While I have many aspirations (writing a book, getting my child to her 18th birthday alive, fitting into a size smaller jeans) being pundit is not one of them. Pundit? That's a weird word. People usually pronounce it like there is an extra "n" in there someplace. Leave it to those jagoffs to call themselves something awkward to spell and pronounce. It just gives them more attention.
In any case, I don't spend a lot of time and/or energy spouting off about this political issue or that. But there is this one issue that keeps coming up for me. Maybe I'm just kind of dumb about the subject, so just ignore me if this sounds simple-minded. Here goes...
I don't understand why everyone keeps talking about "job creation." Isn't it weird that lots and lots of people kind of stand around at political rallies and yell about "JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! We need JOBS!" So...they are yelling at someone to, what? Find something for them to do? I find this to be kind of incredible. I think about the person they are yelling at...the President, the Governor, etc. And I kind of empathize with them a little. It's like when you have an intern that you thought you had a lot of work for, and then you just, somehow, don't. And she's standing there, looking eager - the kind of "eager" that is about 4 seconds away from "bored" and you know you're going to lose her to her texting machine that she is starting to reach for, so you frantically grab for the nearest filing cabinet drawer and scream "Can you please reverse-alphebetize these and put a green dot on each page and then get me some chai?"
Maybe I am an idiot about this subject. Seriously. I may very well have no idea what I'm talking about. But let's be honest...that's never stopped me before, heh-heh. I mean, I get it that there are issues that kind of make job creation difficult because of regulations and taxes and whatever. We should, you know, like, create conditions under which it's not hard to make jobs available if they are needed for an actual purpose. I get that and I understand the arguments there.
But is the whole "Hey! Make some jobs for us!" all that much different than someone saying "Hey! Find some money so you can find me something to do and pay me for it! I have the right to do something and get paid for it! But it is NOT my responsibility to find it!" From the job-seeking perspective...that sounds terrible. I don't want someone to find me something to do! There is lots of stuff that needs to be done, right? Isn't there? Do we not have enough to do? I feel like I have plenty to do! I suppose if the government, or....? Could give me some money or something, and then I could hire someone to, say, do my laundry or empty the cat litter box. Then I would have created a job, right?
So, call me crazy, but doesn't it seem like if I needed someone to empty the cat litter box bad enough, that I would find the funds to pay them to do it? And if I can't or just won't...well, then I should just do it myself. Or get rid of the cat. (Shhh, Henry, settle down. I'm just making a point here!)
I know it's not easy for everyone to find a job that they would like to have. And for some people, it's not easy for them to find any job at all. But it seems like a strange employment seeking strategy to yell at the government for not making up a job for you. If you don't have something to do...find something? And if you don't know how to do anything...learn how? I think about the first people who came to America. They carried all of their stuff up onto the shore and then...what? Well, I don't know, but I bet no one stood around whining about how they needed someone to give them something to do. I just talked to someone today who was young and didn't have an advanced education, so he took a certification class for fixing pipes and started his own business at 18 years old. Apparently pipes get broken a lot. People are willing to pay to fix them. That was 20 years ago and he's got a great small business going.
It occurs to me that a job is simply this: a solution to a problem. I raise money for a nonprofit organization. There is a problem: homelessness. There is a solution: helping homeless people. This presents another problem: it costs money to do that. There is a solution: I find people who want to give money to help. There are lots of proverbial "broken pipes" out there. Figure out what kind you might be good at fixing...and fix them. If you are standing around waiting for someone to break a pipe for you to fix...that's bananas!
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