Millions of Americans Discover Quality of Life Is Important

Millions of Americans discovered that quality of life is more important than the possessions they own during COVID. If you are happy with your job, I am happy for you. I naturally assume that you enjoy what you do, have excellent working conditions, good benefits, and your annual income is more than $100,000 per year.

However, I read that most working-class Americans are employed in jobs they dislike, with inadequate benefits, and a yearly income providing little more than the necessities. Approximately one-half of all Americans live in the low-income or poverty levels of our economy. In far too many cities, men and women are forced to work two jobs to care for their families.

As a 75-year-old man, who has been happily retired for over a decade, I can tell you the truth about working-class Americans.

I had a variety of jobs beginning at age 16. Most, but not all of my jobs were pleasant in the beginning. I believed that I would eventually be fairly compensated for my efforts, and receive promotions based on my production. This rarely happened.

Forced to work longer hours for the same pay and little opportunity for promotions that would improve my quality of life, most became monotonous and disappointing. So, I would move on to another “opportunity.” Unfortunately, with only a couple of exceptions, the pattern repeated itself.

I look back today and face the truth. I continue to promise that “the truth lives here,” and I made some very bad choices, and some of my unhappiness was the result of changes within the organizations in which I was employed. Either way, I am very poor now, but happy and content with my life writing from my home. What is more interesting is that millions of Americans learned to be happy during Covid, and happier not working in situations they found unpleasant and often demeaning. They removed themselves from the list of the unemployed.

This is interesting because just released was a list of states in which unemployment is at record lows. The average is 3.6%. Nebraska and Utah had the lowest jobless rates in March, with each at 2%. Those were followed by Indiana at 2.2% and Montana at 2.3%. Others reporting very low rates of unemployment are Alaska at 5%, Arizona at 3.3%, Georgia at 3.1%, Idaho at 2.7%, Mississippi at 4.2%, Tennessee at 3.2%, West Virginia at 3.7%, and Wisconsin at 2.8%.

What does this all mean? My opinion is that American workers want to be treated like their brothers and sisters in most European nations. Annual paid vacations, full healthcare, paid family leave after childbirth, and assistance for childcare are standard in most. Our government provides none of these. The 545 men and women who run our government in Washington are more concerned with the profits of our largest corporations and the continued life of luxury and privilege for 788 billionaires and 22.3 million millionaires.

Before I end this, I would be remiss if I failed to include another factor contributing to our nation’s economic future.

Higher education is financially out of reach for thousands of our nation’s young men and women. America is losing some of its finest minds due to its inability to pay for tuition, books, and housing. Add to this situation, outrageous student loan debts after graduation, and attending our colleges and universities is frequently unaffordable. In the near future, this will become a national security problem.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources:

Newsweek: Unemployment Rate for March Hits Record Lows in 12 States; by Jake Thomas
The Wall Street Journal: Several Million U.S. Workers Seen Staying Out of Labor Force Indefinitely; by Josh Mitchell

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Bill Smith’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image Image Courtesy of Ken Hawkins’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License