Time to start treating people like more than just machine parts

I don't know if Americans -- particularly of the working class variety -- are the dumbest people in any of the industrialized nations.

I do think we're the most gullible and almost certainly the most worshipful of people with money. For at least the last 30-35 years, the American version of the Golden Rule has been that he who has the gold makes the rules.

It is truly amazing how many relatively crummy jobs demand workers essentially be on call 24/7. Walmart is the largest employer in the United States, and in most instances when hiring someone for a part-time minimum wage job, there is no guarantee of specific schedules to work around school or other jobs.

Oh, and if it's your day off? If they call and need you to come in because someone else is sick, you had better not turn them down too often.


Our employers are very fortunate most Americans never travel outside the country, because they might be very surprised to learn it isn't like this everywhere. When I lived in Austria for two years in the late '70s, I was quite surprised to learn that stores were only open one evening a week and that they closed for the weekend at noon Saturday.

When I asked someone why that was, he told me the people who worked in the stores had the right to spend evenings and weekends with their families just like anyone else.

Ironically. I remember living in Dayton, Ohio, in the late '50s wasn't all that different. The downtown stores were open just one evening a week and then during the day on Saturday. Most everything was closed on Sundays, and the 24-hour society that would come later wasn't something most people could even comprehend.

If you had a really good job -- doctor, nurse, police officer -- you were on call. If you worked as a bag boy at the supermarket, you had your scheduled hours and the rest of your time was yours.

These days it's very different. People are so afraid of losing their jobs they check their messages and emails even when they're on vacation.

In his most recent film, the wonderful "Where to Invade Next," Michael Moore looks at things the European democracies do that would be good for us to try in this country.

One of the best is that when the workday ends, it ends. Once you're done with work for the day, your boss isn't allowed to call you or email you at home. And when you're on vacation, no one bothers you till you return to work.

In a way, it comes down to the question of whether we work to live or whether we live to work. With fully two-thirds of Americans now working in the service industry, it isn't as if people are going to feel like an essential part of McDonald's or Walmart or Rite Aid.

Too many Americans have allowed themselves to be brainwashed into defining themselves by what they do for a living. That's all well and good if you're a state senator or a brain surgeon, but don't let anyone fool you into thinking all you are is Donald Trump's towel boy or the guy who sweeps out the bus station.

You're who you are, not what you do.