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COMMENTARY | After reading an article entitled — “A job, but there’s a catch: a 1,000 mile commute” — I posted a link to my Facebook profile to begin a dialogue. The article talked about how much harder it is for the average American to find work due to the economic downturn. My immediate thoughts were, “You mean that Americans today are irritated by the fact that they are actually going to have to work a little harder, like previous generations have long before they were born and like others around the world have always had to do?”
It wasn’t long before two people (both ex-patriots) echoed my sentiments. One 30-something year old man who is a college degreed stay-at-home father, raising their young son while his PhD wife works with autistic children volunteered comments like, “How many people parked their SUV’s to get on their bicycles or 49cc motorbikes to go to work because it was all they could afford? Has the weight of the average American dropped 20 lbs over the last 3 years because of starvation? Aren’t there still lines at restaurants? Anyone had bread and soup for dinner (with home-baked bread and I use the term “soup” very loosely). How many people turn off their heat at night because they can’t afford to keep their house warm? How many people turned their A/C off in the summer or went and lived with relatives, or worked in tobacco fields, or culled corn, or had bologna and cheese sandwiches every single night for months?” — .as he does now living in Cyprus or as his American relatives did in the United States during past times when people really knew what a tough economy was?!
He went on to say, “Most Americans that try to live in Cyprus call it a 3rd world country. Tell that to my friends here from Romania, Poland, Serbia, and Egypt. My Egyptian friends live 5 to a ROOM, get paid little, and don’t want to leave.”
Another to respond is a 40 year old mother with 3 young children who left the United States to return to Hungary, the country that her parents left in order to secure a brighter future for her children. In only one generation, her parent’s American dream had bottomed out. She did not leave the United States because of the economy but the economy did trap her husband in the United States. He commutes to Hungary to see his family 3 maybe 4 times per year while his family lives in what most Americans would consider poverty-level conditions because what they sought for their children was no longer available for any amount of money in the United States. This was a safer, more secure childhood with the additional advantages of exposure to many cultures and languages and a superior free education which will give their children an edge competing in a global economy; something that most Americans have no ability to conceive due to generations of ethnocentrism, the dumbing-down of our educational system and a false sense of entitlement.
She said, “Turning heat off? How about no heat? I have heard of families staying warm by dog heat (that is no joke). One child, one dog, next child, another dog, third child, third dog, all of them huddled up next to each other so they won’t freeze to death. A/c what the hell is that? Most Hungarians have no concept of it. Living with relatives? Why when they are just as poor (if not worse off). Yes, there are several generations living under one roof in the average household in Hungary. It’s a way of survival. Jobs?! If you are lucky enough to have one you don’t complain. When my best friend introduced me to milk-soaked bread I literally held back tears and the sad part is she couldn’t understand why. Inmates in America eat better. Most people here take mass transit, ride bicycles or they walk. You speak of jobs that pay cents? I have several cousins who have worked for months with no pay and yet every morning got up to go to work for free in hopes that this day it would be their turn to get paid. Suffice it to say many of them never saw a dime. Could any American imagine going to work for free?”
These exchanges took place in early 2010 and our news is still littered with articles of the like today as 18 months later nothing has changed. It’s getting ever more irritating to hear Americans continue to whine and play the blame game, with their hands out waiting for the government to give them more all the while ignoring the fact that the money has to come from where, if not their tax dollars?
Let’s take the example from the recent riots in England. They have free healthcare, free education to which all are entitled, great unemployment benefits and great pension plans (far better than Americans do) and more paid vacation. So why then are those who don’t pay taxes burning down small businesses (the backbone of a thriving economy) in their own communities? When asked one young rioter said, “It’s to show the rich that we can do whatever we want.”
Americans would be wise to take heed. They should stop whining and just do as I and so many others in the world have been doing their whole lives: suck it up, get to work and make it their business to forge a better life for themselves regardless of which government policy offers what obstacles. Having your hand out expecting to get more and more for less effort will not lead to peace or prosperity.
More from this contributor:
First Person: My Cure For Unemployment
First Person: The Basics of a Business Turnaround
First Person: What Small Businesses are Now Seeking In New Hires