A guest commentary by by Kellia Ramares-Watson
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The hearts of the Representatives and Senators who have introduced bills to eliminate discrimination against the unemployed in recruiting are in the right place. But, we know what is going to happen if this bill passes. The offending ads will go away, but employers will still discriminate. They will just do it in a different way.
As long as we have a competitive job system, there will always be unemployment because competition creates losers as well as winners, even in the absence of greed, corruption, or discrimination. You know that if you watch sports. Half the teams in any league always lose on any given day.
Because of technology, we do not need everyone to work in order to produce the goods and services we need. Are there any real shortages of vital products and services in your area because of high unemployment? Likely not. There is a lot of food on the store shelves, much of it having to be thrown away because people cannot afford to buy it. Yet there are people going hungry. (We have an anti-hunger ad campaign going on in my neighborhood right now). You may not have a food store in your neighborhood, but that is a business decision based on store profit margins and willingness of banks to lend to grocers, not a decision based on lack of people to grow the food, bring it to market or sell it.
Is there work that needs to be done that is not getting done even though there are people in your area who need jobs? Likely yes. Work goes undone in this economy when people are not willing to pay someone to do it. i.e., create a job. We err by think the word “work” and “job” are casually interchangeable.
We cannot create jobs for everyone because of the resource crunch. We have enough on this earth to live sustainably. But we waste resources through fads, fashions, easy disposability and planned obsolescence just to keep the markets going. We cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet.
A job application is a request for permission to work. Every job application rejection is a denial of that permission. Yet people who are denied permission to work are expected to pay for things with money though money, for most of us, is rationed through jobs. What is wrong with this picture?
A layoff in a world that requires money is an act of assault. i.e., an act that puts a reasonable person in fear of harm to life or limb. Yet when mass layoffs occur as with Enron, when corruption at the top destroyed a company, police are called out against the workers, not against the criminals who literally put people out on the street. Think about that.
The only answer to our economic crisis is to abolish money and kill all jobs so that people can just work. Why must we pay to live on the planet we’re born on? Why must we “earn a living”? Aren’t we already living?
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Kellia Ramares-Watson is an independent journalist in Oakland, CA. Her web site is The End of Money: A critique of paying, owing and working “for a living”.
She can be reached at theendofmoney@gmail.com
CC 2011, Kellia Ramares-Watson BY-NC-SA
i remember once, back during the early 2000s recession, an agency told me that they would only look at people who’ve been in the same job for three years? don’t know wtf planet they were on, but that’s barely normal even for good jobs anymore.
The Laziest, Stupidest, Most Bigotted, Most counterproductive people do the hiring in this country according to their personal prejudices and openly lie about it. That’s why the hiring game is totally devoid of any honesty or openness.
The first 2 seconds make or break the interview because personnel trash are concerned with appearances and NOT substance.
The bigots and assholes who do the hiring have had their integrity legislated by Congress because they have none!
Those job creators are sure doing a fantastic job.
It’s disgusting, it really is. The whole job application process, and the hoops these companies force people to jump through is becoming outrageous.
I’m really tired of seeing things like age, being overqualified, and credit score taken into account. These things have no impact on whether or not a person can perform at the position they are applying for.
It should be cut and dry. Are you qualified for the position? Yes or no.