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Lurking Beyond Blame and Shame: Employment Gains
It seems like today, nearly everyone has a friend, former colleague, relative, or friend-of-a-friend who is unemployed or underemployed. On the other hand, we probably all know someone in deadlock employment – white-knuckling it through miserable hours of monotonous minutiae simply to stave off the greater evil: The unemployment debacle in a climate where there are three job seekers to every single position and 41 percent of employees believe that their companies will lay off workers in 2012, according to a Randstad survey.
As if our unemployed didn’t already feel the brunt of these figures, they must additionally contend with societal pressures to fulfill the ever-more elusive American dream of self-sufficiency. In an almost imperceptible cringe caused by the probing based around “What [name of unemployed or underemployed person] is going to do,” one can occasionally hear the thinly concealed chords of self-reprimand echo back in halfhearted sighs: “I should really be applying for more jobs, networking and making connections, contacting career development centers, doing volunteer work,” and so on, ad infinitum.
As if the unemployed weren’t under enough pressure, an MPR report issued this week suggests that job seekers may be guilty of self-sabotaging their own job searches, particularly when individuals fear returning to work. Root causes of such anxieties may include rejection, layoffs, or the potentially likely reality that long periods of joblessness have rendered their skills obsolete.
But let’s move these findings forward with a question. Does a study like this help Minnesotans attempting to return to work, or does it simply support evidence for a cycle of blaming and shaming the unemployed that we should be working to ameliorate?
While the “self-sabotage” theory may be useful toward returning an internal locus of control to individuals experiencing unemployment, it seems only fair to note the dangers in placing too much emphasis on individuals’ attitudes in a climate where highly qualified employees in some industries are being cut like summer grass, where various jobs are being eliminated entirely at rapid rates, and where 7.5 % of persons with some college or an associate's degree are unemployed.
Instead of focusing on the root causes of individuals’ “negative” capabilities in terms of the self-defeating maneuvers that confidence-shattering unemployment may yield, let us focus on solutions. Instead of blaming and shaming the unemployed, let us focus on stimulating Minnesota's economy and creating jobs in ways that bolster the mental health of our employees and their families, whose children will reap the benefits of parents returning to work. Instead of blaming and shaming and perpetuating, let us continue to advocate for policies that help put Minnesotans back to work - and away from the self-defeatist cycle that Minnesota's past successes have shown don't have to be a self-fulfilling prophecy downward.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Job Growth Unemployment Economic Recovery
2 Comments
February 18, 2012 at 11:55 am
What if we could drastically reduce Racism in Minnesota and put the largest economic development proposal on the table in the same breath. Legalizing Marijuana does exactly that. With 9 times as many people of color being attacked over this nontoxic herb as white people it is time to accept that this is blatant RACISM. Once you have mentally accepted the need, you can begin to look at how it becomes Minnesota’s “Billion Dollar Solution”. Here is the breakdown:
$138 Million we save on persecution.
$320 Million we save on housing.
$450-600 Million we add to our economy from 15,000 new jobs created within 90 days (time to issue liceses) without one red cent of State aid.
$10 -20 Billion in Marijuana tourism during the first 2-4 years if we are the first ones to legalize.
Millions more potentially from Hemp legalization 3-5 years down the road.
$500 million a year + potentially in increased revenue for the state from all this economic activity. This is by far the largest Economic Developement plan available to Minnesotans. Are you serious about needing more money for education and healthcare, than open your eyes and cash in on Minnesotas largest cash crop.
W. D. (Bill) Hamm says:
February 19, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Let’s talk “Blame and Shame” on a serious scale here, let’s talk about how racist Minnesota has become. 9 times as many of Minnesotans Black and Native American communities are now being targeted and arrested for posession of one of mankinds oldeset nontoxic medicinal herbs, marijuana. There is no way this can be explained as anything but racist. Many ask why this continues, I say look at who profits from this racism. What do Police, probation and parol officers, prison guards, court house workers, case workers, guidance counselors and almost everyone else in these peoples faces have in common? They are all UNION Public employees. Who and what is perpetuating this racism, public employee UNIONS with their hold on DFL power. This is a large element of the the rest of the problem; 50% + of many of these communities who’s right to vote has been stolen just as effectively as any southern state ever did. Black unemployment rates running 2 to 3 times as high as whites with Native Americans even higher. Inability to get any education assistance for other poor like Pell Grants and student loans. We seem to have trouble understanding how this undermines these families, so we keep doing it. Legalization and reparation are the biginnings to ending this horrible racist injustice done to the people of our State and Country. On top of that Legalization is economic developement. It saves us $138 million in persecution costs, anouther $320 million in housing costs. Add to that $450-600 million to our economy for 15,000 living wages jobs as soon as licenses could be issued without one penny of State subsidy. 2 to 4 years of Marijuana tourism for the first one in for a total of $10 to 20 billion for our states buisnesses. That brings us to the potential of up to $500 million more in additional revenue for the state. Ending RACISM is good.