Senator Ben Sasse’s the new sensation on the right after writing his book “The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming Age of Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self Reliance.” I did not read the book, but I read a few reviews on it and the message contained in it seems fairly clear: the children of the working class are not working hard enough and we can expect that as adults, these working class adults will not work hard enough either.” America’s middle class is getting hammered not by the 1% but by its own lethargy.
From the New York Times review, “Sasse identifies core formative experiences that all young people should pursue: hard work to appreciate the benefits of labor.” All young people? Did Sasse really mean all young people? I doubt it. If he did, he wouldsurely be against the current Republican obsession with the elimination of the Estate Tax. If Senator Sasse truly believed that all Americans grew up to be “self-reliant” and learned how to “appreciate the benefits of labor,” he would have wanted the all the children of Fred and Mary Anne Trump to appreciate the benefits of labor and learn self-reliance instead of being entitled to $35 Million dollars each to play with. Sasse would be vigilant in making sure that the children of the wealthy class begin their adult life on or near the same starting line as the rest of us, not miles ahead. He would want to protect and expand the Estate Tax in the best interests of the children and the nation. He would agree with Benjamin Franklin who said in defense of the Estate Tax that ‘all property except that needed by individuals for survival is the Property of the Public , who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Public shall demand such Disposition.”
If Senator Sasse truly believed that all Americans, and America itself, would be better off if all our youngest citizens learned how to be self-reliant and appreciate the benefits of labor, he and I would be in agreement and I might even enjoy reading his book. But the problem is that Sasse believes in a two tiered America, where the working class must learn the “benefits” of hard labor and self-reliance, while the wealthy class (Rent seekers like Jarod Kushner, for example) reap the benefits of a hard working labor class while at the same time, being totally reliant on their family fortune.
As we advance our society, opportunities for the average person are becoming increasingly more complex. The “easy” opportunities are being scooped up by large corporations who have figured out how to cookie-cut their way to prosperity. This cookie-cutting makes things better, and even more efficient, but does so at the expense of opportunities for people.
My uncle made a living by opening and owning a toy store. It is virtually impossible to make such a living as a “small-time capitalist” today. Those opportunities have been sucked by by trans-national corporations, and it is next to impossible to compete with them.
Many others have been sent to lower-wage countries. We used to have a LEGO manufacturing facility in northern CT – but despite the fact that it was highly automated, they moved it to Mexico 10 years ago because of lower wages. That left 300 people to find other opportunities.
It is not a matter of “working harder” – the problem is that the bar has been raised, and not everyone has the capacity to rise above it.
Additionally, the more advanced opportunities have become geographically centralized, which poses a huge problem because they are at odds with our existing population distribution which was created when we had smaller and more plentiful companies. Instead of 10 bakeries across the state, we may now have 1 larger bakery which means anyone wanting to pursue that opportunity has just one place to choose.
Are we willing to close up shop on areas of our country that do not have an economic engine composed of a global advanced technology corporation. and rebuild cities like Boston into cities like Hong Kong?
There are many who say that these changes are inevitable, and they very well may be, however the pace at which we undertake them does not need to be as rapid as it is. We still have the largest consumer economy in the world, and could use that to reduce our exposure to rapid globalization/corporatization. We just need a political renaissance to make that happen.
The entire system is in need of an overhaul. Based on our accepted belief that a “40-Hour” week, working for ones employer is carved in stone – and that all adults between the ages of 20-60 must work, we have created a labor surplus. The 40 Hours week is also inefficient and leaves us very little free time to enjoy “life”. There is a researcher in Denmark that makes the case for a 25 hour week, coupled with working well into one’s 80’s. It makes sense to me.