The “Something for Nothing” Crowd should actually be correctly called The Democratic Party
I don’t feel sorry for
idle federal workers
BY RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. Washington Post Writers Group
No mas!
I can’t take any more sob stories about government workers going without
paychecks during a shutdown that just passed the 30-day mark.
The
preferred media spin is that 800,000 federal workers are held hostage by
political gridlock. Wrong.
These
people are not hostages. They’re volunteers. No one forced them to work for the
federal government. My problem isn’t with the workers. It’s with the false
narrative.
“It
looks like a breadline out of the Depression, people standing out waiting in
the cold to get their soup or sandwich,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
Really?
In the Great Depression, the nation’s unemployment rate hit an all-time high in
1933 — 24.9 percent. Today, it’s 3.9 percent.
You’re
right, Senator. It’s the same thing. News footage showed a protester marching
in front of a building in Manhattan holding a sign, stamped with a union label,
that read: “We want to work!”
I
thought: Then why aren’t you? If you did more of what some of your colleagues
are doing — substitute teaching, driving for Uber, doing temp jobs, etc. — and
less marching, you’d be better off.
I’m
51, and I’ve been working since I was 13. My grandmother owned a clothing
store, and I pitched in on Sunday mornings. I also worked as a busboy and took
orders in a restaurant owned by a family friend before I was old enough to get
a driver’s permit. During my college years, I stacked 40-pound boxes of fruit
in a packing house and later worked for a federal judge – and had about a dozen
jobs in between.
Where
I grew up near Fresno, work is sacred. My Mexican-born grandfather picked
fruit, and showed up to the fields a half-hour early — out of gratitude for a
job. People there have two or three jobs. Decades before anyone talked about a
“side hustle,” the folks I grew up with lined up extra work on nights and
weekends — just to make ends meet.
The
concept of work isn’t as complicated as some people make it. With unemployment
at a historic low, there’s a job for all who want one. Unless you think some
jobs are beneath you. Maybe you think your time is especially valuable, like
the handyman who, several years ago, wanted to charge me $75 per hour to stain
a fence.
Perhaps
you agree with FBI Agents Association President Tom O’Connor, who said: “FBI
agents should not have to go work at the store stacking shelves because they
can’t feed their families on their government job.”
Oh,
because FBI agents are special? I assume O’Connor hasn’t followed the news over
the last two years. The bureau has so many self-inflicted wounds it could apply
for medical leave.
Even
so, a lot of people would still like to work for the federal government. The
benefits are great. The hours are decent. And the job security is enviable.
That’s largely why these jobs are sought after and hard to get, like membership
in an exclusive club.
It’s
a good bet that furloughed government workers will be back on the job soon —
with back pay for the days they missed.
Does
your private-sector job work that way? Mine don’t. I use the plural because I
have five.
You
think I lack empathy. Guilty. But I’m not alone.
Besides,
I don’t recall government workers being terribly empathetic to those in the
private sector 10 years ago when the housing bubble burst. Millions of us lost
jobs, homes, health benefits, retirement funds and more.
That’s
my tribe — folks in the private sector. Let me tell you about them.
I
know a doctor who lost her home, an engineer who left the country and his
family to find a better-paying job, a dairy farmer who lost his land to back
taxes, a marketing executive who cashed out his 401(k) after being laid off, a
private-school teacher who goes without health insurance, and too many
out-of-work journalists to count. They all live paycheck to paycheck.
So
it’s hard to feel sorry for furloughed workers who have jobs to go back to and
back-pay to collect — and a comfortable pension in retirement.
We’re
told that many of these federal workers have had to tap into their savings. I
speak for many in my tribe of private-sector workers when I ask: “What are
savings?”
Email: ruben@ rubennavarrette.com
THESE
PEOPLE ARE NOT HOSTAGES. THEY’RE VOLUNTEERS. NO ONE FORCED THEM TO WORK FOR THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. MY PROBLEM ISN’T WITH THE WORKERS. IT’S WITH THE FALSE
NARRATIVE.