Underemployed men over 39 years old live in economic terror that they will lose their jobs. Once totally unemployed, it is unlikely they will ever work again in Wisconsin.
The paradox of living in an aging Wisconsin society and at the same time that society systematically dismantling the culture of old age is stunning. Perhaps Jack Benny was prophetic with his shtick of insisting for decades he was 39 years old. I suppose most readers except for a few pop culture buffs, will not remember Jack Benny. Deadpan comedy aside, the timbre of the mighty State is one of a creeping....anti anything old.
Is it because we are living longer? Is it because we are living longer in better health? Is it our now perennial bad and rationed economy? Does the potentially centenarian Baby Boom make everyone nervous (We should not have taken away their cigarettes then)? Perhaps society's angst is based on a synchronicity of all of the aforementioned.
One would think we "all" would celebrate our new found longer life spans. However, the tone of government handlers like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and Representative Paul Ryan is one of implying that the new oldies are an impending national burden. In the spirit of this new Walker/Ryan minimalist mantra, these said old codgers will be a burden on resources and services to name only the tip of the iceberg. They will hinder the process of our so called [Soviet-esque minimalist] economic recovery with their need for a decent income and life style, and their ensconced pop culture resource using habits.
Perhaps a Stalinist type purge of the many socially conditioned hedonist oldies is just the ticket. But, I digress with my smart alec sniping at our new Orwellian paradise. March on Misters Walker/Ryan; the same "never-served-a-day-in-the-military-Walker-and-Ryan. I thought that's why many of us served in the Cold War and the War on Terror. So as, we could have a nice place to grow old - a safe place to live out our lives; one island we could count on; just a small corner of paradise after our toils for the cause? Oops, am I being facetious again? Just call me Orwell Bob. Guys like Walker, Ryan, and their handlers hate Orwell. They do however, love Ayn Rand. Oddly, both Orewell and Rand attacked the mighty controlling State. But that paradox can be chewed on another day in our new Second World Wisconsin of Walker/Ryan.
In the spirit of pop culture, Jack Benny's era colleague Barny Fife might have said, "We need to nip those oldies in the bud....nip it, nip it, nip it....right now....Andy!"
A disturbing back story to the aforementioned you-better-keep-working-hard / now-get-lost-old-man paradox, is the phenomena that long before the economy started to take a turn for the worse around 2006, men over the age of 39 were already being thrown under the bus. Socially, the unspoken trend was to pass over older men in job openings. To throw gasoline on the fire, in Wisconsin and nationally, shipping jobs to China disconnected men from their once paying livelihoods. The exporting of those jobs by the way, both Walker and Ryan gleefully endorse. Once unemployed, men found it then and find it now, near impossible to get reemployed. There are now few good jobs left at all, and if there is a rare opening, older men are shunned with a wink and a nod by Human Resource departments.
"You're over qualified to flip burgers sir," is code good readers. It is code for, "Get lost old man."
The paradigm and its paradox is cruel. In an economic time, and governmental time that nudges men toward working longer into their old age to pay their own old-age way, this society's nuances, the general economic collapse, and governmental policies make it near impossible for men over 39 years old to work at all.
The wasted talent of this demographic of men is stunning. An entire generation of idle men with 25 years (or often more) of work experience will have to at some point, show up in the quality of Wisconsin and American society as a whole. I am reminded of the lost talents of men forced into the hobo culture of the Depression era 1930s. Many of them were well educated and skilled unemployed former talented workers.
In a way, I am for some reason reminded of Kurt Vonnegut's concept in his early novel,
Player Piano. In that story, in a future time, all American men were designated with a PhD. Machines idled former technicians and laborers. The automated society eventually fell into revolution and failure. In the end those idled men enthusiastically dove into rebuilding the machines that were destroyed in the revolution. They were anxious to use their dormant labor skills that a smug-over-educated society deemed silly and quaint. The machines they began to repair after the revolution were the same machines that had replaced their usefulness; and, once repaired, would surely replace them again.
