Coming on Christmas
“It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees, they’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace,” (River by Joni Mitchell).
It’s almost the end of 2021, a year that, at my age, just flew by. Somehow, it seems we are always presented with the failures, the “almost did’s but didn’t’s” rather than the successes. For today, let’s look back at 2021, and see the good. Here’s what was “right” with 2021.
First of all, it wasn’t 2020. Covid is still around, but we are no longer trapped by it. Almost 62% of Americans are fully vaccinated, with another 10% partly covered. And before my anti-vaxxer friends attack – we KNOW that means those 62% have a much better chance of NOT getting Covid, and even a better chance of not ending in a hospital or dying from it. That’s good news.
The Big Quit
America is learning to live with Covid. All of the economics are showing a tremendous bounce back from our enforced shut down. The current unemployment rate is down to 4.2%. That still means that almost 7 million Americans who want jobs can’t find them. But we also have a new phenomenon, folks who after the shutdown decided they didn’t have to get back into the work force. That’s not about “living on government money”. Some families found they can live on a single income. Others are part of the “Big Quit”, where over 4 million Americans left their old jobs.
I know the American Way: “…work hard, boy, and you’ll find, one day you’ll have a job like mine…” (Yusef/Cat Stevens – I Might Die Tonight). Dedicate to your “forty”, then go find another “twenty” in overtime. But some Americans are finding a better way, one that, as the Gen X’ers say, “balances work and life”. I don’t remember much balance in my work-life, nor my father’s. Maybe they are right and we were wrong.
Inflation
So there is a shortage of workers, and that’s driving wages up. That might be inconvenient at the fast-food restaurant that can’t keep workers at low wages, but it means that more people are living at a higher standard. That IS a good thing.
The bugaboo of our rebounding economy is inflation. There’s lots of money around, and it’s not all the government’s fault. We’ve gone from over 14% unemployment to our current 4.2%, so there’s lots more money in the pockets of Americans. And the supply chain is trying to catch up with booming sales. All of those new phones and computers, shoes and running suits, cars and trucks; weren’t just rolling off the line while we were cooped up in our Covid-free homes. And they don’t materialize overnight. Economics 101: when demand for goods is greater than the supply of goods, prices go up and when the supply catches up, prices will level off.
So keep your pants on, and your wallet in your pocket. Inflation will level off soon enough.
Peace on Earth
It’s Christmas of 2021, and for the first time since 9-11, American forces are not at war, anywhere in the world. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was ugly, but here we are. Eighteen, nineteen and twenty year-olds aren’t patrolling the roads looking for IED’s, and coming home in flag-draped caskets or physically and mentally damaged. Ask Lyndon Johnson: it takes political courage to be the President who said – that’s enough.
The “bad news” for 2021 is that 5.6 million children are living in poverty. The good news – that numbers is cut in half from a year ago when 12.5 million were below the poverty line. And that is a direct result of the action of the US President and Congress. Sure it cost money, but how better to spend our tax money than to help children out of poverty?
Identity
There is no question that America is in an “identity crisis”. We are a nation in transition, becoming multi-racial, multi-ethnic, and multi-cultural. Like any transition, there are those who want it to happen sooner, and those who are trying to keep it from happening at all. But the reality is that America is not becoming “minority white” and “majority brown”. America is becoming majority “diverse”. The younger generations don’t see race, ethnicity, and religion as the same barricades to life that my father’s generation and even my own “Boomers” saw.
Here’s an interesting statistic: “According to the most detailed of the Census Bureau’s projections, 52 percent of individuals included in the nonwhite majority of 2060 will also identify as white” (Atlantic). Perhaps the racial and ethnic polarizations of 2021 are just growing pains. Maybe, like adolescence, we will “survive” the experience, and come out a more mature nation, less focused on external characteristics and more “into” individuals.
Structure
America is already committed to fixing our roads and bridges. We are set on rebuilding our airports, and our electric transmission lines. The government has dedicated over a trillion dollars to updating our infra-structure. That’s going to make life better for most Americans, and it will offer even better paying jobs to get it done. When we look forward to our economic future, not only will the “fixes” make our economy better; but the long-term employment opportunities will be a long-term boost.
And there is more “in the pipeline”. The US Senate is poised to pass the Build-Back-Better plan (in whatever form the can finally agree on). That will rebuild the “social safety-net” that was first established by the Great Society programs of the 1960’s. It will make a nation that right now is “haves” and “have nots” – somewhat – less divided.
Christmas’s Wishes
And perhaps – just maybe – voting rights are in the works as well. That may be more of a 2022 thing. We can hope.
But all these were started in 2021. As John F Kennedy said:
“All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
We are beginning. Have a Merry Christmas.
