The citizens of the United States of America have every right to be angry. They sent their representatives to Washington to run the country, not indulge in " party politics " that has closed down the economy and sent eight hundred thousand employees on indefinite furlough !
The damage this is doing is like ever widening ripples on a pond. Those eight hundred thousand people sent home without pay closed an amazing number of places that people choose to visit - and that includes the Grand Canyon, The Statue of Liberty, Yosemite, all the museums, historical battle fields and monuments like Mount Rushmore that take pride of place in holiday snap shots.
What about the millions of Americans who make their living servicing the visitors to these places ? The people who flip hamburgers to feed the holiday crowds and the hotels and motels who provide visitor accommodation - and the car hire people who provide transport for the fly-in crowd ?
A lot of the American work force are hired on a " casual " basis. When the work is available, they get a " call in " - and they earn their money. How many people have cancelled a holiday trip to the USA because the place has shut down - and how many domestic workers won't get that call to come and clean floors and make beds. How many people live from paycheck to paycheck - and this shutdown will see their world crumble ?
The sad thing is that this " furlough " will be very selective. The titans of Wall street will still be sitting in their plush offices and collecting their pay. The men and women that the nation elected to sit in the house and the Senate will not loose any money while they haggle over issues of pure political doctrine.
Of course it would be pure fantasy - but just imagine if the country was starting again from scratch and the people writing the constitution decided to insert an " all in - all out " clause.
"What if " - when the economy shuts down - nobody across the entire country gets a pay check - until the mess is sorted out ?
And that includes the politicians !
But of course - if that rule applied, this mess would not have been allowed to happen in the first place !
No comments:
Post a Comment