February 10, 2009
Anyone who has lost a job knows the feeling of emptiness, loss of self-worth and power. I’ve been there. But I also had help from friends and family. That makes me wonder why we need government, when we have each other?
There are two ways of looking at this. The unemployment rate is 7.6 percent. That’s 11.6 million people out of work. But the employment rate is 92.4 percent. Why can’t the employed help the unemployed? Why can’t CEOs who are making huge amounts of money take a pay cut in order to allow their employees to keep working? Think of the loyalty that would generate.
People do better at solving problems than government. Contact your friend or neighbor who is out of work and see if you can help.
Private education and health care added jobs in January. Could you or your friends be retrained to take jobs in these areas? The day of holding one job for a lifetime is over. We have to be ready to move to something else at a moment’s notice. In the meantime, help your neighbor. That way, big government will lose its reason for growing even bigger.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.
