We are all turning into "grasshoppers" now - at least according to Barton Swaim, writing in the April 18-19, 2026, edition of The Wall Street Journal. Swaim's column was titled, "America Loses Its Will To Work." Click the link if you'd like to read Swaim's argument. I am told that no paywall will prevent you! Click right here if you need to refresh your memory about that that Aesop's Fable about the ant and the grasshopper.
Swaim asserts that "evidence abounds that many Americans no longer consider gainful work a natural and necessary part of life." He points to the "explosion of online sports betting" as the main proof that this is, in fact, an accurate statement.
I am absolutely in agreement that "betting," in all of its various forms, is a plague upon society - and with online sports betting mainly intended, the way I see it, to filch scarce money from the pockets of those who succumb to its allure. Back in the middle of April, as Swaim was writing his column, the Chief of Police in New Haven, Connecticut was arrested in connection with his online gambling habit. It's quite a story, let me tell you, and he was fully employed! Click that link to read it!
While I don't really buy into the idea that Americans (and particularly young Americans) have turned into a plague of grasshoppers, enamored of personal enjoyment, and unconcerned about the fact that the winter is coming, I do think that we should be paying attention to "employment" and "work" issues.
Most of the news stories that I read are basically telling everyone in our society (and particularly young people, perhaps) that there aren't going to be any jobs in the future. A.I., we are told, will replace pretty much all of the jobs now available, and it's not welfare-dependent poor people who are carrying this message. To the contrary, it is the extremely wealthy (the A.I. giants who constantly boast of their billionaire status, and of the billionaire backers of the new A.I.-based economy yet to come). Those billionaires are the folks who are sending the message, to all the non-billionaires, that "work" isn't going to support them in the future.
I think that this message from the billionaires, and not any moral failure on the part of a young "grasshopper generation," is likely to be much more the cause of what Swaim is writing about than any moral collapse, caused by a whole generation deciding that they should get something for nothing.
The economic productivity that is a fact of our modern life should be mobilized for the benefit of everyone - meaning that food, shelter, education, health care, and meaningful employment opportunities should be something that everyone in our society should be able to count on. Taxes, you know, they'd be involved in making that happen. Then... What about collabortative efforts to provide a job to everyone - a job they'd find worthwhile, a job they'd want to do not because they were trying to "make a million," but because they saw its importance and understood the benefits that the job would provide to them, as well as to others in society.
I'm thinking of jobs like: (1) Childcare; (2) Assistance for the elderly, who are trying to navigate a complicated society with diminished mental capacity; (3) Wildland stewards helping to replant forests, and to prevent forest fires; (4) Building rail and similar transportation projects to replace our dysfunctional automobile-based freeway system; (5) Environmental restoration projects; (6) Solar Energy installations; (7) Teachers! (8) Public Art; (9) Neighborhood Cleanups; (10) Etc.
The United States is the wealthiest society in the history of the world, and we got that way through hard work. Telling everyone (especially young people) that there aren't going to be any jobs in the future, which is what they are being told, today, by the billionaire class, is totally counterproductive. There are LOTS of jobs that need doing, and we, with all our wealth, could make them available. The "Etc." category is huge!
Could we do that?
Well, yes! Duh!!
But it would require us - "we, the people" - to decide that this is exactly what we need to do. In other words, instead of articles trying to "describe" what exists, let's start writing articles about what we want to happen (so we can then get out, and get to work, and make it happen). This blog posting is one such article.
Image Credit:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!