Gone because 2012 has lurched into the room in soiled pants and most people can’t look away.
Forgotten because there are many growing trends - all too familiar - to keep us fully occupied.
I predict many will be kept awake as the erosion of good jobs becomes an ongoing occurrence in my home city, London, Ontario and elsewhere.
“My job may be next!” some Londoners will say.
“I’m just a pay cheque away from tough times,” others will say.
["Sorry, Old timer, but your services aren't required any longer": Get Low, the movie]
Why are good jobs disappearing? Is it because of the nature of the Canadian work market or the price of the oil that greases the skids of industrialization? Is it the outcome of globalization or the growth of U.S. protectionism. Or, as we consider the particular labour struggles at the Electro-Motive plant in London, is it the result of unionized labour or greedy, power-hungry corporations... or something else, i.e., one other thing, or many other things?
The erosion of good jobs is one of the key issues that will dominate 2012, like a grown man in soiled pants would spoil any polite conversation at a classy dinner party.
Good jobs relate to good communities and schools and health care and lifestyle and much of what Canadians have grown used to having and being in the last several decades. Good jobs relate to suitable, secure pensions and travel and recreational opportunities and the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the homes we live in, the cars we drive and all the other possessions we feel we want or must have.
However, good jobs, in my opinion, have gone from something of a guaranteed commodity to a shaky proposition in the course of my lifetime and I must shake my head at the future working men and women seem to face - including my sons and their families - over the next 25 years, what could be the course of the remainder of my life.
More to follow.
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Please click here to read My New Economic Plan, inspired by ‘Get Low’, a small Hollywood movie.
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