I read with interest the thoughtful commentary by Cassady Rosenblum, "Here's why people like me don't want jobs" (StarTribune.com, Aug. 24) Without question, a great many U.S. companies abuse their capitalistic privileges, but not all. For some of us, however, our work families and the services we offer the public are great motivators to work. Without question, the benefits provided by a number of companies help employees navigate an aberrant health insurance system with minimal stress. It's a trade-off, but not always as tortuous as one sees in China or other "industrialized nations" that have transformed work and careers into icons.
Like, Rosenblum, I too watched hummingbirds feed on a variety of blooms after a thunderstorm on my day off. Like the author, I was supine, focused and relaxed, and reveled in a daily hummingbird ritual that may eventually die with climate change. But I have a job with a solid work family, many customers I value and ancillary benefits. In such a challenging world, I cannot sneeze at that.
Philosophically, here's where Rosenblum's perspectives on work run against mine.
First, there is no living creature, plant or animal, that doesn't labor to survive, from unicellular organisms to keystone predators. In the process, there is no creature that, through labor, fails to create ancillary benefits for itself and other creatures. Search far and wide, but you won't find one. Even ticks provide sustenance for some creatures.
Second — and this is why I've been a lifetime independent — the Biden administration's unnecessary extensions of unemployment benefits because of the ongoing COVID pandemic communicates illogical political values. Because of Biden's extensions of unemployment benefits, millions of businesses are struggling to survive because so many people don't want to work. That will affect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans of all ages, incomes and lifestyles. It will also impact financial markets.
While I understand the pushback many Chinese millennials and marginalized Americans have expressed against work, reasonable pushback still requires scrutiny. While I agree with Rosenblum that "careers are altars upon which all else is sacrificed," her perception doesn't apply to all people in all vocations, nor does it explain how such a complex society will survive without essential workers, and millions of nonessential workers to boot.
What we need — and this will not occur in my lifetime — is a thorough housecleaning of Congress and the judiciary, so that Americans have intrinsic rights to work-life balance. Even the Italians have proven that such ideals are possible and workable.
We need constitutional amendments that guarantee the markers of balance — education, rest, labor, family, community — with the demands of paid work; however, our currently dysfunctional — occasionally criminal — Congress won't guarantee such values in my lifetime. In turn, our judiciary is about as uniform as a Vegas crapshoot exercising, at one moment, equanimity, fairness and judicial alignment with our Constitution. At another, it reflects complete partisan domination. Name your party. They all do it.
