities, but we are equal in that we, rich and poor, die and it is doubtful that anything accomplished in this life has anything to do with what comes later. As physicians we must heal ourselves before we can heal anyone else.