Rebuttal to Thomas L. Friedman on his "401(k) World" Column

In his recent essay Brand New Day Living in 401(k) World (Oakland Tribune “Other Views” page Sunday May 5, 2013; New York Times op-ed April 30, 2013), globalization enthusiast Thomas L. Friedman poses a metaphor: the skill set to advance one’s career is like a personal retirement savings account. Link to Friedman: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/friedman-its-a-401k-world.html?_r=0 Just as Friedman sees the “defined benefit” pension becoming a thing of the past, he thinks that it is up to workers to constantly reinvent themselves in order to fit into a world of employment dictated solely by corporate interests. The logical extension of his argument is that if we can’t get a good job it must be our own fault. Ouch. But what does this choice of metaphor tell us? “Workers and employers in the U.S. are bracing for a retirement crisis,” announced the Wall Street Journal in a March 19 article. Quoting statistics from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the Journal and other publications tell us that only 43% of Americans have saved more than $25 thousand in their personal retirement accounts. Only about half the respondents in the survey sample said they could come up with $2 thousand in cash next month for an emergency. Similarly, while laid-off, downsized, underemployed and discouraged workers can enroll in a broad spectrum of classes to retrain themselves for higher-tech employment, many will do so in vain. It would seem that industry would rather import well-educated engineers from overseas on HI-B visas than invest in Americans and in American education. Meanwhile, corporate lobbyists and conservative politicians decry “big government” and labor unions. Funny, isn’t it, that it is only the public sector and the labor movement that can keep Big Business in check? The first-ever Gallup World Poll, conducted in 2007, conveyed a central, international message with ringing clarity. “What the whole world wants is a good job,” announced Jim Clifton, Gallop Poll CEO. “That is one of the single biggest discoveries Gallop has ever made.” People everywhere want a steady job – not just because they need a steady paycheck, although that goes far in relieving the daily anxiety that has been such a feature of the worldwide Great Recession. People everywhere, it seems, crave predictability. We want to know we can go to work in the morning. We want meaningful activity for which we are valued personally and compensated for our time. We want a word or short phrase by which we can identify ourselves to the new people we meet. So perhaps Friedman is correct – the workforce is like hapless citizens trying to sock away money in their 401(k) accounts. We try, but our best is not good enough to meet the need. The first critically important step that led us out of the Great Depression in the 1930s was the New Deal work programs: the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and, for young men, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). These programs combined gave respectable jobs to eight million people. Using Friedman’s metaphor, the New Deal work programs were like Social Security. The present workplace is like the 401(k). Which do more Americans rely upon? Which choice is more worthy of our public policy support? Amelia Marshall is an Oakland-based writer who is grateful for her modest pension. end