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Originally posted by Sestias
Alternet
As President Obama hits the road on his jobs agenda bus tour, millions of individuals trying to re-enter the job market, seeking to eke out a modest living so that they too can live the American Dream – or what’s left of it anyway – are stuck in a rut. They write hundreds of cover letters, perfect their interview techniques and network like crazy, but sometimes the barriers are too high.
What some may not know is that a number of employers, including household-name companies, have taken the position that the unemployed should forget about obtaining a job altogether.
Log on to any jobs site, do a quick search and the results may surprise you: slews of job ads are essentially warning the out-of-work that they worthless and disposable.
Welcome to 21st Century, post-Recession hiring discrimination: where you must be an “employed or recently employed” person to get a job.
The America I learned about in school was called "the land of the free." We were taught that anyone who was willing to work hard and save their money could climb the ladder to financial and social success. This included recent immigrants and the working class and other groups who were part of America's underclass. We were taught to be proud to live in a country where we were entirely free from class distinctions or prejudice. and, like the heroes of the Horatio Alger novels, our own virtues were certain to shine so brightly that we would capture the attention and approval of the rich and powerful who would reward us with their patronage. It took some real-life experience to teach me that I had been fed a lot of propaganda and that the majority of us live from paycheck to paycheck, that is, if we are lucky enough to get one at all, especially in this depression.
What I see now is an attempt to return to the actual living and working conditions that prevailed in the nineteenth century. Our population is being stripped of all the hard-won rights and working conditions we have achieved through many years -- like the five-day work week, safe working conditions, pensions, health care, the elimination of child labor and paid vacation, to name a few. Unions insist on fair salaries and working conditions.
I think the policy of the corporate bigwigs in hiring only the already-employed is just another means of separating our population into "haves" and "have nots." It gives a corporation some prestige in their own eyes and those of other business leaders. They can brag about their exclusivity, I myself have worked for some companies with such a policy and seen one of my co-workers, who had 20 years of experience and was good at her job, denied permanent employment because she had no degree.
Our country is rapidly dividing into two classes - the "haves" and the "have nots." The middle class is shrinking and the working class is getting bigger. In the not-so-distant future I foresee our own country becoming one with a very small group of the ruling elite and the rest of us dirt-poor.
It distresses me to see people of the middle class, many of whom live from paycheck to paycheck themselves, trashing the working class for the same things that the rich have been accusing them of.
Imagine what could happen if the two classes joined together in our mutual interests.
edit on 12-8-2011 by Sestias because: (no reason given)