And the band plays on.
The lack of discourse about this throw-away-men society is equally stunning. It's like living in a totalitarian regime. We all look over our shoulders to see who may be listening as we allude to our fears about losing our jobs. We speak in hushed whispers about Ol' Pete in R and D, or Ol' Bob in the warehouse that got let go. It is as if the mere notion of being concerned about job retention, could make you a target for dismissal. This then good readers is a text book recipe, or diagnosis if you will,....for....paranoia.
If you are a guy, lucky enough to still have a lousy job, and you are over 39 years old, and live in Wisconsin....there is no where to run in America to find a secure job. Unlike the Misery Recession of the late 1970s and early 1980's, there are no pockets of job safety to retreat to this time. In short, you are screwed.
Short of fleeing Wisconsin and even the United States as an old man, my suggestion is to defer to Ol' Jack Benny and craft your resume to imply you are 39 years old. If you are even lucky enough to get an interview and any Human Resources person whimpers at your age authenticity because you look 60....spill coffee on them....you aren't getting the job anyway.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Marine Lance Corporal Jacob Alexander Meinert, 20, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, died on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 in Helmand province, Afghanistan. Meinert was killed from injuries received the day before, when a roadside bomb was detonated near his position during combat operations. Lance Corporal Meinert was a radio telephone operator assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. He served in Iraq from August 2008 to March 2009 and had been in Afghanistan since late 2009.
The Wisconsin State Journal notes that Meinert was born in Racine. He moved to Fort Atkinson around 2004. Jacob was remembered as being quiet, having a sense of humor, being a leader, and being well liked. He was a music enthusiast. He also liked to fish. Jacob graduated from Fort Atkinson High School in January 2007; he played lead trombone in the jazz band, was in the marching band, the pep band, and show choir accompanying combo. He started the enlistment process into the Marine Corps after finishing high school a semester early.
Meinert's military awards include the Purple Heart; National Defense Service medal; Global War on Terrorism Service medal; the Afghanistan Campaign medal; and, Iraq Campaign medal.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned that Jacob was also a member of the school chess club. Another Marine and British journalist Rupert Hamer of the Sunday Mirror were also killed in the incident that killed Lance Corporal Meinert. They were near the town of Nawa. The Journal Sentinel in a follow up article noted Jacob's fellow Marines had given him the nickname "Slim." He also played guitar, and earned a Black Belt in tae kwon do. Meinert was said to have had a plan to go to college and return to the Marines as an officer.
The Journal Times maintain Meinert had stepped on a landmine. In the Lake Michigan city of Racine, Jacob was remembered for his love of sailing. One of his grandfathers had also been a Marine.
The Daily Jefferson County Union notes Meinert was known as "Jake." The Union also noted the incident that killed Lance Corporal Meinert was due to a landmine and that it happened in Bastion, Afghanistan. He was said to have had a long interest in the military. His grandfather Richard Meinert had also served in the Marines.
The Website legacy.com posted an obituary via information from the Racine Journal Times noting Jacob was born June 24, 1989, in Racine. He attended Red Apple Elementary School and Jerstad-Agerholm Middle School in Racine. He later moved to Fort Atkinson where he graduated from high school. At the time of his death Jacob Meinert was survived by his father Brian Warzala; his mother Krista (Michael) Edquist; sister Randi Meinert; step-brother Mitchell Edquist; brother Larson Edquist; maternal grandparents Richard (Donna) Meinert; paternal grandfather Robert Warzala; paternal grandmother Darlene Warzala; three aunts, Michele (David) Breheim, Sheryl (Bob) Petersen, and Pam (Nathan Schulz) Warzala; his uncle Ben Warzala; and, family dog Bosco. Lance Corporal Jacob Meinert was the 17th Wisconsin Military service person to be killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
101,060 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,950 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,457 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1582 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
892 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011
32,102 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
11,541 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
31 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
148 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
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.
