Workers are the heart of America

By Patricia Hunt
Published: April 18, 2008

When my grandfather came home from work, he would sit in his upholstered rocking chair, read the paper and listen to “Douglas Edwards and the News” on his Crosley radio. Sometimes he would light up a Hav-a-Tampa cigar. My grandmother would put her finger to her lips and say, “Shhhhh. … We have to be quiet so Granddaddy can read the paper.”
When I grew up, more women had full-time, paying jobs, and we expected our husbands to hit the ground running when they got home from work just as we had to do. There were meals to be cooked, children to be cared for and laundry to be done. I looked back at the mothers and grandmothers of my childhood as captives of patriarchal culture, where men made the rules. Just recently I have begun a partial reinterpretation of what was going on.
In the world of my childhood, most women’s opportunities were rather limited. There were three women doctors in my town, only one of whom was married. There were lots of women secretaries and school teachers, but on the whole, men’s wishes and paid work were given priority over what the women wanted.
On the other hand, I think part of what was going on in families with one breadwinner was a protection of that essential source of income. Families protected their worker. It was what stood between them and destitution. My grandmother knew that if her husband lost his job or died or became disabled, the results could be catastrophic, so she did everything in her power to keep him happy and healthy. In her world it was important for “a man to be able to support his family.” As the years rolled by, however, the market economy rolled over that idea and replaced it with “it is important for a business to be efficient and control payroll.” Stock prices came to be viewed as much more critical to the health of the country than was the welfare of working women and men. If my grandmother had thought that way, she would have had little concern for her my grandfather’s well-being and simply reduced him to his income. If he failed to make enough, she would have shopped around for someone who could bring in more. She would have done a cost-benefit analysis: How much is he costing me to feed and clothe him, and how much is he bringing in? Can I reduce what he eats and wears and increase the money he brings home? Can he postpone the doctor’s appointments and does he really need to go to the dentist?
The American worker is pushed harder to work longer hours for less security, health care and vacation time than workers in any other developed countries in the world. He/she is seen as an expense to be managed, not as a resource, not as the source of all the country’s wealth. The median salary of full-time employees in the U.S. is $36,140. One half of American workers make less. Just try to support a family on that. You cannot provide them with transportation, housing, food, medical care, not to mention any other expenses on what is left after payroll taxes from $36,140.  The old rule of finding housing that is no more than twice your annual income would be impossible. It certainly won’t pay for college for children.
America needs to relearn what every family used to know: If we are going to take care of the old, the children, the sick, and put together a healthy society, we have to first take care of the people doing all the work. They cannot take care of the rest of us if the society does not take care of them. It is time we quit thinking corporations are the heart of America. Every man and woman who gets up every day and makes America work is the heart of America. If they are not healthy and treated with respect, the country cannot survive. We cannot take care of Wall Street and imagine we have taken care of the country. We cannot even take care of the children and imagine that all is well. It starts with the people who are doing the work. That is what my grandmother knew when she put her finger to her lips to shush a little girl and give Granddaddy the time to read his newspaper and enjoy a cigar.
Patricia Hunt, of Staunton, is a chaplain at Mary Baldwin College.