Hard Work

The demolition of Trump Plaza, Atlantic City, February 17, 2021

Well, it's a New Year, meaning holiday-season "seasonal jobs" are about to come to an end, and unemployment is going up again.

In other words, Trump will lie and say he's brought it down.

Of course, when a Democratic President brings unemployment down, people who simp for conservatism will say that these are "people who have stopped looking for work." Retirees, people who have become too disabled to work (temporarily or otherwise), or people who are, in these simpers' minds, just plain lazy. (Right, as if Reagan, Dubya Bush and Trump weren't the 3 laziest Presidents of all time.)

The great comedian George Carlin liked to say, "Most people work just hard enough to not get fired, because they get paid just enough to not quit." He also said: "If work is so great, how come they have to pay you to do it?"

There's an old saying: "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take the risk?" In fact, hard work has killed a lot of people, sometimes all at once, sometimes over time. It's why we have labor laws and OSHA.

These men who have "stopped looking for work" don't have the incentive. Why risk death or permanent injury for low pay and low or nonexistent benefits? If the CEO doesn't care enough about his employees to treat them well, why should we be his employees?

This is not laziness, this is self-preservation -- something you would think Republicans, with selfishness being the leading trait of conservatism, would understand, and they would want to do something about it.

But no: Their own selfishness triumphs over the workers' desire to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and to be safe while doing it.

Let's face it: If how hard we worked, alone, determined our success levels, then a coal miner would have become President by now, and Trump would be homeless.

Instead of casinoless. And feckless. And heartless. And brainless. And moralless.