I canÆt understand why you Americans are not happy. You live in the richest country in the world, you have the most opportunity in terms of work, you have the greatest choice in terms of the products you want to consume and yet you are not happy. IsnÆt being able to pick up a coke and a Big Mac on the way home enough? I have just been reading an article in a newspaper here in the UK and it shows the results of a survey done by the Princeton Survey Research Association. Let me give you some of results.
ôDespite a 4.8 per cent jobless rate and the tightest job market in 25 years, the July poll showed widespread feelings of insecurity among AmericaÆs 130 million workers.
Seventy percent said that they had less job security than they did 20 or 30 years ago,
73 per cent said that there is more stress, and
59 per cent said they had to work harder to earn a decent living.
Although corporate profits have soared along with top executive pay, wage gains have been meagre. After falling 2.8 per cent from 1989 to 1994, median hourly wages have gained 2.1 per cent in the past 18 months - but are 45 cents short of the $11.21 per hour level of 1990........
Commenting on the apparent paradox of a successful economy and worker insecurity, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said: ôIt is one thing to believe that the economy, indeed the job market, will do well overall, but another to feel secure about oneÆs own situation, given the accelerating pace of corporate restructuring and the heightened fear of skill obsolescence that had apparently characterised this expansion.ö
Now does this mean that these workers are lazy, that they just donÆt know æhard workÆ, or does it show a general disillusionment in the respect and rewards these people are given for sacrificing such a huge part of their lives for their jobs? Over to you Yankie-Doodles....... ................
BBee.
