“Right to work”? What the hell does that mean?

 “Right to work”? What the hell does that mean?

JBH Wonders, 03/2012

My working career began at the age of twelve. I lived on a farm and did seasonal work for the local farmers. They compensated me for my time with FRNs. (AKA Federal Reserve Notes,  “money”, “cash”). It was then as it is now “legal tender for all debts public and private”. Occasionally I was given a bank check but that was quickly converted to cash. It was not any problem to do so back then. And for those educated ones who know that a FRN is not “money”, yes, I get it. That is a highly published subject and not the point of this article.

As with many others, I worked at several places before getting to the work position that would become my career for over thirty years. There was a time when getting work was not too difficult. Just fill out an application form and hope to get an interview. If you get an interview and impress someone, voila’, you have work until you screw up or decide to move on.

So after being laid off from work that I was not ready to leave yet, I found myself in the J.O.B. (Just Over Broke) market again. My how things have changed since my last interview from over thirty years ago. In looking for work these days with any “licensed” business, “corporations”, or government offices, one is faced with:

* Proving that one has the “Right to work in the U.S” by filling out IRCA Form I-9 and providing three forms of identification. (A social security card counts as identification even though on the back of the card I have reads: “Not to Be Used for Identification”).

* Granting permission for a background check (to verify ones honesty and integrity?)

* Being subjected to a credit check (Does one need debt before getting work?)

* Urinating in a cup to provide a sample for a drug test

* Providing personal information before anyone will even talk to you. (SSN, Address, Birth date, etc)

* Depending on the demographics, one may need to be “bi-lingual”. (In America where English is the defacto official language. For now at least)

* Proving you graduated from high school by showing a diploma

* Proving you were born by showing a birth certificate

Discovery of the above has caused a major rant to develop in my very being. So here it goes.

“Right to work”? What the hell does that mean? Every living soul needs to work if they are capable.

“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.” (II Thessalonians 3:10)

Every living soul has a “right to work” so why is this even a topic for discussion or require any legalese definitions? OK so the U.S. federal government wants to restrict some people from working in these united states of America because they are not from around here. So here comes the Form I-9 (First introduced in 1986) and other forms in some cases. Why do I and others like me need to prove anything? I was born in the Ohio Republic of these united states of America. I speak, read, and write American English. My resume’ reveals places where I have worked in these united states of America. It also shows that I served in the US Navy and was honorably discharged. Why should any American with a work history have to prove he has a “right to work” by filling out some insidious government form?

As for submitting to a “background check” I would ask, why? When I submit a resume’ and fill out an application, the appropriate “background” information is already provided. What else must be known? If anyone has some suspicions about my character and activities (present or past), why not just ask me? If my answer is not acceptable then I can be sent packing.

Drug tests? Why? What about “innocent until proven guilty”? Many people take “legal” prescription drugs (myself excluded). Does the test include “legal” drugs? If one is working for someone else or otherwise “on duty”, one should not be physically or mentally impaired by any drug-legal or otherwise. If that would happen one should be disciplined or possibly dismissed, perhaps permanently. I disagree that one should prove they have their wits about them by providing body fluids. If someone isn’t acting right, for any reason, the boss has many options to deal with it.

Credit check? This is not a legal edict forced by the government and I am not trying to borrow money when applying for work. It could be that I am poor and need some work to get back on my feet.

So for those of us born and raised in these united states of America, raised our children here, are mature and able-bodied, and our word is as good as gold; we ask potential employers, Can’t we talk? Are there NO options???

New Jobs? What about the Old Ones?

New Jobs? What about the Old Ones?

 JBH Wonders, February 2012

These days there is much rant in Washington DC and other govern(mental) offices about “…creating jobs…”. For now let us put aside the asinine notion that government entities can “create” productive and meaningful jobs. That is a well-covered topic that I will not go into here.

My question is, what about the old jobs? Didn’t the multitude of unemployed folks used to have a job? What happened to those jobs? They either got laid off with little hope of getting recalled or else their position was terminated due to “downsizing”. Or worse yet, the company had to go out of business. In most cases these things occur when the company is struggling to make a profit. In any case, people are out of the work they use to do. I would say that most would be happy to get their old job back instead of looking for a new one.

My guess is that the same economic conditions and government actions, policies, laws, restrictions, (on to nausea) that is impeding the “creation of new jobs” is also preventing the old ones from coming back.

We have in America a highly skilled and a highly experienced work force that has been displaced from a productive environment and is now sitting on its hands. That’s after a failure to find meaningful work in their field of expertise. Others have humbled themselves (out of necessity perhaps) to work at jobs that were once left to recent high school graduates and college students. This is also a well-published topic and I will not expound upon it here.

So it makes sense to me that the old jobs could come back if the feds would stop the pretentious actions of trying to fix things. The problems and solutions seem obvious to me and many others. There are numerous articles about what can be done. Our representatives/”leaders” are not paying attention. Or else they are following some agenda and everything is going according to plan. There are many articles on that speculation also.

For over thirty years I worked at company with less than fifty employees. So this company would probably be labeled as a “small business”. One Thursday afternoon I was called into the office and was kindly told that I was being laid off due to a lack of work. I already knew that the company was struggling due to a major decline in business. As I was clearing my desk the president of the company told me “…this insurance is killing me”. I thought that an odd thing to say after he just put me out of work. But as time went on I began to understand more.

One thing that was “discussed” during the lay-off meeting was health insurance. I would be losing that along with the paycheck. So they showed me something called “Cobra” or some such. I had to sign a paper signifying that I was made aware of this alternate health insurance plan. I suspect that there is some law requiring companies to inform people of insurance alternates when they are losing their job. There are similar laws that require (read demand/do-it-or-else) companies to provide insurance for their employees.

So the last two paragraphs were written to set up this paragraph. When I no longer had an income stream, the last thing on my mind was insurance. (Remember the four vital things for survival? Breathable air, water, food, shelter). On a similar note, there is currently a big to-do in Washington DC about “Obama Care”/National Health care”. All of this stink concerning  insurance is so much BS that it is difficult to walk around. It is one of many issues preventing old jobs from coming back and new ones from growing. “This insurance is killing me” as I was told once. People need an income stream to purchase necessities. Paying insurance premiums is a lot like gambling. But like in any other game of chance, you can’t play unless you can afford it.

So in conclusion: Yes we need new jobs for college and high school gradates. New jobs are also needed for military members who are returning to the public arena. (Hopefully the battle hardened ones will not seek a law enforcement position. But that is a different topic for a different time.)

But it would be just dandy if the companies that have survived this economic disaster could call back their faithful and experienced workers of old. The economy would have to head toward a real recovery however. A recovery that is obvious to everyone instead of the lies and misinformation coming from politicians.