Adapted from Narinder Sander’s Facebook post:
You were poor but achieved a comfortable lifestyle through hard work and education. Why can’t poor people today do the same thing you did? Because when you worked:
- Business gave as much loyalty to their employees as the employees did to them. If you worked hard, you had a job for life.
- Trade unions protected workers’ safety and negotiated pay that was fair to employer and employee.
- Every town had a local bank. Their customers were their neighbors.
- Every town had local businesses. Their customer were their neighbors.
- A family could survive with one wage erner — even if the job only paid the minimum wage.
- A major illness did not destroy a lifetime of savings.
- Schools were free to every child and prepared them for whatever goals they had.
- Companies within an industry were abundant and competitive. Product quality and customer service were as imporant as price.
Think about all this, and then ask yourself: What changed? Why did your company start bailing on you and your fellow employees and earn your distrust? What happened to your local bank? your local businesses? Why did your medical expenses get so high? What happened to the quality of what you buy? Why do you usually get the poor service you get at a big-box store?
Ask yourself these things, and think about why these things are true.
Then get angry, a little. Use that anger, and start fixing things.
