There are so many people who believe that there is this unerring “invisible hand” that makes the necessary corrections in the balance of capital, land and labor so that our economy stays on track.
It’s not so, and it’s not what Adam Smith was talking about when he made the original reference to an “invisible hand.”
The economy is our individual choices, taken in the aggregate, and, if you want to call that the “invisible hand,” you may do so, but it’s not working.
When some take too much out of our economy, too much in profit, a disproportionate income, others are paid less, they can buy less, businesses close, and jobs evaporate.
We are in the era of selfish ill will– too many at the top taking too much for themselves, leaving too little for everyone else.
In the best of times, we define ourselves in large part by the work we do.
The poet, Maya Angelou, wrote, “Nothing will work unless you do.”
In these times, many more work to subsist or work not at all.
The signs are everywhere.
On the Berlin Turnpike, as the cars stop at the intersection for Route 9, there’s a hand written sign looking for work. The sign’s relatively new.
A young senior from Loudoun Valley High School graduated this year. For his graduation “gift,” his mom gave him the keys to the house and left him to fend for himself, driving off for parts unknown in Texas with his younger sibling. He’s having a tough time of it.
You may have seen some workers on a picket line outside the Verizon Office in Leesburg, at 501 Tolbert Lane, walking with signs, to and fro, from 7 AM to 6 PM. Verizon insists on cutting its workers’ pension and health benefits even as Verizon’s profits increase. That’s why they’re there protesting.
Verizon’s revenue rose 2.8 percent to $27.8 billion in the second quarter, mostly because of its new wireless business; Verizon added 1.26 million wireless customers, as compared with 665,000 a year ago; so Verizon is doing better now than a year ago.
Verizon’s top six executives were paid about $7.5 million each last year.
Verizon’s customer service reps were paid about $16.64 an hour, or about $34,000 a year.
Instead of empathy, some are mad at the unemployed like there was a job that they could fill but haven’t tried.
Others resent the fact that some workers fight collectively for their rights, for a fair wage and for benefits. If these workers didn’t bond together, they’d have to take whatever an employer unilaterally dictated. They’d be little more than wage (or salary) slaves -- condemned to receive less pay and fewer benefits at the whim of their greedy employer.
Increasingly the young come home after college because they can’t get work – and so they can’t live on their own.
Families are trying to get second jobs and working overtime when they can.
There isn’t enough work to go around.
It’s time for big business to take less and give back more – or they’ll kill the economy that makes them so rich.
If there’s an invisible hand, it’s wrapped firmly around the neck of the American worker and it’s choking him to death.
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