The Poor and Unemployed: At the Same Time Our Burden and Our Strength

Governors Threatening to Turn Down Unemployment Check for Citizens at Issue

March 12, 2009
By: Dave Rogers

The reason the Civil War was fought was recalled William Spriggs of Howard University's economics department who spoke to a women's conference in Washington, D.C. recently.

Keep in mind that the topic Spriggs was addressing was the economy, and specifically women's part in it. So, how did the Civil War come to be part of the discussion?

In response to the position of several Southern governors who are determined to turn down federal stimulus money if it involves a promise to continue unemployment insurance after the economic crisis has passed, Spriggs said: "You lost the war at Gettysburg and you surrendered at Appomattox. Get over it and rejoin the nation."

A bold rejoinder by an economist, recalling the most inflammatory period in American history, was, to say the least, surprising. But, on reflection, it is directly to the point. The toxic politics that would deny their own citizens a just share in the fruits of our society by withholding their income is a despotic move, reminiscent of 17th century Europe and early 19th century America and totally antithetical to the American way. It is, at the root, the reason the Civil War had to be fought!

That amazing statement went directly to the age-old American dichotomy; in a republic such as ours people are free to adopt perverse views but we must be wise enough to deflect them, not to allow them to gain the ascendancy.

This is a democratic republic (small d, small r) and the tendency to allow our success to promote and elevate the aristocracy beyond what is healthy is a constant battle.

The aristocracy, the aristocratic point of view, is just one of many elements that creates a successful society. There is a place for the aristocratic viewpoint, for the super achiever, for the wealthy and arrogant, but mainly to remind us that we are a melting pot of all kinds of people with all kinds of levels of heritage, education, income and success. That is the beauty of our electoral process: it leavens the rough edges, eliminates extremism (reference the recent controversy over Rush Limbaugh's opposition to the President and the national interest) and allows no one or no one group to maintain dictatorship for very long. Mr. Limbaugh's dictatorship of the airwaves will soon end, we predict confidently. It has to or the nation is dooming itself to rule by reactionary forces.

There is a vast difference between freedom of speech and reckless license to assault the common good with radically destructive ideas. In other words, crying fire in a crowded theater, as the old example goes. No society in history has ever survived by tolerating the latter.

Dr. Spriggs made an interesting point about the need for unemployment insurance, noting that people, like retail workers, who are left jobless and have no income can no longer participate in the consumer economy. By leaving these folks without income, we are short-circuiting our economy since they can't buy anything and thereby help to keep others employed.

Dr. Spriggs didn't say so, but the governors who want to turn down the stimulus money are not helping their states by saving money, they are setting their states up for more economic distress. Why? Because the unemployed who have no income won't just go away; they will remain a state burden. The word WELFARE is applicable here. Those with no income must be supported at greater cost to the state than unemployment. Thus, the governors are setting their states up for more economic distress than ever by turning down the federal stimulus money.

More than that, the governors who would destroy the livelihood and lives of their own citizens are making their states into despotic fiefdoms no less evil than those of ancient times. A good Constitutional lawyer would make mincemeat of their ideas in short order, we are confident.

The age of technology and global economic competition has created a different world: the peaceful village with work for all has become a vicious jungle where even survival of the fittest is not honored by the jackals of fate.

Michigan came in for special mention from Dr. Spriggs: "Those people in Michigan who can't get jobs need to move." That advice presupposes that the Michigan economy is totally without resilience. That the shift in the industrial picture has painted Michigan out. Of course we do not agree with that ultra negative picture of Michigan; we think the pleasant peninsula will make a comeback, and soon.

The poor, the uneducated, the helpless are at the same time a burden and a strength in our American economy. Without the base of consumers, including the poor and moderate income working folk, the economy cannot survive. That was Dr. Spriggs' point, and one very well taken at that.