De-Construction
The government shutdown is moving into its second month. Over 800,000 Federal government employees are going without pay. Around half of these workers are actually showing up at work everyday, some even working overtime hours but are note getting a paycheck. They are trapped: if they don’t show up, they lose their jobs, if they do show up, they lose an opportunity to work somewhere else and make money for themselves and their family. The shutdown has made them make an impossible choice.
There is a perception among some, that government workers are making “big money” and can afford to take a month off. There is the further perception that we don’t “need” them to do their work; that a smaller government is a better thing anyway. And, I’m sure, someone thinks we are saving “taxpayer” money by the shutdown.
The average salary of a TSA agent, the person keeping weapons and bombs off of airplanes, is around $44,000 a year. That’s less than $4000 a month; and they have already missed a month’s pay. It’s an unsustainable burden; no wonder the “sick out” rate is more than three times greater than last year. FBI agents make more, between $70,000 and $140,000; but they are also looking at a month without a salary. And since this crisis is ostensibly about the border, those who are there, the border patrol agents, also without pay, get $70,000 annually. They are still going to work everyday, without a paycheck, or a wall.
Sure, Congress and the President, unable to agree on anything else, have passed a law granting back-pay for all of the workers, furloughed (not working) or working without pay. They will be “made whole” when the government re-opens; if they can survive the wait.
Many businesses; banks and utility companies, rental offices and retailers; are floating loans and delaying payments for the Federal workers. There have been food banks set up, treating this as some kind of natural disaster, a flood, hurricane, or fire. It’s a nice thing for them to do, but there’s the other image it creates: the government can’t get this done, so American business will come through.
The “Giants:” Amazon, Microsoft and Apple; are taking “corporate responsibility.” They are recognizing that their presence in communities so inflates the average income, that the cost of living climb out of the range of “normal” people. In San Francisco the average apartment rents are near $5000, that’s a month not a year. That’s more than the $4000 average in Manhattan.
It’s all well and good that corporations are stepping in, both to “cover” for the government, and to try to rectify their negative impacts on communities. But there is a greater point to be made here. The alt-right agenda, led by the shadowy Steve Bannon, would like to see the government shrunk, with reduced regulations, fewer employees, and less impact on average Americans. This leaves “the field” open to private corporations. While Bannon long ago left the White House, his views are still in control: look at the reduced environmental regulations, national land protections, and lax pharmaceutical controls to name just a few.
Shutdown parts of the government, and show everyone that they aren’t needed. Oh wait, we need to file taxes, and control the border, and check passengers are airports. Well, let’s make them work without pay. Maybe the TSA agents will quit, then we can find private companies to overpay for the same services.
Perhaps this shutdown is about “Wall,” or perhaps it’s about the giant ego of the President. Or, most likely, it’s about a President who stumbled into a huge political crisis with no plan to get out, and now is stuck between reality and his base. But it may well be part of an alternative agenda. In one of Bannon’s first interviews when the Trump Administration took control, he talked about “deconstruction” of the government. Even though Bannon is gone – it’s looking pretty “deconstructed” to me.
