It's no secret by now that Wisconsin's job situation is a train wreck. Some of us have been literally screaming about it for over five years now - to deaf ears; of course. But now the job distress has permeated the culture so profoundly, there are few left who can hawk perpetual optimism with a straight face. All that be as it may, the real "job ethic" in this state has been exposed as...naked. It can now be seen as the canard it actually is, and has been for years. 

    Oh fair readers, you do realize do you not, that I am making a distinction between a collective "job ethic," and that revered Wisconsin "work ethic" we all know and love with dreamy-eyed fondness?  If you do not realize there is a difference, perhaps you should take a good look at yourself in the mirror and ponder if perhaps you might just be part of the banal problem.

    I remember moving back to Wisconsin during the Clinton and Tommy Thompson years ( the "roaring Nineties" ) after my wife and I had a work foray in Texas. Jobs in Madison, Wisconsin, were especially abundant. It was true; you could start a job in the morning, quit at lunch, and have another one by afternoon break. But because I was just glad to be home again, I overlooked the ubiquitous poor wages and weekend hours that came with that job culture. 

    And the 1990s were indeed roaring in "university town" Madison if you woke up in the morning without a job and needed a minimum wage gig by noon.  The running joke has always been, Madison has a whole cadre of lawn mower jockeys, cab drivers, and janitors with master's degrees. But, we all put up with it with a smile because that job market filled a need. It kept students busy, gave them some social work experience, and helped parents pay bills with an extra part-time job.

    But, we allowed this abysmal "job ethic" and its part-time, benefitless jobs to become our standard ground level norm, despite better jobs being out there. 

    Drape that 1990s job template over today's employment wreckage. Madison still boasts more possibility of job offerings than the rest of the state. But is more than zero really a victory? Is beating the Detroit Lions by two points really an excuse to party down? Is the Wisconsin Badgers beating a high school team 70 to 3 really something to be proud of? Had enough sports analogies? The economy actually is a game - a play house. And right now, all the game pieces and figurines are broken. 

    Back when I was young, a guy would work a crappy job to get by for awhile - it is what motorcycle fix'n, car repairing, partying young dudes often did and still do. And young women would take that low paying waitress job, the boring receptionist job, or work nights in the hospital to help send the kids to daycare, or pay for college, or both. For the guys at least, it was a right of passage - few thought it was odd back then, and few think it is odd today - especially in today's world; maybe it is even more mainstream behavior in this today's world of a person remaining on an adolescent track until they are 35. 

    But that chosen part-time job behavior in my youth was just that...often a chosen life style.  Nowadays however, it has disturbingly become the norm for most of us all. We either can't find work at all, or, we have no choice but to accept some hell job we once would only take just to round up some funds to fix our favorite pickup truck.  Especially, and I repeat "especially" for those of us over 50 years old we must now re-live that miserable job culture from our past we once just joked about. 

    T'ain't funny now...is it? 

    The once middle class, decent-benefited jobs at the automobile companies, and the many other industries Wisconsin had to boast, have been relegated to the "what used to be" category. Candidates and incumbents tout secret plans to bring us thousands of new jobs. Ah, perhaps you shouldn't have let them go to China in the first place. Good luck with the secret plans. It takes years to nurture a vibrant job culture - you can't replace something in a month that took 50 years to craft. 

    Back in the 1960s as the Wisconsin university system expanded and family farms deconstructed, farmers who once worked 14 hour days with no benefits, looked at new graveyard janitor jobs sporting bennies at "The UW" with love in their eyes.  Now that trade has been deconstructed too.  The University has been bringing in limited term employees ad nauseam for years.  Further, remaining full-time positions are under budgetary seige.  And, a new generation of beleaguered workers do not interpret emptying professors' trash cans with the same affection their grandfathers did. 

    Both the hinterlands outside the pearly gates of Madison, and the Emerald City of Madison itself have been geared up for years to segue right on into the "new norm" of a decimated work force. The part-time job template of misery has been on the reserve shelf waiting to play first string for years.  Now it has been pulled out and dusted off.  The fast-food-esque Mcjobs with little merit or future have been the option in Wisconsin at large and Madison for decades. Problem is now, it is probably the norm for the rest of our foreseeable lives. 

    Job (no pun intended) well done, Wisconsin. We now are all permanently sentenced to a new norm of jobs we once only took to work through college, party, pay extra bills, or fix up the old car. 

                      Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
    (each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)

    Army Private Evan Abraham Bixler, 21, of Racine, Wisconsin, died on Friday, December 2006, from wounds received in Hit, Iraq while participating in security operations. He was in Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, out of Baumholder, Germany. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted that at the time of his death he was the fourth military service person from Racine County to have died in Iraq. And, he was the third Wisconsin military service person to die in that particular month.  The paper went on to say Bixler was a 2003 graduate of Washington Park High School in Racine. He was known to have had a passion for joining the military; at earlier attempts he was denied entry into the Army for medical reasons. He later received a medical waiver to enlist. Private Bixler was sent to Iraq on November 1st, 2006. Evan was said to have had a good sense of humor and was an inspiration to his comrades. In a subsequent article, the Journal Sentinel mentioned Bixler was best friends with Army Specialist Eric Poelman, 21, who grew up in Mount Pleasant and was killed in June 2005 in Iraq. Wisconsin 2007 Senate Joint Resolution 18 notes that at the time of his death Evan Bixler was survived by his parents, Kevin and Lisa Bixler; his sister, Amy Theresa Bixler; grandparents, John and Carol Neufeld; and, his girlfriend Naomi Jacob. Evan Bixler was the 66th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.

         As of this blog entry's posting date:

    98,171 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
    
    9,722 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    4,427 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    1311 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    823 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    31,964 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003. 

    8,394 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001. 

    102 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    22 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

    144 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

    21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org;  Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.