I don’t know how fed up the American people are about jobs and the economy, but I’m incredibly fed up. There are no jobs. There is no money. At least, I’m not seeing any money or not much of it. My 2009 salary is long gone, and I’m currently trying to live off 40% what I used to make. That pushes me back to 2006. I’ve essentially lost five years of promotions and raises, and I busted my butt to get those promotions and raises.
I know I am not the only one in this situation. There are millions of people in my situation. There are millions of people unemployed, underemployed, and not counted because they just graduated college and aren’t eligible to be counted. Those who still have their jobs have likely taken pay cuts or hour cuts in order to keep their jobs.
It’s ridiculous. It’s unacceptable, and I’m fed up. So this morning I woke up and wondered what would happen is everyone in the US decided not to go to work for the day.
What would happen?
Well, we’ll assume that our first responders would still go to work. Otherwise we’ve have a real catastrophe. Hospital patients wouldn’t get cared for. Emergencies would go unresponded, and those families would likely file lawsuits against the hospitals, emergency workers, and police departments. So we’ll assume that they love and enjoy their jobs so much that they’d still go to work.
That leaves the office workers, the service workers, the fast food workers, the janitors and everyone else. All retail stores would have to close for the day or be run by management only because you know Corporate would start making phone demanding that management go to work or lose their jobs. The same would happen for fast food: managers only. Small offices and small businesses would simply cease to exist for the day, but I’m betting call centers would still operate if the electric workers still went to work. After all, most of our call centers have been outsourced.
Car repair shops would close for the day. Banks would close. Road construction would stall. Most of everything that we see moving and bustling every day would stop.
Children would be home for the day. In fact, entire families would be home for the day. Quality family time anyone? I think it’d be a boon for families who don’t get to see each other very often because they work and go to school and run errands and are always busy.
The economy, however, would take a huge hit. Our economy doesn’t work without workers, and that’s what companies are missing. They are taking their workers and potential workers for granted, and everyone is letting them get away with it.