As a product of the dignity of work, I can only guess what it is like to be in the realm of wealth. People who engage in the dignity of work perform essential tasks for our society and have specialized skills. They dutifully and reliably go to work for 30 or 40 years in order to have a few carefree years to spend time with family and maybe travel or take up a hobby in the last years of their lives.
Over the course of my life, I have seen the dignity of work greatly devalued by our society. I have witnessed legislators favoring the wealthy and depleting worker protections. I have seen CEO pay increase to 500 times the pay of the workers. It seems that those in the realm of wealth have lost touch with the reality of most Americans. Most Americans today are living paycheck to paycheck as wages have not kept up with the cost of living. Many work more than one job and many others work full-time jobs yet live in poverty.
I know that Paul Manafort does not represent all wealthy people, but he seems to represent an attitude of money first, money before ethics, morality and empathy. According to reports I’ve heard on television, Manafort worked for a very wealthy, unsavory, pro-Putin oligarch in the Ukraine who acquired his wealth through illegal means. As awful as all of this is, I am really troubled by Manafort’s insatiable appetite for money and things. He apparently blew through $80,000,000 and then borrowed another $20,000,000. In my estimation, this represents the life’s savings of 200 middle class workers who collectively toiled for 8000 years to truly earn that much money.
The dignity and value of work must be supported and protected. Those in the realm of wealth need to be aware of the human infrastructure that is the bulwark of our country. It is the foundation on which their ability to acquire wealth rests. This foundation only requires a livable wage for an honest day’s work. 80% of Americans make up this foundation and need to vote for economic justice.
reilly m gray 