Fall has stripped this tree of all but the bones.
In spring and summer, the leaves provide food for the tree and oxygen for the breathing creatures living within its ecosystem. Through the leaves, the tree gives and takes away.
But now it's fall and the potential for giving and taking lies dormant, awaiting the warmer temperatures and increased sunlight that will restore life.
And the giving and the taking.
A natural process fewer and fewer Americans seem to understand.
The middle class is pushed to the periphery, stripped of the ability to obtain that which is necessary for survival. And with the pushing goes the ability to give and receive. The rhythm of life.
An attorney recently said to me that there is nothing wrong with an employer refusing to pay a sustainable wage. "The employee can always work somewhere else."
I said that employers are stealing. Theft includes refusing to pay the value of a person's labor as well as stealing bread.
But even if it wasn't stealing, the employers are taking advantage of the employees who are afraid to leave for something better. Jobs are scarce, as the thousands of unemployed shows. Even scarcer are jobs paying a sustainable wage. The CEOs, the bankers, the hedge funds steal more and more from society.
And, yes, most do it legally. But that misses the point. Society pays for the greed.
Those whose income barely covers food, shelter and transportation cannot buy the goods that keep the economy going.
Those who can afford only food and transportation fill the streets or the homes and apartments of families and friends. The economy shrinks and governments suffer as property tax income goes down and housing doesn't sell.
Those without health insurance depend on a network to pay medical bills, go bankrupt because of medical debt, or do without. But someone somewhere pays their bills. They take without giving back, whether they want to or not.
Those without adequate health insurance, without adequate nutrition, without rest, if they have jobs, perform their jobs less well. That lowers productivity, which hurts the employer.
Those working two, three or four jobs to survive cannot volunteer in the community, contribute to the political conversation, participate in family life.
Through this blog, I hope to at least give those stripped to the bone a voice.
