Unemployed Americans Need Sustainable Jobs, not Eloquent Speeches

Unemployed Americans Need Sustainable Jobs, not Eloquent Speeches


By Gil Villagrán, MSW (published in El Observador, San Jose, Sept. 24, 2009)

When asked about the 5% unemployment rate of 1960s America, President Kennedy remarked, "As they say on my own Cape Cod, a rising tide lifts all boats," meaning that improving our national prosperity will lift all Americans out of poverty. 
I remember the time of this famous quote, when my father had been unemployed that rainy winter, unable to dig ditches for PG&E. Christmas was a few days away and we couldn't afford even a one dollar 24 inch tree. In our childhood innocence, my four sisters and I were certain that without a tree Santa Claus would not come to our rented about-to-be-torn-down house, and so there would be no presents. Holding back tears, we tried to console each other, knowing that our dad tried to find work every day, while our mom improvised new ways to cook beans, rice and tortillas. But being an immigrant Mexican family we had great faith in our first-ever Catholic president. He was our prince who would lift our family, along with the nation, out of poverty.

I hadn't thought of Kennedy's quote for 35 years, until as a social worker, I was organizing public forums on President Clinton's just enacted welfare reform law: "The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act," renamed in our state as the "California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program.” This reform of public assistance mandated that parents be responsible for their kids, by work. Clearly a basic definition of parenting is to support your children. The legislation promised to save billions from the federal budget. Yet because 60% of recipients are children who cannot work, parents with babies who need childcare in order to work, or have a disabled family member to whom they provide care giving, the mandated work was often unrealistic. Furthermore, as high tech manufacturing chased lower wages in Asia and Latin America, claims of greater work opportunities were in fact cruel illusions. We sarcastically renamed welfare reform--the "Irresponsibility to Kids Program.”

In organizing these forums, I recalled White House selling points for the legislation: "It will change welfare as we know it...the era of big government is over...and we will go from a handout to a hand up (to a job), trickle down (tax cuts) economics to the private sector will generate jobs." Once again, I heard the Kennedy quote about "the rising tide lifting all boats." But after 25 years of delivering, and later managing public assistance programs at the county level, I realized the banality of such statements by presidents, governors, and legislators. They recite eloquent words from well-written speeches and may even convince themselves for the moment.


The truth is that elected and appointed officials--many entitled to be formally addressed as "the honorable Congressman or woman, or Senator, or President, are members of America's ruling elite and they are almost always very wealthy, at the top 1-5% of our nation's class structure. They know nothing about looking for a job, choosing between buying food or paying rent or medicine for the baby, or how to pay for car repairs to get to work. For the ruling elite, high-level jobs are created or given by familial, business and country club networks, prompt promotions are to be expected, and failure is not allowed even for cutup frat boys like George W. Bush.

Today the national unemployment rate is 9.7%, our state rate is 12.2% and our (Santa Clara) county rate is 12%. Santa Clara County has more than 108,000 people seeking a job--many are parents, single wage earners and most very likely desperate for any job at any wage. 
So I reflect that JFK's rising tide quote was from the owner of a yacht--but if you do not own a yacht, sailboat, canoe or even an inflatable inner tube, the rising tide will only expedite your drowning.